A Tweet by a Roanoke Valley funeral home president on the growing number of COVID-19 deaths locally, took off on social media. Sammy Oakey thinks a message from an undertaker was heard by people who have tired of hearing from public health officials.

Cases grew by nearly 11,000 from Friday morning to Monday morning and are now surpassing more than 3,000 a day, or about double the rate of three weeks ago.

COVID-19 is real. And though it doesn't need to be feared, it does need to be respected.

“I feel like there’s not enough of me to go around. I can’t be in all of my rooms all of the time,” one hospital worker said. “Some days I have left very ugly crying.”