The rate of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the Fairfax Health District remained steady over the past week, as Virginia announced over the weekend that a third vaccine will be available for distribution starting this week.
With an additional 132 cases reported today (Monday), there have now been a total of 67,547 COVID-19 cases recorded in Fairfax County and the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church. The novel coronavirus has put 3,564 people in the hospital and killed 969 people since the district identified its first presumptive positive case roughly one year ago.
Fairfax County has averaged 198 new cases over the past seven days, maintaining a weekly average has hovered around 200 cases since Feb. 20. While that represents a significant decline from the winter peak of 697 cases on Jan. 17, the COVID-19 case rate has not yet returned to the relatively low levels seen last summer and into the fall before cold weather set in.
With new cases and testing positivity rates falling across Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam has eased some of the public health restrictions that had been put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Starting today, the 10 p.m. curfew on alcohol sales at bars and restaurants has been lifted, and the caps on outdoor social gatherings has increased from 10 to 25 people. After previously being limited to 250 people, outdoor entertainment and amusement venues can also now have up to 1,000 people or 30% capacity.
The most notable development in the U.S.’s efforts to control the pandemic came on Saturday (Feb. 27), when the Food and Drug Administration granted an emergency use authorization to a new COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson that only requires one dose, instead of the two needed for the already authorized Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna vaccines.
The Virginia Department of Health said that the state expects to receive 69,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this week that will be prioritized for mass vaccination clinics. An additional allotment will go to pharmacies that are participating in a federal partnership that focuses on vaccinating people 65 and older.
“VDH encourages all providers who schedule vaccine appointments to advise individuals which vaccine they will receive,” the state health department said. “…All three vaccines have been proven to be effective at preventing COVID-19-related hospitalization and death.”
According to the VDH data dashboard, Fairfax County has now administered 224,329 vaccine doses to 140,803 people. 83,526 people in the county have been fully vaccinated.
The Fairfax County Health Department is still working through the 44,036 people who signed up for a vaccine appointment on Jan. 18, which saw more registrations than any other day so far. As of 10 a.m. today, the county had registered 267,170 people for an appointment, 95,457 of whom were still on the waitlist.
❓ FAQ: How Much Progress Has Been Made on Scheduling Appointments for People Who Registered on Jan. 18?
👉 As of Feb. 26, approximately 63% of the people who registered on Jan. 18 have either been vaccinated or offered an appointment. https://t.co/RjxBNrvkl5 pic.twitter.com/TwQyl78KJB— FairfaxCounty Health (@fairfaxhealth) February 27, 2021
Images via CDC on Unsplash, Virginia Department of Health
(Updated at 2:35 p.m.) Following statewide trends, the number of daily COVID-19 cases continues to dip in Fairfax County.
As of today (Monday), the number of new cases stood at 113 with a rolling weekly average of 193 cases — the second-lowest number of daily reported cases this year. Only 89 new cases were reported in Fairfax County on Feb. 8.
The number of new cases has continued to fall since cases peaked with an all-time high of 1,485 on Jan. 17, according to data released by the Virginia Department of Health.
So far, 134,359 people have been vaccinated by Fairfax County, a number that includes first and second doses, according to the county’s data dashboard.
The county’s health department is currently scheduling appointments for people who registered on Monday, Jan. 18. A little over 96,900 people remain on the county’s waitlist.
While county officials have touted progress with the vaccination system, the jurisdiction’s decision to opt-out of the state’s new COVID-19 vaccine pre-registration caused confusion late last week.
Since then, the county’s health department has addressed common concerns and questions in a recent blog post. The county is still encouraging residents to use the county’s online form to register for vaccines.
Across the state, 1.1 million have received at least one dose and 481,297 people have been fully vaccinated.
Virginia launched a statewide vaccine registration system that Fairfax County is not participating in at this time. We've received several questions about this and have posted some answers to these and other FAQS. Please see: https://t.co/dRvmdqAlPY#FFXCOVID pic.twitter.com/P2z07NoEnz
— FairfaxCounty Health (@fairfaxhealth) February 21, 2021
Image via Virginia Department of Health
Fairfax County opted out of Virginia’s new statewide COVID-19 vaccine pre-registration system to reduce confusion, but the decision seems to have had the opposite effect for some county residents.
