The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Richmond recently reached an all-time high amid a state and nationwide surge, prompting Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras to say Thursday that he will recommend that classes remain virtual through the end of the school year.
Dr. Danny Avula, the director of the Richmond and Henrico County health districts, shared the update on Richmond’s case count during a coronavirus briefing Thursday morning. Last week, the city hit a seven-day average of 55.86 new cases per day. The highest average before that was 51 cases on June 1 — the week after Memorial Day.
The case increase has impacted Richmond’s workforce, said Mayor Levar Stoney. He said 23 city employees have recently tested positive and 40 employees are in quarantine. In his RPS Direct Newsletter later Thursday, Kamras also noted the dozens of infections among the school system’s students and staff, including one death — a bus driver who died of COVID-19 complications in October — that have occurred while classes are fully virtual.
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“I don’t want us to do anything that would cause those numbers to increase, even slightly,” Kamras said.
The superintendent and members of the School Board previously said they were not optimistic about a return to classrooms for the 2020-21 school year, even as neighboring districts were sending students back to school. A major factor is the makeup of the RPS population — the district is majority Black, and the virus has disproportionately harmed Black and Latino communities.
Kamras also shared some results from a districtwide survey about whether to resume in-person instruction: 80% of teachers said they preferred to remain fully virtual, and 63% of parents said the same. Kamras also wrote that the district would not be able to provide transportation since the entire bus fleet is used to deliver meals to students.
“I acknowledge the very real downsides to continuing with remote instruction,” he said in the newsletter.
He continued: “While this approach is working well for many students, it is not for others. The long-term academic and social-emotional impacts for these young people are likely to be significant.”
Kamras will make his recommendation to the School Board on Monday, when it is slated to formally vote on whether to bring students back to the classroom.
Hospitalizations and vaccinations
The week after Thanksgiving, the city’s percentage of positive test results is hovering at 4%, the lowest in the region. But with more holidays coming up and Virginia’s hospitalizations reaching record numbers, Avula cautioned about social interactions.
Statewide, the total number of people who have been hospitalized is 15,014, though the Virginia Department of Health’s online dashboard notes that hospitalizations are underrepresented. According to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, 24,782 people have been hospitalized for COVID-19 and released and 1,853 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 or have virus results pending.
The state is seeing a seven-day average of 1,704 COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to the hospital association. This is the highest since the start of the pandemic.
As talk of vaccinations ramps up, Avula said the local Health Department does not yet know the supply that will go toward the city.
State officials confirmed Wednesday that Virginia will receive 70,000 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine in the company’s first wave of distribution, which is expected to take place before the end of the year.
Avula anticipates people not at high risk will be able to get a vaccine by May or June, and said the Health Department is already planning potential sites for vaccinations that could include drive-thru accessibility.
“All of those things are very much a part of our preparation for what I think will probably be six months of regular mass vaccination events,” Avula said.
Daily numbers
The Virginia Department of Health reported 2,023 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, bringing the state’s total during the pandemic to 244,503 cases. The new cases bring the seven-day average to 2,229 new cases daily.
Last week, there was an average of almost 2,600 cases per day, marking a state record since the start of the pandemic.
Of the 244,503 cases, 215,768 cases were confirmed and 28,735 were deemed probable, meaning the person was symptomatic with a known exposure to COVID-19 but had not yet received a positive test result.
The total death count on Thursday was 4,147, a 34-person increase from Wednesday.
Richmond has had 6,840 cases, 507 hospitalizations and 82 deaths, with nearly 30% of cases coming from the 20-29 age group.
The Chesterfield Health District, which includes Chesterfield County, Powhatan County and Colonial Heights, has had 10,563 cases, 572 hospitalizations and 167 deaths.
Henrico County has had 8,615 cases, 604 hospitalizations and 260 deaths. Hanover County has 2,534 cases, 164 hospitalizations and 54 deaths.
There have been 1,565 outbreaks, making up 34,405 of the state’s cases. About 37% of the state’s outbreaks have been at long-term care facilities.
The Richmond, Henrico and Chesterfield health districts each are in the top five statewide for the number of outbreaks; the Fairfax Health District is in the top spot. The VDH classifies an outbreak as at least two lab-confirmed cases.
VDH shows the percentage of positive results from testing is 8.8%, the highest since the end of August and an increase of half a percentage-point from Wednesday. Last week, the positivity rate was 7.7%. A month ago, it was 6.0%. All are down from the state’s peak of 20.6% in April but up from the lowest: 3.7% in March.
The VDH dashboard operates on a 16- to 17-hour delay in the reporting of statewide numbers on the VDH website. Figures on the website might not include cases or deaths reported by localities or local health districts.