Alexandria sees dip in Covid numbers despite reporting ‘inaccuracy’ by Virginia Department of Health

Regardless of a reporting inaccuracy by the Virginia Department of Health, Alexandria’s Covid numbers are still going down.

VDH identified 220 cases that were “inaccurately auto-generated duplicated in the case reporting system,” which is why there were 19 cases reported on Feb. 6, 20 cases on Feb. 7 and 43 cases on Feb. 8 — all sharp contrasts to the hundreds of daily cases being reported the previous week. Additionally, three deaths from January were also added to the city’s death toll, which now stands at 176.

“These cases have been removed from Alexandria’s total case numbers, causing the case counts on February 6-8 to appear artificially low on Virginia Department of Health and City of Alexandria dashboards,” according to the Alexandria Health Department.

There have been 29,204 total reported cases in Alexandria, an increase of 366 cases since this time last week. The seven day average of daily new cases is now 52, down from 77 last week.

There is one set of numbers unaffected by the inaccuracy is the seven-day average of positive COVID-19 tests, which is is also significantly down — now 8.8%, down from 12.4% last week and 15.7% two weeks ago.

There have also been 538 cases reported within Alexandria City Public Schools since Dec. 1, an increase of 32 cases since last week. Of those cases, 460 are students and 92 are staff.

Every locality in Virginia is now experiencing high transmission. Alexandria went from “Substantial” to “High” transmission in December.

Vaccine stats

• There are 25,964 unvaccinated Alexandria residents
• About 75% of residents (115,078 people) are fully vaccinated
• 83% (127,916 people) of residents have gotten at least one dose
• 55,535 residents have gotten booster shots

Find vaccine providers in Alexandria here. If you feel sick, get tested.