COVID-19 Update — “Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 hit a new low in Northern Virginia on Sunday. But, as other parts of the state continue to struggle with the coronavirus, Gov. Ralph Northam issued a new warning this weekend for the public to follow health guidelines.” [Inside NoVa]
We will be watching the public health data closely over the weekend––if the numbers don't come down, we may have to take additional steps to blunt the spread of this virus.
Wear a mask and practice physical distancing so we don't have to move back.
Be smart and stay safe.
— Governor Ralph Northam (@VAGovernor73) July 25, 2020
Reminder: Lock Your Car — “After responding to a flood of vehicle break-ins and thefts in recent weeks, the Vienna Police Department in its July 24 weekly police highlights issued a statement urging residents to do their part to deter thieves.” [Inside NoVa]
A Note on Notes — Starting this week, Morning Notes will be a little different. When the pandemic hit N. Va., we started publishing Morning Notes every weekday to keep readers informed. Now with August recess approaching for local, state and federal governmental bodies, we’re reducing Morning Notes to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
— Falls Church Views (@fallschurchview) July 3, 2020
Fairfax County has surpassed 15,000 cases as of today (Thursday) as the trajectory of cases continues to remain stable in the county.
One of the most important measures of community transmission — charting confirmed cases by new cases per week — indicates that cases are not growing exponentially. For the last three weeks, the number of new cases has remained relatively stable.
The Virginia Department of Health reported 49 new cases today — a number that is in line with previous daily increases for the last week.
But it’s unclear how complete the data are. The number of total tests administered per week has remained stable since a reported high on the week of May 24. However, the number of positive tests remains low.
Racial disparities continue to remain prevalent in the county. The Hispanic community accounts for 60 percent of total confirmed cases where race is known, even though they comprise just 16 percent of the population.
In Northern Virginia, the number of weekly total cases reported hovers in the 500s, with slight increases reported since last month.
Overall, the state has reported 81,237 confirmed cases, 7,437 hospitalizations, and 2,054 total deaths.
The Fairfax County Health Department is encouraging residents to continue to practice social distancing and wear masks when in public. Cleaning supplies and children’s face coverings are also still needed.
Mask Mandate Here to Stay — “Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring Monday afternoon secured the defeat of a petition for a preliminary injunction submitted by anti-mask forces in the state seeking to undo Gov. Ralph Northam’s mitigation efforts to stem the spread of the Covid-19 virus.” [Falls Church News-Press]
COVID-19 Cases — “Fifty-four days elapsed between the time Virginia reported its first case of coronavirus on March 7 and May 1, when the state reported the results of its 100,000th coronavirus test.” [Inside NoVa]
County Committees Meet Today — Fairfax County’s Economic Advisory Commission and environmental, public safety and land use policy committees meet today. [Fairfax County]
https://t.co/wmUSgshHzc…
Congratulations to #ArthurKwonLee — longtime MPA faculty member and thriving NYC artist. @eastcityart @PinkLineProject @artsfairfax @Followfairfax @mcleanvacenter @McLeanConnect @TysonsReporter— McLeanProjectForArts (@MP4A) July 20, 2020
Traffic Stop Near Gallows Roads — “A Virginia state trooper is on administrative leave and faces a criminal investigation for his conduct against a Black driver during a 2019 traffic stop in Fairfax County.” [Patch]
Falls Church Scales Back Summer Camps — “Covid-19’s spread throughout the country influenced the City to scale back or outright cancel certain camps, making “fun” one of the lesser known, but more persistent casualties of the pandemic.” [Falls Church News-Press]
COVID-19 Rules for Businesses — “Virginia on Wednesday became the first state to adopt uniform workplace safety rules related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Among the new regulations, employers in Virginia are required to mandate physical distancing and face coverings for employees in customer-facing positions. Coverings will also be required in workplace situations where social distancing is not possible.” [Washington Business Journal]
PPP Loans for Black Businesses — “Black business owners are more likely to be hindered in seeking coronavirus financial aid than their white peers, a new study has found. The study looked at how more than a dozen Washington-area banks handled requests for loans under the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program.” [Washington Business Journal]
Impacts on Falls Church Development? — “Workplaces transitioning out of the office and into being permanently remote could be one part of the “new normal” stemming from Covid-19’s global outbreak. That potential reality would be trouble for the City of Falls Church’s West End development that is relying on office tenants to help occupy some of its nearly 10-acre footprint, though the minds behind the project believe this adaptation won’t become a fixture once coronavirus’ danger lessens.” [Washington Business Journal]
Families and school systems are starting to make plans for when school starts again in the fall.
For Fairfax County Public Schools, students will either learn fully online or with a combination of in-person and online classes.
Roughly 45% of respondents to our poll earlier this week on learning options said they prefer fully online classes, while about 40% said they want the hybrid model. Approximately 15% of the respondents said they either don’t know which to choose or that the topic doesn’t apply to them.
FCPS and county officials are worried about childcare options for working parents, especially ones who can’t work from home.
Let us know in the poll before if you are facing childcare challenges ahead of school starting back up. Feel free to discuss in the comments section what your experience has been like.
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
Before the pandemic hit Northern Virginia, an international ramen restaurant was aiming to open in March in The Boro.
In March, Hokkaido Ramen Santouka pushed its expected opening to April. Now, the restaurant is looking to open in August with limited indoor and outdoor seating, according to a press release. The restaurant will also offer pickup and delivery services.
Jennie Kuperstein, a spokesperson for the restaurant, said that the pandemic delayed the opening at 1636 Boro Place.
