For the first time in months, the number of weekly new COVID-19 cases in the Roanoke area has dropped below 200. The director of the Roanoke City-Alleghany Health District reported 194 weekly new cases Tuesday. There were 314 in the previous week, according to data presented by Dr. Cynthia Morrow. Credit AP Photo / Matt Rourke, File The number of hospitalizations also dropped from 36 to 26. Morrow noted that some other health districts in Virginia are not seeing declines in hospitalizations. Eight additional deaths were recorded over the past week. "So it's cautious optimism that our case count has gone down a little bit and our hospitalizations have gone down. But I do think we need to remain cautious. We know that case counts are high in other parts of the country," Morrow told reporters during a weekly news conference.