The Fairfax Health District reported 914 new COVID-19 cases today (Monday), a new single-day record for the district, which encompasses the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church as well as Fairfax County.
According to the Virginia Department of Health, Fairfax County reported 897 cases within the past 24 hours, while Fairfax City added 11 cases, and Falls Church added six.
With that flood of new cases, which Fairfax County attributes partly to a data reporting backlog, the Fairfax Health District has now recorded 40,551 cases since the pandemic first arrived in the area in March. 670 people in the district have died from the disease transmitted by the novel coronavirus, and 2,820 people have been hospitalized.
Today’s caseload easily surpasses the previous single-day record of 725 daily cases from Dec. 8, though the weekly average of 437.7 cases remains lower than Dec. 12, when the district averaged 505.1 cases over seven days.
The Fairfax Health District’s COVID-19 testing positivity rate is slightly up from last week, with a seven-day moving average of 11% as of Dec. 17. The 548,789 total testing encounters recorded in Fairfax is by far the most seen in any of Virginia’s health districts.
Fairfax County’s new COVID-19 daily case record comes on the same day that shipments of a vaccine from Moderna are expected to arrive in Virginia. The state had ordered 146,400 doses of the vaccine even before it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 18.
Pfizer has dispersed a total of 72,125 doses of its own vaccine to frontline healthcare workers in Virginia since it started distributing to hospitals in the state last week. A nurse at Inova became the first person in Fairfax County to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus on Dec. 15.
The VDH reported on Dec. 18 that the state will receive an estimated 370,650 vaccine doses from Pfizer and Moderna this month, a smaller allocation than the 480,000 doses that Virginia previously expected to get.
Even with the distribution of vaccines bringing hope of an end to the pandemic in the foreseeable future, local elected officials and health experts have emphasized the need to continue adhering to guidelines for limiting COVID-19’s spread, including wearing face coverings, avoiding travel, and following social distancing protocols.
“I understand everyone would like to see family and friends for Christmas,” Fairfax County Board of Supervisor Jeff McKay said. “Our COVID-19 cases are rising quickly, however, and we need residents to avoid gatherings with those outside of your household and travel.”
For lower-risk alternatives to typical holiday celebrations, the Fairfax County Health Department has recommended gathering with family virtually, shopping online, and watching concerts or other festivities on TV.
Image via CDC on Unsplash, Virginia Department of Health
The man involved in a shooting and armed confrontation with police last week in Falls Church has now been charged with aggravated malicious wounding, Fairfax County police announced on Saturday (Dec. 19).
The Fairfax County Police Department identified the individual as Glenn Allen Myer, 61, of Falls Church. He has been arrested after allegedly shooting a teenager and exchanging gunfire with responding police officers.
Earlier on Saturday, Myer was released from the hospital where he was transported after being injured in the confrontation with police. He is now being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.
The two officers who fired their weapons during the incident remain on administrative leave, as criminal and administrative investigations into the shooting are still ongoing, the FCPD said.
Virginia law defines aggravated malicious wounding as any instance where a person “maliciously shoots, stabs, cuts or wounds any other person, or by any means causes bodily injury, with the intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill.”
If the victim is severely injured and suffers permanent and significant physical impairment, aggravated malicious wounding is classified as a Class 2 felony, which carries potential punishments of imprisonment for life or a term of at least 20 years, and a fine of up to $100,000.
Tysons Corner Continues to Draw Crowds Despite Pandemic — “Despite rising COVID-19 cases and consumers’ increasing reliance on online retail, Tysons — the largest shopping mall in the Washington region — still fills up on the weekends with holiday shoppers, moviegoers, loitering teens and restaurant diners.” [DCist]
Inova Hosts Tysons Corner Center Blood Drive — Inova Blood Donor Services is hosting its last blood drive of the year for the Tysons area with an event at the former Lord and Taylor store in Tysons Corner Center. The drive lasts from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. today, and donors will receive a special holiday-themed shirt. [Inova]
Longtime McLean High School Teacher Dies — “It is with great sadness that I share with you the passing of Mr. James Bigger. Mr. Bigger was our Latin teacher for 28 years at McLean High School and he was beloved by his students, families, and the staff at McLean High School.” [McLean High School]
FCPS Extends Superintendent’s Contract — “The Fairfax County School Board has voted to extend the contract of Superintendent Scott S. Brabrand until June 30, 2022. His contract was scheduled to expire on July 10, 2021.” [Fairfax County Public Schools]
Photo courtesy Craig Fingar
The Vienna Police Department received three separate reports of vehicle break-ins at the Vienna Dog Park on Courthouse Road earlier this week.
