New Coronavirus Cases in Arlington Continue to Steadily Rise

The growth of new COVID-19 cases in Arlington doesn’t appear to be going down — though it doesn’t seem to be accelerating either.

As of Tuesday morning, there were 865 known coronavirus cases in Arlington and 157 reported hospitalizations. That’s up from 625 cases and 114 hospitalizations a week ago, and from 836 cases and 144 hospitalizations on Monday.

The number of new cases over the trailing 7-day period is up modestly since last week. As of today there have been 272 new cases reported over the past 7 days, compared to 235 a week ago.

While newly-confirmed cases are still being added to it, the statewide coronavirus stats show — for now — a plateau in the number of cases when sorted by the week in which the illness began.

The latest Virginia Dept. of Health data shows 14,339 reported COVID-19 cases, plus 2,165 hospitalizations, 492 deaths and 82,753 people testest statewide.

Some Virginia officials, meanwhile, are calling on the state to release more specific information about outbreaks at long-term care facilities. Such a move would follow the lead of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who ordered the state to reveal where such outbreaks have taken place.

Glad MD is doing this and I’ve been asking VA do the same. We need to be more transparent about what is happening in congegate living facilities. The public has the right to know. cc: @GovernorVA @VDHgov @JulieCareyNBC @bluevirginia https://t.co/QGW8TLWdZd

— Patrick Hope (@HopeforVirginia) April 27, 2020

Thus far state and Arlington County health officials have refused to release such data.

“The Public Health Division does not provide information on reportable diseases on less than a county level,” and Arlington Dept. of Human Services spokesman previously told ARLnow. “This is due to health care privacy laws and also because we believe that all geographic areas of Arlington County currently are at risk of disease transmission.”