The number of active coronavirus cases among Veterans Affairs patients continued to slowly rise in recent days as the total number of deaths from the virus among department patients rose above 3,500 this week.
As of Tuesday evening, VA reported 3,641 active cases of the
virus, an increase of 7 percent in the last week and more than 21 percent in
the last month. The cases are spread out across 139 department medical centers
nationwide.
Active cases of the virus had dropped below 2,500 in
mid-September, but have risen slowly since then. Those totals topped 6,400 in
mid-July, when the outbreak within the VA patient population was at its peak.
VA officials have said they do not consider the active case
counts or death totals to be accurate measures of the severity of the ongoing
pandemic among their patient population. Instead, they point to hospitalization
rates among patients who test positive, which have remained steady over the
last few months.
As of Tuesday afternoon, department medical staff were
caring for 340 inpatients with complications related to coronavirus.
On Wednesday morning, the death total among the VA patient
population was 3,528. That figure is up almost 300 individuals in the last 20
days. Nationally, more than 210,000 individuals have died from complications
related to the virus.
The fatality rate among VA patients who test positive for
the illness is about 5.5 percent, well above the 3 percent rate for the rest of
the country. But VA officials have cautioned against comparing their patient
population to the rest of the country, noting the increased dangers the virus
presents to individuals who are elderly and infirm, two descriptors that
encompass most of the department’s medical cases.
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