Lunenburg suffers first COVID-19 death

Published 2:40 pm Wednesday, August 5, 2020

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Lunenburg County suffered its first death as a result of COVID-19 late last week according to data from the Virginia Department of Health.

Unfortunately, that is all that is known about the person who died at this point.

The death appeared on the VDH dashboard for Lunenburg County Thursday, July 30 but could have occurred days, weeks or month before, according to health officials.

Death certificates are being reviewed at the Central Office and announcements of COVID related deaths can come weeks or months after the death may have occurred, Dr. H. Robert Nash, the director of the Piedmont Health District said in prior communications.

Lunenburg County Administrator Tracy Gee said in an email Tuesday said VDH has not given the county any data on the details of the death.

Overall, Lunenburg has 59 cases that have resulted in four people hospitalized. The bulk of the cases have occurred in the two highest populated areas of the county with the 23944 zip code of Kenbridge having 20 positively diagnosed cases and Victoria in the 23974 zip code with 25 cases so far.  Cases have increased by a total of six in the past week.

Lunenburg did not report its first cases of COVID-19 until April 7.