Fairfax Health District’s COVID-19 death toll reaches 1,500 people

On March 12, a resident of Fairfax County, or possibly the cities of Fairfax or Falls Church died from COVID-19.

Reported to the Virginia Department of Health within the past week, the most recent confirmed death brings the Fairfax Health District’s death toll from the pandemic up to 1,500 people.

While deaths and hospitalizations remain low, COVID-19 cases continue to rise locally.

Since hitting a low of 77 cases on March 22, the weekly average has nearly tripled. The district is now averaging 218 new cases per day for the past week after recording a new single-day high for this spring of 310 cases on Friday (April 15).

As of Thursday (April 14), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still officially classified Fairfax County’s community COVID-19 level as low, but with 22 residents admitted to hospitals with Covid last week, hospitalizations had increased 40% over the previous seven days.

In addition, the community transmission map, which uses cases per 100,000 people and the testing positivity rate as metrics instead of hospitalizations, indicates that the county is seeing a “high” level of spread again after dropping to “substantial” in February.

There have now been 182,913 Covid cases and 4,461 hospitalizations in the Fairfax Health District during the pandemic.

The recent increase in cases coincided with the arrival of BA.2, the highly contagious omicron subvariant that is now behind an estimated 85.9% of all Covid infections in the U.S. It has also been almost two months since Fairfax County dropped its mask requirements for public facilities, including schools.

Rising cases nationwide led the Transportation Security Administration to extend its mask mandate on all public transportation last week, and some universities in the D.C. area have revived their indoor masks requirements.

The Fairfax County Health Department still encourages masks, social distancing, and vaccinations to limit the spread of COVID-19.

According to the department’s dashboard, there have been 2.3 million vaccine doses administered to Fairfax Health District residents. 986,697 people — or 83.4% of the population — have received at least one dose, including:

• 92.1% of people 18 and older
• 98.4% of 16-17 year olds
• 94.1% of 12-15 year olds
• 58.7% of 5-11 year olds

896,253 district residents are fully vaccinated. That amounts to 75.7% of the population, including 83.8% of adults.

According to the VDH, 492,152 Fairfax County residents, or 42.8%, have gotten a booster or third shot, including 52.5% of adults and 33.7% of adolescents aged 12-15.