NORFOLK, Va. — In another sign that the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us, the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA) will no longer track daily hospitalizations after Thursday.
The dashboard, launched in April 2020, provided daily updates during the last three years of the pandemic.
It told us how many Virginians were in the hospital with COVID-19, and what kind of burden that placed on overworked nurses and doctors.
"Overall, the dashboard has been viewed more than 7.7 million times and has been an invaluable resource to help health care providers, state and federal government partners, the public, and the news media gain a clearer picture of the impact of the pandemic on hospitals and the health care delivery system," VHHA explained in a news release.
On Thursday, a record low 135 people statewide were hospitalized with COVID-19, with 15 being treated in ICUs.
Previously, the lowest recorded number was 145 patients on April 17, 2022. Hospitalizations peaked in January of 2022 with 3,790 patients. According to the dashboard, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 that were hospitalized and discharged is 139,429.
The dashboard is shutting down for two reasons: the relatively few people fighting COVID-19 in the hospital, and the federal COVID-19 public health emergency officially ends on May 11.
And COVID-19 cases have been falling or staying flat since January in Virginia.
The Commonwealth is averaging a little more than 200 new cases a day. That is close to a record low during this pandemic.