The Virginia Department of Health told Reston Now, Tysons Reporter’s affiliate site, that on Wednesday (Feb. 17), the day after the launch, the statewide COVID information line received 542 calls from Fairfax County zip codes asking questions about vaccines that were rerouted back to the county’s call center.
When asked about this, the Fairfax County Health Department acknowledged the potential for confusion.
“We understand that it could still be confusing that there are two systems,” wrote Jeremy Lasich, spokesperson for the Fairfax County Health Department. “We are happy that we have a strong partnership with VDH and that their call center is appropriately routing questions about Fairfax County back to our local call center.”
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay told Tysons Reporter last week that the county had decided to forgo the Virginia appointment system in favor of its own existing system to “cut down on confusion.”
Reston Now reached out to the Chairman’s office with the information from VDH but has yet to hear back as of publication.
Fairfax County is the only jurisdiction in Virginia to opt-out of the state COVID-19 vaccine pre- registration system.
The county maintains that they are “consistently” communicating the need to register through their system through their website, blog, social media, and other avenues.
This includes translating COVID-related materials into Spanish and sharing information via text messages from the Health Department’s outreach team.
VDH has also added language to their website directing Fairfax County residents back to the appropriate portal.
If Fairfax County residents do end up registering through the state system, the information will end up eventually going back to the county, but those residents will be added to the end of the waitlist, the county explains in a newly published blog post.
If residents register in both the state and county systems, the first registration will be honored and the second one will be removed.
Over the last several weeks, the vaccine rollout across Fairfax County, Virginia, and the D.C. region has continued to be plagued with technical issues, equity concerns, and logistical challenges.
The county is currently in “Phase 1b”, meaning they are offering vaccine registration for all residents 65 years or older as well as those between 16 and 64 years old with underlying medical conditions.
Some essential workers are also in the process of getting vaccinated, including health care personnel, childcare workers, and K-12 teachers or staff members living or working in the county.
Fairfax County now has a registration status checker for people to see their eligibility, and residents can sign up for an appointment through the county’s vaccine registration page. Fairfax County residents can also call 703-324-7404 for more information.
According to the county’s new data dashboard, those who registered on January 18 — the first day it was open to those in Phase 1b — are now being scheduled for appointments.
More than 42,000 people signed up that day, nearly four times as many people as Jan. 11, the next busiest day for registrations, the county health department says.
The county expects it will take “several weeks” for all those that registered on Jan. 18 to get a scheduled appointment.
It may appear as if progress isn’t being made when the appointment date on the dashboard isn’t changing, but the health department is moving through registrations, Lasich told Reston Now.
“We continue to ask for your patience,” he said. “We promise you will get an appointment if you are on our list.”
Photo via Fairfax County Health Department
(Updated at 11 a.m.) In the past eight months, the students in Vanessa Edwards’s nursing class have become well-versed in adapting to change.
After starting the school year in a virtual setting in July, they were among the roughly 8,000 students that attended in-person classes in the fall, only to revert to online classes when Fairfax County Public Schools paused plans for in-person instruction after winter break.
So, no one was fazed when a fire alarm blared through the halls of Fairfax County Adult High School in Springfield half an hour into Edwards’s first in-person class of 2021 on Wednesday (Feb. 17).
For faculty and students alike, the short-lived, familiar inconvenience of a fire drill paled in comparison to the relief of getting to interact with people face-to-face instead of through screens.
“Teaching nursing, there are certain skills and things you cannot teach virtual, so it makes it a lot more challenging to try and come up with ways to teach them,” Edwards said. “…We’re very excited to be back now in person, and hopefully, we’ll be able to stay in person through the remainder of the year.”
The School of Practical Nursing is among a handful of specialized career and technical education (CTE) programs that restarted in-person classes this past week, along with many young students with disabilities.
With local and regional COVID-19 transmission rates on the decline, FCPS is attempting to bring students back into buildings in phases, with in-person classes expanding to all grade levels by Mar. 16.
A licensed and registered nurse who worked at local hospitals and doctors’ offices for 21 years before being hired as a teacher by FCPS, Edwards says she feels “well-prepared” to resume in-person classes after seeing consistent compliance with mask requirements and other procedures in the fall.
It helps that her class only has 10 students this year and uses a spacious room that allows for plenty of distance between desks, luxuries that will not be available to all classes.
While the small class size means she hasn’t had to try it herself, Edwards thinks the hybrid, concurrent learning model that FCPS is implementing will help by reducing the number of students in a room at any given time.
