County, city: 56 new cases in four days

Wise County saw 50 new COVID-19 cases between last Thursday and yesterday.

The county’s total number of COVID cases since spring 2020 increased from 12,804 to 12,854 in four days, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

The county’s total number of COVID-related deaths remained at 208.

The health department’s cumulative positive case count for Norton increased by six, from 1,600 to 1,606.
The total number of 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 1,457,459 Thursday to 1,462,805 yesterday, an increase of 5,346. The number of “probable” cases in Virginia rose from 597,389 Thursday to 600,179 yesterday, an increase of 2,790.
During the same period, the number of confirmed deaths increased by 24 to 17,963. The number of probable COVID-19 deaths increased by 28 to 3,647.