COVID-19 in Virginia: Number of new cases falls; hospitalizations down

RICHMOND, Va. (WDBJ) - The Virginia Department of Health is reporting 142,590 total cases of COVID-19 in the commonwealth as of Wednesday, September 23, going back to the beginning of the pandemic. That’s up from 142,010 reported Tuesday, a 580-case increase, which is a smaller increase than the 872 new cases reported from Monday to Tuesday.

1,922,606 PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests have been conducted, with a 5.5 percent positive rate over the last week, the same as the number reported Tuesday.

6,964 of Virginia’s overall cases as of Tuesday are considered “probable.”

There are 3,089 recorded coronavirus-related deaths in the commonwealth since the pandemic’s beginning, up from the 3,060 reported Tuesday.

916 people across Virginia are hospitalized as of Wednesday with confirmed or test-pending cases of COVID-19. That’s down from the 940 reported Tuesday. 17,038 COVID patients have been released from hospitals in Virginia since the beginning of the pandemic. That’s according to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, which gets a daily report from hospitals around the commonwealth.

These hospital numbers are different from those reported by VDH, which only gathers hospitalization status at the time each case is investigated by VDH, and is an under-representation of Virginia hospitalizations.

COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus

Any new confirmed cases from health departments throughout the state the rest of the day won’t show up until at least the following day on the state list, as the official numbers are only updated once a day, with a 5 p.m. cutoff each day for new cases to be reflected on the next day’s list.