CHESAPEAKE, Va. — More and more Virginians want to know if they're positive or negative with COVID-19.
According to the Virginia Department of Health, Virginia's COVID testing numbers have roughly doubled in recent weeks.
“Without it, we don’t really know where we are," Dr. Brooke Rossheim, public health physician specialist with VDH, said.
According to Dr. Rossheim, Virginia is seeing between 20-22 thousand total COVID tests per day, which includes both rapid antigen tests as well as the standard PCR tests. It's still a fraction of what the state saw during it's peak, which Rossheim says reached between 50 and sometimes 60 thousand tests per day. Still, it's a mark that's nearly doubled from when COVID testing hit state lows earlier this summer.
“When vaccines hit the scene, testing dropped off because everyone’s focused on vaccination. We hit a low of about 10 to 12 thousand tests per day," Dr. Rossheim said.
It's an increase seen statewide and locally.
“Past month, we’ve seen an increase in testing, which is good," Jerry Tucker said, the Public Health Emergency Manager with the Chesapeake Health Department.
Tucker said the surge of COVID testing has led to daily test numbers in the hundreds. It's also a fraction of when Chesapeake peaked its testing totals with nearly 1,000 per day, but Tucker said the increased awareness helps them understand how prevalent the coronavirus is in their community.
Virginia’s positivity rate among coronavirus tests has steadily increased since mid-June.