County, city mark 118 additional virus cases

Wise County saw 113 new COVID-19 cases between last Thursday and yesterday.

The county’s total number of COVID cases since spring 2020 increased from 12,529 to 12,642 in four days, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
The county’s total number of COVID-related deaths remained at 204.

The health department’s cumulative positive case count for Norton increased by five, from 1,570 to 1,575.
The number of total deaths in the city remained at 22.

The latest sub-variant of last year’s omicron variant is spreading rapidly, although death rates have slowed.

Statewide, the total number of confirmed cases since the pandemic began rose from 1,438,993 Thursday to 1,444,661 yesterday, an increase of 5,668. The number of “probable” cases in Virginia rose from 586,692 Thursday to 589,986 yesterday, an increase of 3,294.
During the same period, the number of confirmed deaths increased by 24 to 17,788. The number of probable COVID-19 deaths increased by 15 to 3,586.