The incidents all reportedly occurred between 3:45 and 4:34 p.m. last Sunday (Dec. 13).
There were two grand larceny cases involving women who said someone broke one of their vehicles’ windows and stole their purses. One of the women said other items were also missing.
In the third case, a male town resident said someone broke a window in his vehicle and seemed to have rummaged around, but nothing appeared to have been taken. Police have classified the incident as an act of vandalism.
This week’s Vienna police report includes two other crimes involving vehicle break-ins outside of the dog park incidents.
One resident reported that, between 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 12 and 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 13, someone had entered her unlocked vehicle and “rummaged through” it, though nothing appeared to have been taken.
Another citizen reported on Dec. 13 that his wallet and cell phone were stolen from his unlocked vehicle sometime between 8 and 10:50 p.m. The man’s car had been parked in the alley behind Domino’s Pizza at 331 Maple Ave. East.
Past issues with rampant vehicle tampering and thefts have prompted the town police department to advise residents to lock their car doors and remove all valuables and keys from the vehicle.
Photo via Vienna Police Department/Facebook
Fairfax Connector is enhancing its service for two routes between the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station and Tysons Corner.
The Fairfax County bus system announced today (Friday) that the anticipated Dec. 23 opening of a new Cedar Lane bridge over Interstate 66 gives it the ability to restore Routes 462 and 467 to their previous routing and scheduling, effective Jan. 4.
Route 467 will also have Sunday service “due to increased passenger demand,” Fairfax Connector says.
The enhanced Dunn Loring-Tysons routes are one of several service changes that Connector passengers can expect starting on Jan. 4.
On that day, Fairfax Connector will begin resuming fare collection following a months-long hiatus that began in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Riders must also return to boarding from the front door after entry shifted to the rear doors in an effort to limit close contact between passengers and drivers and mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The move comes as doses of two vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer are delivered in Virginia and throughout the country to front-line health care workers and individuals in long-term care facilities.
Metro will also begin resuming the collection of bus fares on Jan. 3.
In order to protect passengers and bus operators, the county has installed polycarbonate driver shields on buses. Face coverings continue to be mandatory inside buses.
Connector staff have distributed 66,000 face coverings to passengers without masks since May. Riders are encouraged to practice social distancing when possible, stay at home if they are sick, and wash hands often with soap and water.
Transdev, the bus systems operations continue, continues to step up cleaning and disinfecting of bus interiors and commonly used areas like door handles and handrails, according to the county.
Angela Woolsey contributed to this report
Staff photo by Jay Westcott, photo courtesy Fairfax County Department of Transportation
Measures to curb public safety concerns and improve how the criminal justice system can serve the community are being implemented in Fairfax County.
That was the message Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano shared during a public forum with the McLean Citizens Association on Wednesday (Dec. 16).
Before responding to audience questions, Descano highlighted three top agenda items: the implementation of body-worn cameras by police, providing appropriate resources for the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office, and general criminal justice reform.
Descano said the Fairfax County Police Department’s body-worn camera program should be mostly in effect by the end of 2021, estimating that the program will include roughly 1,200 cameras.
“I really do feel that body-worn cameras are essential to creating trust in the community,” Descano said. “They are a great tool for evidence. They are a great tool for police accountability. Quite frankly, they’re also, in many ways, a tool to make sure that our police aren’t being accused of things they did not do. So, it really is a win-win-win all the way around.”
He pointed to the indictment of Fairfax County police officer Tyler Timberlake on three misdemeanor counts of assault and battery in July and other high-profile cases as examples of the difference that body cameras could make in holding police accountable.
According to Descano, footage from the cameras will be stored and transmitted in an integrated system from a server run by the company Axon Enterprise. The footage must be kept according to timeframes established by the Virginia Public Records Act.
