Fairfax County’s Covid case levels, vaccine demand stay low

Fairfax County saw a slight uptick in COVID-19 cases this past week, but the overall level of community transmission remains low.

After seeing mostly double-digit daily caseloads during the previous week, the Fairfax Health District — including the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church — reported 157 new cases on Wednesday (March 23), 154 cases on Friday (March 25), and a total of 249 cases over the weekend, including 75 new cases today (Monday).

On its data dashboard, the Virginia Department of Health reported all of this weekend’s cases today, pushing the district’s rolling seven-day average up to 117 cases — the highest it’s been since March 9.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still classifies the county’s community transmission level as low based the case rate per 100,000 residents (52.55), new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 residents (1.6) and the percentage of staffed inpatient beds used by patients with confirmed COVID-19 (1.5%).

Overall, the district has recorded 179,419 total COVID-19 cases, 4,446 hospitalizations, and 1,485 deaths during the pandemic. The four most recent confirmed deaths, based on the date of death, came during the week of March 5.

The omicron variant is still responsible for majority of cases in the area, but a subvariant known as BA.2 has been gaining ground. It is behind 34.9% of infections in the mid-Atlantic region, which includes Virginia, according to the CDC.

The subvariant is more transmissible than the original omicron variant and triggered a new surge in cases across Europe this month.

However, scientists say it does not appear to cause more severe illnesses. Vaccinations remain effective at preventing severe illness and death, and the similarities between the variants means that people who were infected with omicron may have some immunity to BA.2.

According to the Fairfax County Health Department, vaccinations in the district have slowed to a crawl, with only about 200 more residents obtaining a first dose since last Monday (March 21).

As of today, 965,535 district residents, or 81.6%, have received at least one vaccine dose, including:

• 90.6% of people 18 and older
• 96.8% of 16-17 year olds
• 92.5% of 12-15 year olds
• 52.9% of 5-11 year olds

There are 873,032 fully vaccinated residents, which is 73.8% of the population, including 82.5% of adults.

In Fairfax County, 477,892 people — or 41.5% of residents — have gotten a booster or third dose, including 50.7% of adults and 32.6% of people aged 12 to 17, VDH’s data dashboard shows.