“I think it is safe, coming back,” Edwards said. “I think having the less amount of people in one classroom is a good idea, and [it’s important] to just maintain the protocols.”
As of Feb. 18, FCPS has recorded 972 COVID-19 cases among staff, students, and visitors since Sept. 8, but there do not appear to be any in Fairfax County Adult High School, which houses the School of Practical Nursing and other CTE programs in the Plum Center for Lifelong Learning. Read More
(Updated at 3:20 on 2/18/2021) A parking lot outside of Tysons Corner Center has been converted into a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site, adding to the 30-plus sites that have already been established around Fairfax County over the past 11 months.
The startup Sameday Health opened the new site at 1981 Chain Bridge Rd. on Friday (Feb. 20). The 20,000 square-foot, 550-space lot has the capacity to accommodate over 1,000 people per day, according to Sameday Testing managing partner Patrick Emad.
This is Sameday’s first Fairfax County testing site and its 11th in the D.C. area since launching one in Georgetown in November. The company also has sites in Alexandria, Arlington, and Sterling.
Emad says Sameday decided to open a site in Tysons because of its proximity to several major roads, including the Capital Beltway, Route 7, and the Dulles Toll Road. The amount of traffic that passes through the area also made it an ideal spot for a drive-thru site, rather than a walk-in facility.
“We figured if we increase the access to testing, more people will get tested, especially because it’s free with insurance, and it will allow us to help stop the spread,” Emad said.
Based in Los Angeles, Calif., Sameday Health offers both RT-PCR tests, which detect the novel coronavirus’ genetic material, and antigen tests, which detect proteins. The tests are conducted using nasal swabs.
The standard RT-PCR test carries no out-of-pocket costs for people with insurance and has a turnaround time of under 72 hours, though that can be reduced to less than 24 hours for a rush fee of $75. People without insurance can pay $125 for a rapid antigen test that produces results in 30 minutes or $175 for the 24-hour RT-PCR test.
Emad helped build Sameday Health with CEO Felix Huettenbach after witnessing the initial days of the COVID-19 pandemic as a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician in Montgomery County. Huttenbach had been working for a startup that used PCR testing to detect cancers, and they realized the same technology could be applied to COVID-19 testing.
While some initial kinks needed to be worked out, Emad says the custom-built portal that Sameday uses allows for efficiency, since every step of the process, from the appointment scheduling to the delivery of results, is conducted through the same computer system.
Appointments can be booked online and generally take about 10 minutes, though the wait time can vary depending on demand.
“Majority of the time, it’s a seamless process,” Emad said. “Our medical staff and professionals are very well-trained to make it nice and easy and comforting, and they’re happy to answer questions and do it with a smile under their mask.”
Sameday Testing worked with Macerich, which owns and operates the Tysons Corner mall, to set up the Tysons testing site. Emad says both companies hope to turn it into a mass vaccination site in the future.
The Fairfax County Health Department recommends that anyone who has COVID-19 symptoms or has been exposed to someone who tested positive for the disease get tested.
“Testing remains a critically important part of the pandemic response,” Fairfax County Director of Epidemiology and Population Health Dr. Benjamin Schwartz said. “While anyone who has symptoms of COVID-19 should separate themselves from others (self-isolate) as soon as they recognize those symptoms so they don’t spread illness if it’s COVID-19, a positive test result reinforces the need for isolation and sets in motion the Health Department’s containment response.”
In addition to enabling individuals to determine whether they are infected, COVID-19 tests allow investigators to trace the disease’s spread and potential outbreaks. Samples of positive specimens are also sent to Virginia’s state laboratory for genetic sequencing that can be used to detect possible variants.
Correction: References to Sameday Testing have been changed to reflect that the company has rebranded and is now called Sameday Health.
Photo courtesy Sameday Health
COVID-19 case rates in Fairfax County have leveled off over the past week after appearing to trend downward since mid-January, when a record 1,485 cases were reported in a single day.
As of today, the county’s seven-day average is at 312.4 cases and has been hovering between 290 and 337 cases since Feb. 4. While the anticipated post-winter holiday surge seems to have tapered off, case levels are still higher than the pandemic’s initial spring peak, when the highest recorded seven-day average was 303 cases on May 31.
