Get vaccinated or risk getting sick, health district chief says | Local News

Virginia, like the United States a whole, has recently seen a bit of a rise in case numbers. “Time will tell,” said Greene, who also runs the Lord Fairfax Health District, headquartered in Winchester.

As of yet, the Culpeper-area district hasn’t seen a significant rise in COVID cases, Greene said.

In the Rappahannock-Rapidan Health District, the average daily new-case count on Wednesday was 11; it was 3 on June 20, the physician said. On April 12, it was 36, and on Jan. 9—the peak—it was 113. Those are new cases per day, averaged out over the last seven days. For weekly counts, multiply each number by 7.

“We are nowhere near those peaks from winter and spring,” Greene said. “It had looked like it was headed toward zero, but now it might rise. We have to keep an eye on it.”

Even if case counts rise, Greene said he hopes the death rate will not—if enough people get the jab. “The more people who get vaccinated, the better I’ll feel about it,” he said.

“Please do get vaccinated. The vaccine is not experimental. More than two-thirds of Americans have gotten it, and serious problems are extremely rare.”

“The risk of complications is very rare. Just about any kind of medical procedure can carry some risk, but your risk of illness if you don’t get vaccinated is much, much greater—and the effects could be long-lasting.”