Monday marks two years since the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Virginia.
During her weekly briefing, New River Valley Health Director Dr. Noelle Bissell said that COVID-19 will not go away, rather, people are going to have to learn to deal with it because there will be different variants over time.
The reason for that is that globally, there is not equal access for individuals to get vaccinated.
“We’re trying to work on that as best we can as a country and the world. We do expect there will be other variants. We do expect that they will be kind of like other respiratory illnesses, such as the flu, and respiratory viruses that have that regional and seasonal spread,” explained Bissell.
Overall, Bissell said that the area is seeing a decline, with hospitalizations related to COVID-19 reaching single digits in the New River Valley.