County: 148 new cases reported across a week

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Wise County increased by 148 between July 27 and Wednesday.

The Virginia Department of Health reported Wednesday morning that the county’s total confirmed cases in the months since the pandemic began had risen to 11,659 — up from 11,511 one week earlier.

The number of Wise County COVID-19 deaths remained at 203.

A new sub-variant of last year’s omicron variant is proving to be highly contagious, according to public health officials. However, fatality and hospitalization rates are not as high.

Statewide, the total number of confirmed cases since the pandemic began rose from 1,386,615 July 27 to 1,400,631 Wednesday, an increase of 14,016. The number of “probable” cases in Virginia rose from 561,071 July 27 to 567,698 yesterday, an increase of 6,627.
During the same period, the number of confirmed deaths increased by 88 to 17,502. The number of probable COVID-19 deaths increased by 18 to 3,493.