Augusta County records highest COVID-19 transmission in months

AUGUSTA COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) – COVID-19 cases are increasing across the country, especially in areas with low vaccination rates.

Doctors from Augusta Health and officials from the Shenandoah Central Health District say Augusta County has some of the highest transmission rates in the state.

“At the start of the month, we had five COVID-19 patients in our hospital and within weeks we saw an increase of 33 patients currently in hospital,” Augusta Health infectious disease medical director Dr. Allison said. Baroco. “Unfortunately, things are not going well here in our community. “

Baroco says Augusta Health recorded its eighth highest day of COVID testing on Sunday, August 22. There were 73 positive cases at the Augusta Health testing site.

“[Augusta County is] one of the places where COVID is spreading, and it is spreading rapidly, and is spreading rapidly among unvaccinated people, ”said Jordi Shelton, communications specialist for the Central Shenandoah Health District.

Shelton says cases are increasing so quickly because of the delta variant.

“It’s so highly transmissible, and it’s really capable of just attacking those communities where there are significant numbers of unvaccinated people,” Shelton said.

Shelton and Baroco say the virus spreads mainly among unvaccinated people, although there are some groundbreaking cases at Augusta Health.

“What we see in [unvaccinated] populations is that many of them are aged and frail, and these are the people we would naturally expect would not have as robust a response to vaccines as others, ”Baroco said.

While there haven’t been any major outbreaks in local schools, Baroco says she worries there are.

“I’m concerned that the delta variant unfortunately affects children more than the other variants, so we have to be concerned about that,” Baroco said.

Shelton says the recent increase in cases means getting the vaccine is crucial.

“We know that vaccines are effective in preventing serious illnesses, including hospitalization and death. Now more than ever, getting that is really crucial, ”Shelton said.

The Virginia Department of Health has reported 10,712 groundbreaking cases statewide. Of these, there are 404 hospitalized cases and 83 deaths. There are 741,160 total cases, 32,858 hospitalizations and 11,675 deaths statewide.

The state also reported that 0.2% of fully vaccinated people contracted COVID-19, 0.009% were hospitalized and 0.0018% died.

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