Respiratory illness cases spike in Virginia: Virginia Department of Health

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) is reporting a high increase in respiratory illness cases in Virginia during the holiday season.

The VDH has been monitoring data from the emergency department (ED) to find trends in the spread of respiratory viruses.

It has found that the overall respiratory illness activity in Virginia is high compared to previous years and has been trending up over the past few weeks.

Virginia has reported that ED visits from the week of Dec. 27 has increased by 6.1% compared to the following week, bringing it up to 24.3% of reported respiratory illness in ED visits.

Of the ED cases reported in Virginia, 0.7% were diagnosed with COVID-19, 0.6% with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and 9.8% with influenza -- an upward trend, according to the department.

The largest age demographic of these ED visits happen most between the ages of 0 to 4 years old and 5 to 17 years old.

In the past six weeks, there have been 14 deaths associated with COVID-19, influenza and/or RSV.

In Virginia, 799,984 people received the COVID-19 vaccine, and 2,454,326 received the flu vaccine.

For more information, visit the VDH's website here.