COVID numbers are revised

Frankly, the COVID-19 statistics coming from the Virginia Department of Health are increasingly puzzling.

As of Monday, the department reported that Wise County’s total number of COVID-related deaths since the pandemic began had risen to 198.

Yesterday, that figure had been revised back to 197, the same number reported one week earlier.

The reason for the downward revision was not immediately clear.

The county’s total number of COVID cases since spring 2020 increased by eight, from 10,254 Monday to 10,262 yesterday.

The health department’s cumulative positive case count for Norton was revised down as well, from 1,305 reported Monday to 1,304 reported yesterday.

The number of total deaths in the city remained at 22.

Statewide, the total number of confirmed cases since the pandemic began rose from 1,210,308 Monday to 1,213,026 yesterday, an increase of 2,718. The number of cases deemed “probable” rose from 475,592 Monday to 476,537 yesterday, an increase of 945.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Virginia increased by 74 to 16,788. The number of probable COVID-19 deaths increased by six to 3,336.

REPORTING CHANGES

The frequency of downward number revisions has increased significantly since the Youngkin administration took office in January, bringing new health department leadership. The frequency of revisions also began to show in March when the health department made significant changes to its methods of reporting COVID statistics. Several data sets were taken off the health department website and now must be dug out on the Virginia Open Data Portal, data.virginia.gov.