VA Leaders Warn People With Mild COVID-19 To Stay Away From Emergency Rooms

VIRGINIA — Virginia set a new COVID-19 case record again Thursday as the highly contagious omicron variant spreads across the state.

The Virginia Department of Health reported 13,500 new positive cases on Thursday, breaking the previous one-day record for the state set on Wednesday when 12,112 new positive cases were reported.

Prior to this week, the previous record in Virginia was set on Jan. 17 when 9,914 new COVID-19 cases were reported.

The record number of cases on Thursday pushed Virginia above the 1.1 million case mark. Since March 2020, 1,100,900 Virginians have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the VDH.

The 7-day percent positivity rate currently stands at 19.3 percent in Virginia, up from 17.4 percent on Wednesday. The positivity rate is nearing the all-time highest rate set in April 2020 when the rate was 20.2 percent as COVID-19 was spreading quickly across the state for the first time.

Virginia health officials said Thursday that the state is in the midst of a fifth coronavirus surge since the pandemic began in 2020. The peak of this latest surge may not arrive until several weeks after the holiday season concludes, making it likely that its true impact on public health and the health care delivery system is yet to be fully felt, the VDH said.

In the meantime, health officials and hospital leaders are urging people with COVID-19 who are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms to avoid already burdened hospital emergency departments.

"People with severe COVID-19 symptoms such as significant difficulty breathing, intense chest pain, severe weakness, or an elevated temperature that persists for days unabated are among those who should consider seeking emergency medical care for their condition," the VDH said in a statement Thursday.

What state officials describe as "unnecessary visits" to hospital emergency departments "place great strain on hospitals and the frontline healthcare workers," the VDH said.

SEE ALSO: Omicron Cases Explode In Virginia, DC: See Latest CDC Data

"Such visits can also cause a delay in care for patients experiencing a true medical crisis and contribute to the depletion of finite resources including medical staff, testing kits, personal protective equipment, and therapeutic treatments," the department said.

Along with skyrocketing positive case numbers, daily COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen from 922 on Dec. 1 to 2,101 on Thursday, a 128 percent increase in that time.

"While these numbers are elevated, they remain below the peak hospitalization numbers Virginia encountered this time last year," the VDH said. "That is thanks in large part to the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines."

Data continues to show that the vast majority of patients currently hospitalized in Virginia for COVID-19 care are unvaccinated. "The available vaccines offer strong protection against illness from COVID-19," the department said.

As of Thursday, 78 percent of Virginia adults were fully vaccinated, while 67.5 percent of all residents were fully vaccinated, according to the VDH. Among children ages 5-11 in Virginia, 31 percent have been received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

RELATED: COVID-19 Cases Surge In Virginia, Pushing Hospitalizations Higher