Four new local cases; faster growth coming

Wise County saw three new COVID-19 cases between last Thursday and yesterday.

The county’s total number of COVID cases since spring 2020 increased from 10,291 to 10,294.

The county’s total number of COVID-related deaths remained at 199.

The health department’s cumulative positive case count for Norton increased by one to 1,305.

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

Virginia’s rate of new case growth was once again accelerating during the same period as subvariants of the omicron variant begin to emerge.

Statewide, the total number of confirmed cases since the pandemic began rose from 1,228,738 Thursday to 1,234,435 yesterday, an increase of 5,697. The number of cases deemed “probable” rose from 484,063 Thursday to 487,066 yesterday, an increase of 3,003.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in Virginia increased by 15 to 16,925. The number of probable COVID-19 deaths increased by three to 3,363.