Radford Is No Longer a COVID-19 Hotspot. But Three Other Virginia Counties Took Its Place.

Virginia’s COVID-19 cases remain steady. Positive numbers drop after holiday weekend.

RICHMOND- Radford isn’t a COVID-19 hotspot anymore. The bad news is that three counties took its place this week. On Wednesday, the Virginia Department of Health reported 6,747 new cases of the virus over the last seven days, with 882 over the last 24 hours.

But the news wasn’t all bad. The state’s day to day increase is remaining steady, with a reported total of 129,289 cases on average. Also, the percentage of positive tests continues to fall. The health department reported a 7.6 percent positive rate Wednesday, down from the previous 7.7. That means as more people are tested, infected people are a smaller percentage of the population. So far, 1,694,203 people have been tested with polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests. 

But, Virginia isn’t out of the clear just yet. We won’t know the full impact of any Labor Day activities for at least one more week, if not two. Health department officials said if there’s an increase in cases after a holiday, the results will likely not appear until a week later. They point to the spike a week after the Fourth of July as an example. 

More Virginia Cities Become Coronavirus Hotspots

Several Virginia cities who recently had the highest case amount in the commonwealth have seen cases drop in recent weeks. Radford has dropped off the New York Times’ ranking of the country’s coronavirus hotspots with 607 reported cases.   

However, Harrisonburg is now ranked ninth in the country with a total of 1,963 cases.  While not in the top ten, Montgomery County, who had the second highest increase of cases in Virginia, also made the hot spot list. Grayson County also made the list with 263 total cases. 

Hampton Roads has seen an overall decrease with their percent positivity rate trending downwards. However, Northern Virginia still leads the way in terms of new cases with Fairfax County and Prince William County having the highest number of total cases. Fairfax County saw an increase in 449 new cases while Prince William County saw an increase in 309 new cases in a week.