The Hokkaido-style ramen chain started in Japan in 1983 and now has more than 60 restaurants in 10 countries, including 16 locations in the U.S., according to the press release.
Food’s Style USA, which has launched four Santouka’s restaurants in the Boston and Seattle areas, will open the Tysons restaurant, according to the press release.
Food’s Style USA’s CEO Jun Yoneda said in a statement that tables will be frequently disinfected, employees will undergo regular health screenings and sanitation training and the restaurant will follow state and CDC guidelines.
The restaurant’s menu includes tonkotsu soup, shio ramen, Japanese karaage-style fried chicken, fried rice and gyoza, the press release said.
“To make our signature tonkotsu broth, we simmer pork bones for about 20 hours over the low heat until it becomes pearly white and then add the vegetables, dried fish, kelp and other savory ingredients to it,” according to the restaurant’s Facebook page.
Once open, the Tysons restaurant’s hours will be 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily.
Photo courtesy Santouka
At a press conference yesterday, Gov. Ralph Northam said that he is increasing enforcement of public health and safety regulations to prevent a statewide surge in COVID-19 cases.
“If you own a restaurant or a business and you’re not following the regulations, your license will be on the line and we will not hesitate to take action if needed,” Northam said.
Northam said he’s created teams to conduct unannounced visits to establishments. Members will include people from the Virginia Department of Health (VDH), Virginia ABC, Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and other licensing agencies. The VDH is deploying 100 employees to help with increased enforcement, he said.
Businesses have the right to refuse service to customers who are not following the rules. “Remember that you don’t have to serve a patron who is not wearing a face covering. You can tell them to leave,” Northam said.
Additionally, Virginia’s health commissioner sent letters to health district officials to remind them of their authority to enforce physical distancing and face-covering rules in restaurants and public places, Northam said.
“I want to make it clear that these enforcement actions are to stop the people who are clearly flouting the rules: You are being selfish and you are hurting everyone who is doing the right thing to help us all beat this virus,” Northam said.
The new measures stem from a large bump in cases in the state’s eastern region, mainly in the Tidewater region, Northam said, attributing to the surge mainly to young people socializing without masks.
“We’re seeing some troubling numbers,” Northam said, pointing to the Hampton Roads area.
The northwest region is “holding steady,” while the southwest and central areas have seen either small increases, Northam said. Northern Virginia, which has two-thirds of the state’s population, has seen a dip in COVID-19 cases.
Until a vaccine is widely available, Northam said that he is considering other actions, like reducing the cap on gatherings. Northam said has told the Virginia ABC to develop a plan for an earlier cutoff for alcohol sales at restaurants and will announce more on that soon.
Image via Facebook Live
Keeping Coronavirus Out of Classrooms — “Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said Friday students will not be able to return to classrooms in the fall if the state is unable to stay within phase three of its Covid-19 reopening plan.” [Washington Business Journal]
Food Donations in Falls Church — “On the Fourth of July, over 1,700 families received food and household goods during the second onsite distribution hosted at The Falls Church Anglican.” [Falls Church News-Press]
Police Plaza Proposals — “The Vienna Town Council on July 6 tentatively selected a design option for the new Vienna Police Headquarters’ community plaza, but left open the potential for building in more green space at the site.” [Inside NoVa]
Town Hall Tonight — School Board members Karl Frisch and Rachna Sizemore Heizer will host a virtual town hall tonight from 7:30-8:30 p.m. to discuss the Return to School plans. People can participate via Zoom or Facebook Live. [Facebook]
The McLean Project for the Arts (MPA) is debuting its first online exhibit this week.
Called “SHIFT,” the exhibit will open on Wednesday, July 15, with an online reception from 7-8 p.m. The exhibit will explore concepts of change or exchange in the paradigm, position, dreams, environment, perspective and more.
“So much has changed in our world in the last few months, in ways both personal, political and global,” Nancy Sausser, MPA’s director of exhibitions, said.
The exhibit, juried by Henry Thaggert and Sarah Tanguy, will feature 48 artists from the mid-Atlantic region, according to a statement from the group. The works displayed in the exhibit were chosen from more than 250 submissions, according to Sausser.
Artists were asked to answer the question, “How has your world been affected by this ‘SHIFT’ in our lives?”
The exhibition will be available from July 15-Aug. 27.
Photo courtesy McLean Project for the Arts
Northern Virginia’s COVID-19 cases appear to be holding steady as Virginia sees an uptick in cases.
Statewide, new daily cases hit a low point in mid-June with 380 cases before an increase last week, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Last Monday, 354 new cases were reported in Virginia before jumping to 972 new cases today (Monday).
Testing for current and past infection has been increasing statewide, according to labs’ testing numbers.
Meanwhile, the Fairfax Health District has seen consistent numbers of tests since June with 1,000-2,000 tests per day.
The current seven-day trend for the percentage of positive tests is 6.7% statewide and 5.9% for the Fairfax Health District.
In mid-June, Fairfax Health District saw the majority of its new daily cases drop from triple digits to double digits. As of today, 74 new cases were reported in the health district.
The epidemic curve for the Fairfax Health District, which shows the number of new cases in a week by the date symptoms started, has been decreasing since May, according to Fairfax County’s dashboard. (Data has not been completed from June 28 to today.)
In total, Fairfax County has had at least 14,556 cases, 500 deaths and 1,713 hospitalizations. Of the state’s 529 outbreaks, 67 were located in the Fairfax Health District.
