CORONAVIRUS

A Refusal to Believe: Southwest Virginia Leads State’s Virus Surge

Written By
Ashley Spinks Dugan

Originally Published
November 20, 2020 2:02 am EST

Positive test rate hits above 19%, more than double most of Virginia.

BLACKSBURG- Various regions of Virginia suffered surges in coronavirus infections over the course of the pandemic. But one area caused more problems than the rest. For the past four to six weeks, Southwest Virginia has had the highest incidence rate in the state, Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Service Dr. Daniel Carey told reporters during a Nov. 18 press conference.

Reporters raised the issue amid news that Ballad Health ordered more than 200 employees to isolate or quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure. Ballad Health serves a 21-county region throughout Southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee. The positive rate of COVID-19 tests administered in the region increased to 19.3% over the past week. Fifty-five people have died in the last seven days.

Carey said he is in near-daily contact with the health system, including Chief Executive Officer Alan Levine. At the moment, the most urgent concern is not a lack of bed space or PPE supplies, but a lack of staff. Ballad is facing a shortage of frontline ICU nurses, respiratory therapists and emergency room nurses in particular.

Typically, when one part of the state or country faces an emergency, Carey explained, resources can be borrowed from another area. But coronavirus cases are spiking all over. Nowhere has nurses to spare. ... Healthcare workers are stretched thin and exhausted. ... “They’re tired. They’re fatigued. And they’re seeing people die,” Gov. Ralph Northam said during Wednesday’s press conference.

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