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RICHMOND, Virginia – The city of Richmond has passed the highest weekly peak of COVID-19 cases the city has seen at any time during the pandemic.
Dr Danny Avula, director of health departments for Richmond and Henrico counties, said Richmond had reached a record average of 56 cases per day over seven days, up from 54 cases in June.
“I expect this trend to continue over the next two months,” Avula said. “It is inevitable that the combination of the holiday gathering and the time spent indoors will push us further and further down this path.”
Avula says cases are on the rise again in long-term care facilities.
He says this is in part because staff members unknowingly contracted the virus outside the facility and then brought him in.
“Anything we can do to limit the spread, will cut this ripple effect to present the disease in high-risk situations,” Avula said.
The health director says the city continues to see some identified cases in schools, especially private schools.
However, Avula says they don’t see much transmission at school.
“Most of the cases we see are people who contract COVID in their daily activities and social relationships outside of school, but when they enter the much more regulated environment of in-session schools, we are not. see it spreading throughout the classroom as a whole, ”he added.
Avula says there has been a slight increase in hospitalizations in the city, but there is no need to worry about reaching capacity at this point.
“Although we have seen a slight increase in the number of hospitals, our capacity continues to be good,” said Avula. “We are currently at 31% occupancy for our fan beds in the region, so we still have a lot of capacity there.
In total, the Richmond City Health District is reporting a total of 6,384 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic and 80 deaths related to COVID-19.
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