COVID-19 in Virginia’s Five Major Regions
Melanie Vinton
November 23, 2020
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The Virginia Department of Heath divides the state into five major regions. The map below shows which counties and cities belong to each of the five regions.
We use COVID-19 data from the Virginia Department of Health. The source data was downloaded from the Virginia Department of Health website and is as of November 22, 2020. The population data is from The Cooper Center.
Despite the variation in the geographic size of the different regions, the population distribution also varies considerably. The population of Northern Virginia is nearly double that of both the Northwest and Southwest regions. The population numbers are estimates for 2019 from the Cooper Center.
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| Region | Population |
|---|---|
| Central Region | 1,454,382 |
| Eastern Region | 1,870,973 |
| Northern Region | 2,520,543 |
| Northwest Region | 1,349,047 |
| Southwest Region | 1,340,574 |
COVID-19 in the Major Virginia Regions
The following chart shows the 5-day moving average of COVID-19 cases across the different major regions in Virginia.
However, as noted above, the population differences between the regions is significant. This chart shows the 5-day moving average of COVID-19 cases in each region, relative to the population.
Hospitalizations
The following chart show the data across the five regions of Virginia for reported COVID-19 hospitalizations.
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When population differences are factored in, the hospitalization chart changes dramatically.
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For clarity, we adjust the hospitalization moving average from 5-day to 14-day. In this case, we see that some regions have seen dramatic changes in hospitalizations over time, while others have remained relatively stable, such as the Eastern region.
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