As coronavirus deaths nationwide surpassed 486,000, the Veterans Affairs (VA) medical system — which includes both care homes and health care centers — exceeded 9,900 deaths, an increase of 684 in the past two weeks. Those 9,929 deaths include only veterans diagnosed at VA hospitals and medical centers.
Since the pandemic began in mid-March 2020, 128 workers in 72 VA facilities have died. The total includes six workers in the VA’s New Jersey Health Care System, with campuses in East Orange and Lyons; five in Indianapolis; and four each at facilities in Denver, central Alabama, Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Louisville, Kentucky.
The VA has recorded more than 220,000 COVID-19 cases in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. That’s an increase of 10,719 cases in two weeks, for a total of 220,484 cumulative cases as of Tuesday.
A cluster of three VA facilities in the Los Angeles area has up to 9,264 cases — the most nationwide — adding 355 in two weeks. Cases in the New York City area during the same period rose by 264, to 4,993. Three centers in the Chicago area also showed a rise in cases (158 additional), bringing their total to 8,193.
Two VA centers in South Carolina added 406 cases in 14 days, for a total of 6,508. In Florida, two centers in the Tampa area have reached 5,175 cases, adding 224 since Feb. 2. Two centers in the Miami region have 3,403 cases, adding 155 during the same time. Two Boston-area VA health care centers that had surging numbers early in the pandemic added 132 cases, for a total of 2,611.
Fewer recently diagnosed veterans are dying than in the early days of the U.S. outbreaks, in part because doctors and researchers have learned more about how coronavirus infections behave. When patients do die, it generally doesn’t occur until about 18 days after symptoms appear, according to March studies of early COVID-19 cases in China.
Among individual health care centers, Cleveland tops the case count, at 4,376 — 204 more than on Feb. 2 — and it has the 68th-highest number of active cases (43, a decrease of 153 from two weeks ago). Dallas has the most active cases, with 173, which is 47 fewer than on Feb. 2. The Columbia health care center in South Carolina has the second-highest number of active cases, at 163 (94 fewer), and the facility in Atlanta, is third in active cases, with 162 (121 less).
About 9 in 10 of the VA’s COVID-19 patients across the country are 14 days beyond their last positive test or have been home from the hospital for at least two weeks, the agency reports.
Additional VA medical centers with more than 3,500 confirmed cases are:
Phoenix, with 3,969 (161 more cases than on Feb. 2); San Antonio, with 3,891 (179 more); Atlanta, with 3,777 (259 more); Dallas, with 3,556 (312 more); and Orlando, Florida, with 3,547 (164 more).
Read More: VA Coronavirus Deaths Top 9,900; Cases Above 220,000