{"id":63869,"date":"2021-12-30T16:41:41","date_gmt":"2021-12-30T16:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/12\/30\/covid-19-cases-within-va-hit-new-pandemic-highs\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:19:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:19:38","slug":"covid-19-cases-within-va-hit-new-pandemic-highs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/veterans\/2021\/12\/30\/covid-19-cases-within-va-hit-new-pandemic-highs\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 cases within VA hit new pandemic highs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/coronavirus\/\" target=\"_blank\">Active coronavirus cases<\/a> within the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/coronavirus\/2021\/10\/04\/va-tops-15000-covid-deaths-since-the-start-of-the-pandemic\/\" target=\"_blank\">Department of Veterans Affairs<\/a> hit new pandemic highs this week, with no indication that the problem will abate heading into 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of Thursday morning, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.accesstocare.va.gov\/Healthcare\/COVID19NationalSummary\" target=\"_blank\">VA officials<\/a> recorded more than 27,000 active cases among patients, employees and veterans in department care spread out across 140 department medical centers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s the third consecutive day of record highs for the department in active cases. Prior to this week, the most VA had reported in a single day was Jan. 11 of this year, during the second major wave of virus spread, when the department had just under 21,000 cases.<\/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\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/12\/29\/pentagon-pushes-maximum-telework-through-january-2022\/\" 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=\"167\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Air-Force-Memorial.jpeg.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\">Pentagon pushes maximum telework through January 2022<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The health protection condition status for the Pentagon Reservation hasn&#039;t changed, but officials are tightening restrictions and safety measures for the worksite.<\/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\">As recently as mid-November, VA had fewer than 6,000 cases across its healthcare network. But the rapid advance of the Omicron variant of the virus has led to a worldwide spike in cases, and a return to some pandemic restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VA officials are seeing a dramatic rise not just among patients but also among staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the last five days, more than 2,900 employees have reported new infections, according to data released by the department. In the 20 days prior, only about 2,800 staffers had reported COVID cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The rise in cases at the department mirrors the spike in cases across America. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the average number of new coronavirus cases last week topped 240,000, with daily totals hitting new record highs several times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VA leaders have repeatedly noted that unlike the Department of Defense \u2014 whose personnel are at least partially contained on military bases \u2014 their patient and staff population are part of the broader American public, making it vulnerable to the same infection swings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At least 17,700 individuals in the VA medical system have died from coronavirus-related conditions since the start of the pandemic in America in March 2020. That equates to roughly 26 deaths a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Of that total, about 30 percent \u2014 more than 5,200 \u2014 have died since July 1 of this year, after vaccines for the virus were made widely available.<\/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\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/12\/29\/judge-rejects-oklahomas-lawsuit-over-national-guard-vaccine-mandate\/\" 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\/201218-A-JN745-021.jpeg.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\">Judge rejects Oklahoma\u2019s lawsuit over National Guard vaccine mandate<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot denied Oklahoma\u2019s request for a preliminary injunction, saying the claims by Gov. Kevin Stitt, Attorney General John O\u2019Connor and 16 anonymous Oklahoma National Guard members were without merit.<\/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\">VA officials have not released data on how many deaths were among unvaccinated patients, but have noted in recent months they have seen higher infection rates for unvaccinated individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, VA patients are more likely to be older and have additional health concerns, making them more vulnerable to the virus and other infections. About 4 percent of all confirmed VA COVID cases have resulted in death, compared to less than 2 percent of all coronavirus cases across America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VA leaders have mandated that all department employees get vaccinated against the virus in an attempt to limit the chance of spread among patients and visitors to VA hospitals. Suspensions and firings related to refusal of that mandate are scheduled to begin next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The department recorded more than 27,000 cases on Thursday morning, almost 30 percent above its January high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":104282,"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":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[66,101,23,93,12,25,67,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3226],"class_list":["post-63869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"AHP73B4YNRGKVEP2LBQ4ZJJIJU","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2021\/12\/30\/covid-19-cases-within-va-hit-new-pandemic-highs\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - 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