Alleghany sees no covid cases but highest rates still generally in Southwest Virginia

Covid cases are dropping almost everywhere, and state infection patterns are starting to return to their pre-omicron patterns: Highest in Southwest Virginia, lowest in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. And yet there are exceptions: For the week ending Feb. 19, the highest infection rate in the state was in Manassas Park, where rates were rising. And the lowest was in Alleghany County, which recorded no cases. All that’s according to federal data analyzed by The Daily Yonder, a website that specializes in rural issues.

For that time period, there were 25 localities in Virginia that still measured in the “black” or “gray” zone, depending on whether the county is classified as rural or semi-rural. Seven of the top 10 were west of the Blue Ridge, 20 of the top 25 were.

1. Manassas Park 1470.1, up from 749.5
2. Norton 1,180.6, down from 1,934.2
3. Covington 1,173.7, up from 0
4. Smyth County 940.1, down from 1,365.3
5. Scott County 876.4, down from 1,020.1
6. Martinsville 852.3, up from 310.7
7. Wise County 773.1, down from 1,407.1
8. Botetourt County 721.1, up from 266.3
9. Henry County 716.0, up from 381.7
10. Bland County 684.7, down from 764.3
11. Giles County 669.9, down from 1,040.7
12. Lee County 644.7, down from 1,135.6
13. Fluvanna County 627.1, up from 425.4
14. Russell County 598.1, down from 1,011.8
15. Salem 596.8, down from 569.1
16. Grayson County 585.2, down from 1,763.3
17. Tazewell County 569.0, down from 1,115.9
18. Buena Vista 555.7, down from 694.7
19. Patrick County 539.5, down from 477.1
20. Washington County 543.4, down from 990.0
21. Mecklenburg County 532.9, up from 477.3
22. Buchanan County 523.7, down from 690.3
23. Galax 519.9, down from 1,512.5
24. Bristol 519.0, down from 912.8
25. Dickenson County 502.9, down from 726.4

There were 17 localities that fell into the “green” zone.

1. Alleghany County 0, down from 969.0
2. Roanoke County 25.5, down from 248.4
3. Fairfax (city) 37.5, down from 54.1
4. Accomac County 43.3, down from 191.9
5. Southampton County 62.4, down from 204.2
6. King and Queen County 71.2, down from 185.1
7. Westmoreland County 72.2, down from 260.9
8. Franklin (city) 75.3, down from 263.6
9. Cumberland County 80.5, down from 342.3
10. Rappahannock County 81.4, down from 162.8
11. Fairfax County 88.9, down from 190.9
12. Norfolk 95.3, down from 178.8
13. Surry County 93.4, down from 311.4
14. Northampton County 93.9, down from 401.4
15. Isle of Wight County 94.3, down from 229.1
16. Roanoke (city) 98.8, down from 375.2
17. Suffolk 99.9, down from 200.9

You find the data for every locality in the country on The Daily Yonder’s interactive map. We recently published two opinion columns that looked at vaccination rates in rural Virginia and death rates.