He also said the footage is meant to be available to exonerate or prosecute people accused of alleged crimes, protecting innocent people and detecting evidence of crimes to ensure the criminal justice system produces the “right outcome.”
Descano also noted that one “flip side” of the program is that it will add to prosecutors’ workload, since they have an “ethical obligation” to review all evidence in cases they prosecute. He estimated that body-worn cameras will add roughly 89,000 hours of video footage to the approximately 60,000 hours of footage from cruiser dash cameras that must also be reviewed. Read More
Metro will start collecting fares from bus riders again on Jan. 3 as part of its pandemic recovery plan, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority announced yesterday (Thursday).
The WMATA board of directors authorized a temporary suspension of Metrobus fare collections in March as part of a policy prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic that required riders to board buses through the rear doors in an effort to reduce contact between passengers and drivers.
With fare collections resuming, bus riders should return to entering the vehicles from the front, where the farebox and SmarTrip equipment are located.
WMATA says the change in policy is enabled by the more robust public health procedures that it has put in place now that there is a better understanding of how the novel coronavirus is transmitted.
“With everyone wearing masks, shields for operators on every bus, and enhanced daily cleanings, front-door boarding is safe, expands our capacity for more riders, and helps us resume some normalcy,” Metro General Manager and CEO Paul Wiedefeld said. “We also need to collect fares from every rider to keep essential Metro transit employees working and continue to provide essential service.”
Metrobus costs $2 per trip, which is payable in cash or with a SmarTrip card. Metro also offers a seven-day bus pass for $15 that provides unlimited access to Metrobus and other local bus services, including the Fairfax Connector.
The plan to resume collecting bus fare comes as Metro threatens to make significant service cuts after plummeting ridership during the pandemic contributed to a projected deficit of nearly $500 million for Fiscal Year 2022.
The dilemma facing Metro is shared by other major transit systems around the country, leading local elected leaders and transportation officials to call for the inclusion of public transit funding in a federal coronavirus relief package currently under negotiation in Congress.
Without outside support, WMATA could close 19 stations, drastically reduce rail and bus service hours and routes, and eliminate 2,400 additional jobs. The impact of those cuts is expected to land hardest on low-income residents and other populations that depend on transit.
Metro’s proposed FY 2022 budget will be up for public comment early next year.
Fairfax County police have arrested a man who allegedly shot a teenager and engaged in an armed confrontation with law enforcement in Falls Church yesterday (Thursday).
According to the latest update on the situation from the Fairfax County Police Department, police officers responded to an apartment in the 2000 block of Peach Orchard Drive at 10:49 a.m. after a teenager called 9-1-1, saying he had been shot in the face by a man who lives in the apartment.
The caller told the dispatcher that he had taken shelter in a bedroom, but the man was attempting to break in.
Upon arriving at the scene, police officers and a deputy from the Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office tried to negotiate with the armed man, but the talks “yielded no progress toward deescalating the situation, and it was evident the victim’s life was in imminent danger,” the FCPD says.
Police then entered the apartment and reportedly exchanged gunfire with the armed man, who is now identified as a 61-year-old Falls Church resident. Two officers shot the man in the upper body, and another officer was grazed by a bullet, resulting in a minor injury that was treated at the scene.
The victim and armed man were both transported to a local hospital by Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department medics.
The victim’s injuries were not considered life-threatening. Roessler told reporters Thursday afternoon that the man underwent surgery, and he has now been taken into police custody.
The FCPD has identified the two officers who discharged their weapons as a 20-year and an 18-year veteran of the department assigned to the special operations division. They have both been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of criminal and administrative investigations.
The criminal investigation is being led by the FCPD’s major crimes bureau, while the administrative investigation is being conducted by the internal affairs bureau. Fairfax County’s independent police auditor will also conduct an independent review.
Police say Roessler will release the names of the officers within 10 days. The suspect’s identity and the charges he will face will be made public once arrest warrants are served.
“All information provided in this release is based on preliminary investigative findings and may be subject to revision as the investigation progresses,” the FCPD says.
