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COVID-19 cases are continuing to decline throughout the Piedmont Health District and much of Virginia as more and more citizens get their second dose of the vaccine.

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) continues to declare cases in Prince Edward, Buckingham, Cumberland, Charlotte and Lunenburg counties as decreasing, with some counties seeing large drops in their number of weekly cases.

Monday, Feb. 8, Prince Edward County was listed by VDH as having a total of 106 new coronavirus cases over the previous seven days, a considerable drop from the previous week’s 172 new cases.

In Buckingham County, cases also dropped significantly, with 67 new cases originating from the county over the last week compared to the 144 cases seen from Jan. 25 to Feb. 1.

Cumberland County rose 16 cases from Feb. 1 to Feb. 8 compared to a 21-case increase the week prior.

Lunenburg County saw 17 new cases this week compared to 22 cases last week. Charlotte County rose 47 cases this week compared to the 44 cases seen the previous week.

Virginia’s key COVID-19 measures continue to drop. Monday, Feb. 8, the commonwealth was reporting 1,700 new cases over the last 24-hour period, down significantly from last Monday’s already low figure of 2,861 cases.

Virginia’s seven-day moving average of cases also decreased over the last week from 4,146 to 3,312 as of Monday.

Longwood University on Monday was reporting 24 active cases among students and staff, and Hampden-Sydney College was reporting 18 active cases in its campus community with 31 people quarantining.

The Dillwyn Correctional Center (DCC) in Buckingham continues to experience a large outbreak at its facility, with the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) reporting 161 actively positive offenders at DCC as of Monday. The VADOC COVID-19 dashboard showed two DCC inmates in hospitals due to COVID as of Monday with 14 prison staff actively diagnosed as positive.

Buckingham Correctional Center (BKCC) was listed Monday as having four active offender cases and four active staff cases at the facility.

On Monday, Piedmont Regional Jail (PRJ) Administrator Jerry Townsend said the jail currently had four employees with active cases of COVID-19 and another three employees with pending test results.

Townsend said as of Monday five PRJ offenders were actively positive with COVID-19, two males and three females. One of the males, Townsend said, was actively being hospitalized due to complications surrounding the virus.

He added all staff who requested the vaccine had received their initial dose, stating offenders who requested to be vaccinated were scheduled to begin receiving shots this week.

The jail remains on a modified lockdown status.

An ongoing outbreak at The Woodland in Farmville appeared to grow this week after the assisted living facility was reporting nine active asymptomatic cases per its COVID-19 dashboard last Monday. On Feb. 8, The Woodland was reporting 26 positive COVID-19 cases out of its Holly Manor and Moore Center skilled nursing facilities, with 12 residents listed as recovered from the virus. The dashboard stated some residents are showing mild symptoms.

More and more residents of the Piedmont Health District are becoming inoculated against COVID-19.

On Monday, Feb. 8, Prince Edward was listed by VDH as having vaccinated 2,615 of its residents, with 326 of those citizens now fully vaccinated after receiving both doses. Thanks to vaccination efforts, 11.4% of county residents have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, up from 7.4% last week.

Buckingham County has now vaccinated 1,686 of its residents, with 208 citizens fully inoculated. Buckingham now has 9.9% of its population at least partially vaccinated. That’s up from 6.7% last week.

And 550 Cumberland residents are now partially vaccinated, with 66 residents having received both doses of the vaccine. That’s 5.6% of the county’s residents with at least one dose in their arm, up from 3.6% at the time of last week’s update.

On Monday, 1,144 Charlotte County citizens were at least partially vaccinated, with 157 residents having obtained both doses. Approximately 9.5% of Charlotte has been vaccinated, up from 6.6% last week.

In Lunenburg County, 916 residents have gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 104 citizens fully inoculated. That means 7.5% of the population is now at least partially vaccinated, up from 5.8% last week.