{"id":77783,"date":"2024-11-06T14:05:51","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T14:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/11\/06\/va-marks-millionth-covid-case-as-officials-warn-health-threat-persists\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:23:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:23:36","slug":"va-marks-millionth-covid-case-as-officials-warn-health-threat-persists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/veterans\/2024\/11\/06\/va-marks-millionth-covid-case-as-officials-warn-health-threat-persists\/","title":{"rendered":"VA marks millionth COVID case as officials warn health threat persists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2024\/11\/01\/lawmakers-accuse-va-leaders-of-exaggerating-budget-shortfall\/\" target=\"_blank\">Veterans Affairs<\/a> medical officials recorded their millionth diagnosed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/coronavirus\/\" target=\"_blank\">COVID-19<\/a> case Wednesday, a milestone that department experts say serves as a reminder that the virus remains a public <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2024\/01\/17\/amid-covid-surge-va-hospitals-not-requiring-masks-for-all-patients\/\" target=\"_blank\">health threat<\/a> even years after the height of the global pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCOVID-19 continues to be the most significant viral respiratory infection in our community,\u201d said Dr. Gio Baracco, senior advisor for the Veterans Health Administration\u2019s National Infectious Diseases Service. \u201cIt\u2019s still causing a significant number of illnesses, even hospitalizations and some deaths, although clearly not as many as we had at the beginning of the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than 1,700 days have passed since VA officials announced their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/03\/04\/va-announces-first-veteran-coronavirus-case-patient-hospitalized-at-va-palo-alto\/\" target=\"_blank\">first diagnosed case of the virus<\/a> on March 4, 2020. At least 26,670 individuals linked to VA health care have died from COVID-related conditions over the last four years, an average of about 16 a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2023\/09\/18\/va-urging-veterans-staff-to-get-latest-covid-19-vaccine-booster\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP23258756512723.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">VA urging veterans, staff to get latest COVID-19 vaccine booster<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Virus infection cases within the VA health care system are up more than 200% in the last two months.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the majority of those cases came in the first two years of the pandemic, which was declared over by federal health experts in May 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since the start of 2024, VA has recorded only about 67,000 new cases (about 7% of the total diagnosed by the department) and 1,100 COVID-related deaths (about 4% of the department\u2019s total).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Baracco credited those improvements to advances in vaccines and treatments in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re not addressing COVID-19 in crisis mode anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause of the tools and the focus on prevention that we have at this time, we have been able to mitigate the severity and the impact in most people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut not in all people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Patients in the VA health care system remain vulnerable to more serious complications from COVID-19 because of their age \u2014 most tend to be older than the average American \u2014 and other existing medical issues \u2014 most tend to have other service-connected conditions \u2014 Baracco said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s the main reason <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accesstocare.va.gov\/Healthcare\/COVID19NationalSummary\" target=\"_blank\">VA continues to track active cases<\/a> at hundreds of department sites daily, even after most federal monitoring of COVID cases was shut down at the formal end of the national pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCOVID-19 has not yet established itself as a seasonal disease like the flu has, so it\u2019s not as predictable,\u201d Baracco said. \u201cSomething is really considered endemic when it becomes predictable. Right now, with COVID, we are seeing at least two waves each year, sometimes three per year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He foresees VA continuing to track virus cases for at least several more years, providing a guidepost for the department \u2014 and the public \u2014 to see when cases are spiking or diminishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of Tuesday, the number of active cases spread out across the VA medical system was 1,538, down about half over the last month and far below the 2024 peak of 9,688 cases set on Jan. 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But even that number is a small fraction of VA\u2019s one-day record for COVID-19 diagnoses: nearly 78,000 cases in January 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The department still recommends patients and their families get vaccinated when updated versions are made available, wear masks in public areas during times of higher infection and avoid crowds if they believe they may be infected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe approach moving forward is not so much about treating disease, which we still continue to do, but also to prevent getting ill in the first place and prevent infecting others,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Department health officials have recorded about 67,000 new cases of COVID-19 among patients in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":109697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":21,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,16,26,21],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3328],"class_list":["post-77783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"MTSEJWHDLFHYTMESPJ2QJ3R7BM","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2024\/11\/09\/va-marks-millionth-covid-case-as-officials-warn-health-threat-persists\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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