Photo via FCPD
Fairfax County School Board Approves Revised TJ Admissions Process — “The Fairfax County Public Schools board voted Thursday to adopt a “holistic review” for admissions to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a revision meant to boost diversity at the top-tier magnet school and that ends months of fraught and fiery debate.” [The Washington Post]
Express Lanes Operator Adds Co-Investors After Year of Reduced Traffic — “While impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a reduction in Express Lanes traffic of around 80 percent in April compared to last year, Transurban has seen traffic increase gradually through 2020. In November traffic on the 495, 95 and 395 Express Lanes was down 39 percent.” [Transurban]
McLean Tech Company Donates WiFi Spots to Families — “To help provide equitable access to today’s digital curriculum through safe and reliable embedded internet connectivity, Kajeet and [Amazon Web Services] teamed up to donate Kajeet SmartSpots – controlled WiFi hotspots – with unlimited data plans to GOODProjects, which were distributed to 30 local families in need.” [Kajeet/PRWeb]
Town of Vienna Announces Holiday Decorating Contest Winners — Potomac River Running and the resident of 121 Casmar Street SE won Vienna’s annual holiday decorating contest. This was the first year of the competition to include residents. It also featured a porch parade. [Town of Vienna/Twitter]
Staff photo by Angela Woolsey
(Updated at 3:20 p.m.) Once home to 17,000 people living amid suburban office parks, Tysons has seen its residential population soar in recent years, growing four times faster than Fairfax County overall.
From 2010 to 2018, the population of Tysons grew 39% to about 23,749 people today, and by 2045, Providence District is expected to add roughly 57,000 residents. People under 20 now comprise one area of marked growth, from 1% of the population in 2010 to 21% in 2020.
“Forty percent is a tremendous number,” HR&A Partner Stan Wall said during the Tysons Partnership’s State of Tysons panel last week. “Tysons started off at a fairly low bar compared to some of the other communities in the region, but is outpacing Fairfax County and other areas around the region.”
Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik attributed much of the growth to the arrival of more young families in the area, as indicated by increases in children, teens, and 18- to 20-year-olds.
“People have not always thought of Tysons as a place where you can raise a family,” she said in a statement. “The increased investment in green space, affordable housing, and transit has made Tysons an attractive option for a demographic that previously did not consider Tysons as a place to live.”
But neither an influx of 57,000 people or the current growth rate are enough to reach Fairfax County’s goal of 100,000 residents in Tysons by 2050, according to Emily Hamilton, a research fellow and director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Fairfax County set 100,000 residents as a target in its 2010 comprehensive plan, which also aims for a population of 44,000 by 2030. Tysons would have to expand at a rate of 8.5% annually — double its current annual growth rate of 4.2% — to hit those benchmarks.
If the lagging growth concerns policymakers, they should consider up-zoning areas slightly farther away from Metro stations and encourage smaller-scale developments, which move more quickly, Hamilton says.
Currently, most development is happening in the one-quarter mile radius around the area’s four Silver Line stations, she said. The lower-density and mid-rise zoning on the periphery of the stations could be amended to allow for more residential growth.
The county is also encouraging large, 10 to 20-acre developments that provide public benefits, such as parks, along with housing, she said. To Hamilton, this approach makes sense, especially if policymakers want to achieve a new grid of streets in Tysons, but it also slows down development.
Tysons relies heavily on the private sector to contribute to and provide public infrastructure as part of developments, Hamilton says, but with land values increasing, it has the capacity to meet the needs of new residents, such as schools.
With a 20% influx in residents under 20, school board members say they area already working to out ways to combat capacity issues at the schools in the Tysons area.
“We are working closely with the community and staff from the school division and Board of Supervisors to better understand and prepare for the impact increasing growth in Tysons will have on school capacity, especially at the high school level,” Dranesville District School Board Member Elaine Tholen said in an email.
Providence District School Board Representative Karl Frisch is proposing to repurpose Dunn Loring Administration Center as a new elementary school, using available bond funds to relieve capacity concerns at Shrevewood and in the Tysons periphery.
“This proposal will bring much-needed, sustainable capacity relief to Shrevewood Elementary School and the Tysons periphery,” Frisch said during a virtual meeting of the Shrevewood Elementary School PTA. “Overcrowding has been an ongoing challenge for the community, and now we have a solution.”
Staff photo by Jay Westcott, image via Tysons Partnership
