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Southwest region's daily COVID-19 cases are higher than elsewhere in Virginia
Southwest region's daily COVID-19 cases are higher than elsewhere in Virginia
Luanne Rife Sep 15, 2020 Updated 14 hrs ago
New daily cases of COVID-19 are coming in now at a faster pace in Southwest Virginia than any other region in the state. ... Gov. Ralph Northam said during a news conference Tuesday that he doesn’t intend to impose any new restrictions and that he thinks Radford University, Virginia Tech and the local communities are doing a good job of addressing the surge.
“The most concerning thing about Southwest, and I’ll repeat this, is we just don’t have the hospitals and especially the ICU capabilities,” he said. ... Northam did not elaborate as to which parts of the vast Southwest region he was talking about, nor was there an opportunity to ask him to explain.
The far southwest coalfields experienced a spike in cases in August, and the region’s health provider, Ballad Health, shifted services and opened up more COVID-19 beds. Ballad has seen cases trending downward for the past two weeks.
In the Roanoke Valley, Carilion Clinic and LewisGale Medical Center have said throughout the pandemic that they have enough capacity and have plans to add COVID-19 units should the need arise. The Salem VA Hospital has also been treating COVID-19 patients.
{snip}
Staff writer Sam Wall contributed information to this report.
{snip}
Source: Virginia Department of Health. For more information and data, visit
https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus
Luanne Rife Sep 15, 2020 Updated 14 hrs ago
New daily cases of COVID-19 are coming in now at a faster pace in Southwest Virginia than any other region in the state. ... Gov. Ralph Northam said during a news conference Tuesday that he doesn’t intend to impose any new restrictions and that he thinks Radford University, Virginia Tech and the local communities are doing a good job of addressing the surge.
“The most concerning thing about Southwest, and I’ll repeat this, is we just don’t have the hospitals and especially the ICU capabilities,” he said. ... Northam did not elaborate as to which parts of the vast Southwest region he was talking about, nor was there an opportunity to ask him to explain.
The far southwest coalfields experienced a spike in cases in August, and the region’s health provider, Ballad Health, shifted services and opened up more COVID-19 beds. Ballad has seen cases trending downward for the past two weeks.
In the Roanoke Valley, Carilion Clinic and LewisGale Medical Center have said throughout the pandemic that they have enough capacity and have plans to add COVID-19 units should the need arise. The Salem VA Hospital has also been treating COVID-19 patients.
{snip}
Staff writer Sam Wall contributed information to this report.
{snip}
Source: Virginia Department of Health. For more information and data, visit
https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus