Website Change Log

August 1, 2023 Website Changes

The following change was made to the COVID-19 Dashboards on Tuesday, August 1st, 2023. 

  • The COVID-19 Summary dashboard aims to serve as a hub of priority metrics that provide an overview of COVID-19 trends and activity in Virginia. The dashboard has been updated as follows:
    • Emergency Department Visits: Updated
      • VDH will use the standard of “diagnosed COVID-19” to align with the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker.
    • Cases by Date of Illness (on the summary page): Removed
      • COVID-19 cases are significantly underreported due to at-home tests. VDH will still maintain the individual case dashboard and continue to prioritize the surveillance of severe illnesses.
    • Hospital Admissions: Updated
      • A Hospital Admission Level Indicator that aligns with CDC levels will be added. Hospital Admissions will be updated to use the rate per 100,000 population of new admissions, changing from the number of new admissions.
    • Hospital Beds in Use: Updated
      • Hospital Beds in Use will change from Number of Beds in Use for COVID-19 to Percent of Total Inpatient Beds Occupied by COVID-19 Patients.
      • An Inpatient Bed Occupied Level Indicator, which will be aligned with CDC levels, will be added.
    • Vaccination: Updated
      • This section of the summary dashboard will now display the cumulative total doses administered.
      • The percent of people vaccinated with a primary series will be displayed.
      • The percent of the population with up-to-date vaccinations will replace the number of booster/additional doses administered.
      • The map will be updated to display the percent of the population who are up-to-date to reflect the current CDC definition.
    • Variants: Removed
      • Sample sizes for Virginia isolates are low and not representative. The CDC genomic surveillance report for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Region 3 is available and includes Virginia data.

    Several standalone COVID-19 dashboards will be updated as follows:

    • Vaccine Summary: Updated
      • This dashboard will now display the percent of people vaccinated with a primary series, replacing the measures for count of and percent of people fully vaccinated, which conforms to the CDC standards.
      • The percent of the population with up-to-date vaccination will replace the number of booster/additional doses administered.
      • The map will be updated to display the percent of up-to-date to reflect the current CDC definition.
      • The COVID-19 vaccination administration by day will be removed.
    • Vaccination Demographics: Updated
      • The dashboard will display demographic data populations who have completed their primary series or are up to date on vaccination, a change from the previously display of at least one dose, fully vaccinated, monovalent booster, and bivalent booster.
      • The categories and headers have been simplified for improved clarity and user experience.
      • Age group metrics have been updated, including removal of Ages: 12+ and addition of 6 months+.
    • Emergency Department Visits: Updated
      • A simplified dashboard with prioritized metrics will be displayed.
    • Outbreaks: Removed
      • VDH will communicate mitigation strategies to the public if any concerning COVID-19 outbreak trends were observed.
    • Weekly Health District Case Data: Removed
      • This is being retired to streamline the COVID-19 dashboards.

May 18, 2023 Website Changes

The following change was made to the COVID-19 Dashboards on Thursday, May 18th, 2023. 

  • Wastewater surveillance data was added. Wastewater is one of many data points that should be considered when assessing disease burden in a given community. It is important to note that there are some limitations and challenges associated with this surveillance tool which include: 
    • Limited weekly or twice weekly sampling events to project the level of COVID-19 in a community: only a limited number of communities are being sampled;  
    • Shedding rates over the course of the disease are not yet well understood;  
    • Interferences/inherent differences between sewer sheds all affect the accuracy of the data.   
    • Viral loads can change for many reasons beyond how many individuals are infected in the community. These reasons can include: changes to the lab processing or analysis methods; temporary changes to the sewershed population (e.g., tourism or student towns); or changes to the virus itself (i.e., variants). This is why trends and context are important in interpreting this data.  

January 31, 2023 Website Changes

The following changes were made to the COVID-19 Dashboards on Tuesday, January 31st, 2023. 

  • The COVID-19 Cases dashboard was updated to show the data from the new COVID-19 Summary page: Cases by Date of Illness and Deaths by Date of Death 
  • The following metrics were removed from the Cases dashboard as they are no longer updated daily: “Number of New Cases Reported”, “Number of New Deaths Reported”, “7-Day Average Number of Daily New Cases/Deaths Reported”, “Total Cases”, and “Total Deaths.”  
  • The data removed from the top of the dashboards are still available in datasets. 
  • The COVID-19 Demographics dashboard was updated so that users can use the buttons to change the date range for the whole dashboard, including the grey box at the top.  
  • The Variants dashboard was retired. COVID-19 variant data is still available on the COVID-19 Summary page and as a dataset on the Virginia Open Data Portal.  
  • The  date the dashboard was last modified and day of the next update are added to the top of each COVID-19 data dashboard. 

Why were these changes made? 

  • Most of the data presented on the COVID-19 dashboards are applicable to daily reporting, making them no longer relevant in the change to weekly reporting. 
  • In looking at these dashboards in the long-term, we want to create more consistency between the dashboards and create more readability for users. 
  • Since COVID-19 variant data is available on the Virginia Open Data Portal and on the COVID-19 Summary page, retiring the Variants dashboard eliminates redundancy and confusion. 

December 27, 2022 Website Changes

VDH has made the following changes to the COVID-19 data dashboards, as part of our effort to streamline them. 

The COVID-19 data dashboards and associated datasets will begin weekly updates to align with the CDC’s current reporting frequency. Dashboards updated weekly will show total numbers of the past week rather than daily numbers. Associated datasets found on the Virginia Open Data Portal will be updated with daily numbers. 

Beginning December 27, 2022, the COVID-19 Summary data dashboard will be updated as a landing page for the data dashboards that show the trend and impact of COVID-19 in Virginia. Changes to this dashboard include: 

  • Graphs from informative dashboards will replace the numbers currently listed for each metric. Each dashboard and dataset will be linked to further explore the metric. 
  • Relevant graphs will have a trend line of the past 4 weeks. 
  • Data will be categorized by the trend (indicator) they represent. The categories are:  
  • Incidence Indicators: the current trend of disease 
  • Severity Indicators: the burden of disease 
  • COVID-19 in Virginia: the community-level transmission and who is affected 
  • Vaccination: the level of immunity in the community 
  • Surveillance of Variants: changes in the virus that may impact how the disease spreads 

 Retirements:

The PCR Percent Positivity dashboard is retired as of December 27, 2022. This comes as at-home COVID-19 tests are widely available and not reported to the Virginia Department of Health, thus, not included in VDH’s test reporting. The dataset on the Virginia Open Data Portal will continue to update on a weekly basis. 

Testing information will be removed from the COVID-19 Summary Dashboard. The Testing dataset will continue to be updated weekly.  

COVID-19 outbreak information will be removed from the COVID-19 Summary Dashboard. The Outbreaks dashboard will still be available and updated weekly. 

MIS-C cases and deaths will also be removed from the COVID-19 Summary Dashboard. The MIS-C dataset will continue to update on a weekly basis. 

For questions, email us at DIISAnalytics@vdh.virginia.gov 

October 24, 2022 Website Changes

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) continues to track COVID-19 data to keep Virginia healthy and safe. Changes to COVID-19 data dashboards for Virginia occurred on October 24, 2022. These changes were made to simplify and streamline available data to highlight current COVID-19 trends in Virginia and inform action.

The COVID-19 dashboards listed below were retired on October 24, 2022:

  • Cases Among Children
  • Testing
  • Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) 

Several changes are being made to the dashboards listed below on October 24, 2022:

  • COVID-19 Vaccine Summary 
  • COVID-19 Vaccine Demographics

Where can data from these retired dashboards be found? 

Cases Among Children - the number of cases, hospital admissions, and deaths by age groups in Virginia are available on the COVID-19 Demographics dashboard.

Testing - The most recent-7 day positivity percentage for PCR testing will remain on the COVID-19 Cases Summary page. The corresponding dataset on the Virginia Open Data Portal will continue to be updated on a weekly basis. Testing and hospital admission data to determine risk at the county level is available on the CDC COVID-19 Community Levels page. 

Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) - the total number of cases and deaths of persons for Virginia with MIS-C will remain on the COVID-19 Cases Summary page. The corresponding dataset on the Virginia Open Data Portal will be updated weekly.

The following changes were made to the COVID-19 Vaccine Summary and Vaccine Demographics dashboards:

  • Removed “Vaccine Doses Administered by Facility Type” graph
  • Removed category for People and Percent of Population Vaccinated with“At Least One Dose” 
  • Removed statewide summary data from Vaccine Demographics dashboard
  • Added categories for vaccine manufacturers (Pfizer, Moderna, etc.) to Vaccine Summary 
  • Added categories for vaccine type (monovalent, bivalent) to Vaccine Summary
  • Updated Vaccination Status selection to monovalent booster and bivalent booster, instead of first booster and second booster

Why are some COVID-19 vaccine dose measures being changed?

The recommendations for COVID-19 vaccine boosters and the definition of a person who is "fully vaccinated" against COVID-19 have changed over the pandemic. VDH is updating its COVID-19 vaccine data dashboards to show key vaccine measures at this point in the pandemic.

August 15, 2022 Website Changes 

VDH recently made some changes to the Variants dashboard. This dashboard includes variants on the CDC SARS-CoV-2 Variant Classifications and Definitions. These variants are currently or were in Virginia during the pandemic. There is now a new Omicron subvariant called BA.4.6. BA.4.6 is a Variant of Concern. VDH has updated the Variants dashboard to include this variant. 

July 22, 2022 Website Changes 

The Vaccine Demographics dashboard “Vaccination Status” dropdown menu was updated with more categories. The new categories added are: 

  • 1st boosters
  • 2nd boosters

The dashboard maps and charts will update based on your selection. These categories were added to show how much of the Virginia population received either a first booster or a second booster. You can learn more about booster doses, eligibility, and staying up-to-date on COVID-19 vaccines on the VDH COVID-19 Vaccine or CDC COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters web pages.

The Vaccine Summary dashboard will update to include these categories at a later date.

July 19, 2022 Website Changes 

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) strives to report data that are accurate and timely. Sometimes, to report data more accurately, VDH needs to make some updates or changes to the data sources used or how data is reported. 

The Variants dashboard has used only COVID-19 variant data that was reported to VDH and entered into the Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance System (VEDSS) since the beginning of variant reporting. Using VEDSS data allowed VDH to show variant data at the person level, showing age and sex. But, the challenge with VEDSS variant data is that it isn’t always timely or complete and is missing some information. This is why VDH is improving variant data reporting by comparing it with GISAID data. GISAID is a data source used around the world that promotes rapid genomic sequence data sharing. GISAID is based on specimens sent to a lab and not just cases reported into a surveillance system. VDH is now able to use GISAID to supplement and compare to VEDSS variant data. 

Using GISAID will help improve the accuracy of how VDH reports the number of COVID-19 sequenced infections. It will also help with the speed in which new variants are reported.  The downside is that GISAID does not have demographic or geographic information. 

Because of this reason, here is what will change on the Variants dashboard: 

  • VDH will no longer report demographic and geographic information. VDH weighed the options of staying with VEDSS only or moving towards a VEDSS and GISAID model. VDH decided that having more timely and accurate numbers for the number of sequenced infections was better than not using GISAID and continuing to report limited demographic and variant data.    
  • VDH will move to reporting variant percentages on a weekly basis. This will give time for VDH to compare VEDSS and GISAID data to make sure that all sequenced infections are reported.
  • Variant percentages will now be shown together with case counts. VDH cases by date of symptom onset week will be overlaid as a red line onto the variant infections bar graph for additional comparison.  

Comparing VEDSS data with GISAID data will give a more informed and timely picture of COVID-19 variants circulating in Virginia.

July 7, 2022 Website Changes 

The COVID-19 Vaccine Summary and Demographics dashboards were updated to include the following metrics:

  • Ages 18+ years second booster
  • Ages 5 - 11 first booster
  • Ages 0 - 4 first and second doses

These updates changed the total number of people with at least one dose and who are fully vaccinated in Virginia.

June 6, 2022 Website Changes 

Starting June 6, 2022, there will be a two-week blackout period where the CDC National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) will not be returning death certificates submitted by states for coding purposes. NCHS will be reprocessing and re-coding 2022 death certificates. 

Because of this reason, here is what will happen in Virginia during this period: 

  • You will notice fewer COVID-19-associated deaths added to the dashboards and data set. This could also mean zero (0) deaths on some days. 
  • For a few weeks after the blackout period, you should expect to see a higher number of COVID-19-associated deaths added to the dashboards and data sets. This is because NCHS will be sending back newly-coded and re-coded death certificates to VDH that were put on hold during the blackout period. 

May 19, 2022 Website Changes 

The COVID-19 dashboards listed below will be retired on May 19, 2022. Their accompanying data sets (if available) will no longer be updated but will be archived on the Virginia Open Data Portal. Click on the data set links below to see the data set behind each dashboard.

  • Cases by Vaccination Status [data set]
  • Federal Vaccine Doses [There is no accompanying data set specific to this dashboard on the Virginia Open Data Portal]
  • Vaccines Received [data set]
  • Cases and Deaths by Date Reported [There is no accompanying data set specific to this dashboard on the Virginia Open Data Portal]

Why is VDH retiring these dashboards? 

Cases by Vaccination Status: Vaccine and booster recommendations and the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ is rapidly changing. You can view cases and deaths by vaccination status on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Rates of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Vaccination Status dashboard. The CDC dashboard is considered the standard for these data.

Federal Vaccine Doses and Vaccines Received: COVID-19 vaccines are now widely available to anyone who is eligible. There is less of a need to track vaccine doses received and administered each day, since there is no longer a limited COVID-19 vaccine supply.

Cases and Deaths by Date Reported: You can see cases and deaths by date reported on the Cases dashboard. VDH is also focusing on providing data on cases by date of symptom onset and deaths by date of death. Report date is not the actual date of hospital admission or death, but the date when VDH reports the information on its website. You can see cases by date of symptom onset and deaths by date of death on the Cases dashboard.

VDH will also remove the landing pages for:

  • Levels of Community Transmission
  • Locality

These dashboards are no longer published as of March 10, 2022. Please use the CDC COVID-19 Community Levels to see COVID-19 burden in your local community.  Cases by report date and cases by date of illness can be viewed by locality on the Cases dashboard. The corresponding data set with locality data by report date can be downloaded from the Virginia Open Data Portal.

March 10, 2022 Website Changes

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) continues to track COVID-19 data to keep Virginia healthy and safe. Changes to COVID-19 data dashboards for Virginia occurred on March 10, 2022. These changes were made to simplify and streamline available data to highlight current COVID-19 trends in Virginia and inform action..

The following changes were made to data dashboards found on the COVID-19 Data in Virginia and COVID-19 Data Insights pages:

  • Two dashboards are no longer available:
    • The Locality dashboard has been retired but some data from the Locality dashboard is now included in the Cases dashboard. However, case investigation-based hospitalizations and deaths by locality will no longer be available by report date. Report date is not the actual date of hospital admission or death, but the date when VDH reports the information on its website.
    • The Case and Testing Data by ZIP Code dashboard has been retired.
    • For each retired dashboard, the corresponding dataset found on the Virginia Open Data Portal will continue to be updated. The Cases dataset with locality information will be published Monday – Friday.  The ZIP Code dataset will be published on Mondays.
  • The Cases dashboard was updated with notable changes:
    • Data can be viewed on the map and bar chart by Cases by Date of Illness, Cases by Report Date, and Deaths by Date of Death.
    • Hospitalizations (VDH case investigation-based hospital admissions) are no longer available. These data are known to under-represent the total number of hospitalized COVID-19 cases in Virginia.
    • More geographic options are available for the weekly bar chart:
      • Statewide
      • Region
      • Health District
      • Locality (cannot view deaths by locality)
    • Added the 7-Day Average Number of Daily New Cases Reported from Locality dashboard.
    • Added the Number of New Deaths Reported from the Locality dashboard.
    • Added the 7-Day Average of Daily New Deaths Reported from the Locality dashboard.

Other dashboard updates:

  • The VHHA Hospitalizations dashboard was renamed to Hospital Census Data.
    • Hospital census data from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association (VHHA) will be used to show the capacity and needs of hospitals in Virginia. These data are collected directly from hospitals.
    • Hospital census data is not able to be broken down for demographic information, like age, sex, and race/ethnicity. It is also not broken down by geography. 
  • VDH case investigation-based hospitalizations were renamed to “hospital admissions”.
  • Different time periods were added to the dashboards to view COVID-19 data across the pandemic for the past 13 weeks, past 26 weeks, past 1 year, and all reporting since the pandemic began.
  • The COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboards and corresponding datasets have a new reporting schedule. Changed from daily reporting to Monday through Friday. 
  • The Health Equity dashboard was relocated to COVID-19 Data Insights.

December 1, 2021 Website Changes

The following changes were made to the COVID-19 Cases dashboard on December 1, 2021:

  • Cases are now shown by week during which symptom onset began, instead of by the date of symptom onset. 
    • Hospitalizations are displayed by week of hospitalization admit date.
    • Deaths are displayed by week of date of death.
  • Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are now shown with more geographic detail by when symptoms onset began (event date).
    • COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are now available at the locality (city/county) level.
    • COVID-19 deaths are now available at the health district.  
    • To determine a health district, visit the VDH Geography Locator Tool.
  • The 7-day moving average has been removed.

August 16, 2021 Website Changes

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) continues to track COVID-19 data to keep Virginia healthy and safe.

Some changes to the COVID-19 data dashboards and web pages will occur on Monday, August 16, 2021.  These changes will help make it easier to follow the data and learn more about COVID-19 in Virginia.

Here are the changes:

  • The name of the Daily Dashboard web page will change to COVID-19 Data.
  • There is a new Level of Community Transmission dashboard on the COVID-19 Data web page. It shows the level of spread of COVID-19 in your region, city, or county. This dashboard launched on Friday, August 13.
  • These dashboards will move from COVID-19 Data Insights to COVID-19 Data:
    • Cases by Vaccination Status
    • VHHA Hospitalizations
  • These dashboards will move from COVID-19 Data to COVID-19 Data Insights:
    • MIS-C
    • Zip Code
    • Key Measures
      • The name of the Key Measures dashboard will change to Cases and Deaths by Date Reported.
  • These dashboards are no longer available as of July 1, 2021 because the COVID-19 emergency declaration in Virginia ended. The buttons to these dashboards on COVID-19 Data Insights will be removed.
    • COVID-19 Outbreaks by Selected Exposure Settings
    • COVID-19 Outbreaks in Virginia Colleges and Universities
  • The About the Data web page will update to reflect these changes.

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