ROANOKE, Va. – COVID-19 cases are on the rise across the country, including Southwest Virginia.
The Center for Disease Control says they have seen a significant increase in COVID-19 numbers in the past week.
“Our seven-day average is about 26,300 cases per day and this represents nearly an increase of 70% from the prior seven-day average,” said CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
The Roanoke City and Allegheny Health District says they have seen a similar increase in cases. Health district director, Dr. Cynthia Morrow says along with people not being vaccinated, there are other contributing factors.
“It’s also possible that the Fourth of July festivities have had part of this. what we do know is we are getting clusters of cases in families and clusters in people who are clearly not vaccinated,” said Dr. Morrow. “We have every reason to believe the delta variant is a significant contributing factor to the increase we know across the country about 50% of cases are now associated with delta.”
The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 and new variants is simple: get vaccinated.
“At this point, all evidence points to all three vaccines that can serve significant protection against infection and are highly effective against hospitalization and death associated with COVID-19,” said Dr. Morrow.