With 194 new cases today, the Fairfax Health District has now reported 64,950 COVID-19 cases, 3,482 hospitalizations, and 849 deaths, according to data from the Fairfax County Health Department.
Today also marked the launch of Virginia’s new statewide COVID-19 vaccine registration system, though Fairfax County is not participating for the time being.
Based on a registration data dashboard that went live on Feb. 12, Fairfax County has made slow but discernible progress in its efforts to vaccinate older adults, some groups of essential workers, and other eligible populations.
The Fairfax County Health Department has whittled its waitlist of people who have registered but haven’t been given an appointment yet down to 105,268 people, as of 10 a.m. The list had around 180,000 registrants as recently as last Thursday (Feb. 11). In total, 229,185 people have registered with the county to get the COVID-19 vaccine so far.
The health department is currently making appointments for more than 42,000 people who registered on Jan. 18, which saw particularly high demand since it was the day when the county expanded eligibility for the vaccine to people between the ages of 65 and 74 as well as people with high-risk medical conditions.
People who have registered for an appointment through the county health department can now see where they are in the queue with a registration status checker, though the rollout of that tool was not without its challenges.
Fairfax County has delivered 110,098 of the 114,923 vaccine doses that it has gotten from the Virginia Department of Health so far. About 68% of those doses were adminstered by the county health department, while the remaining 31% were distributed to other providers, like Inova.
According to the VDH, 48,404 people in Fairfax County have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19, and 163,200 total doses have been administered in the county. That number includes residents and staff at long-term care facilities that have been getting the vaccine through the federal government rather than the local health department.
Images via CDC on Unsplash, Virginia Department of Health
(Updated at 5:10 p.m.) Fairfax Health District residents looking to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine appointment should continue to use the Fairfax County registration system, the Fairfax County Health Department said today (Friday).
The Virginia Department of Health announced that a new, statewide registration system will launch on Tuesday (Feb. 16). Local health districts have been directed to close their existing registration forms starting at 5 p.m. today so that data can be cleaned up, consolidated, and transferred to the new system.
However, the FCHD says it will not participate in the statewide system at this time and will instead continue to manage vaccine appointments for everyone in the Fairfax Health District, which includes Fairfax County, the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, and the towns of Vienna, Herndon, and Clifton.
“For those already on the waitlist, do not register again on the new statewide system,” the county health department said.
Fairfax County’s vaccine call center at 703-324-7404 will also continue to be operational, even with the state launching a new call center.
Fairfax County decided to stick with its own registration system because officials believed it would be less confusing for residents, and because the county has “invested a lot of resources” into the system, Fairfax County Health Department spokesperson Tina Dale said.
Dale notes that the FCHD has now registered more than 200,000 people for vaccine appointments through its system.
“We invested a lot of resources into our registration system and worked out the kinks to ensure we continue to process more people than any other health district in the state,” Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said in a statement. “At this point, I am glad we can maintain our system that residents are familiar with to cut down on confusion. We will continue to have conversations with the state about registration as the vaccine process rolls out.”
Fairfax County’s promised dashboard with COVID-19 vaccine and registration data is also now live. According to the dashboard, 100,248 people in Fairfax County have now received at least one vaccine dose as of 4 p.m. today.
Photo via Fairfax County government
Pop-Up Florist Coming to Mosaic District — The clothing retailer Anthropologie (2910 District Ave., Suite 100) is hosting a Valentine’s Day pop-up with the florist Studio Fleuraison from 12-4 p.m. on Saturday (Feb. 13). Purchases can be made in the store or as pre-orders. [Mosaic District/Twitter]
Fairfax County School Board Approves CIP — The Fiscal Year 2022-2026 Capital Improvement Program includes construction of a Dunn Loring Elementary School, partial funding for a Silver Line Elementary School, the James Madison High School addition, and renovations for four schools in the Tysons area. The school board approved the package when it met on Thursday (Feb. 4). [FCPS]
Sunrise Senior Living Names New CEO — “Sunrise Senior Living, the McLean company that operates more than 330 senior living facilities, has named Jack Callison Jr. its new CEO. Callison replaces Chris Winkle, who said in December he would step down after more than six years in the role.” [Washington Business Journal]
Fairfax Health District Hiring for Pandemic Response — The Fairfax County Health Department is looking to hire 100 individuals to support its COVID-19 vaccination and pandemic response efforts. Open positions include nurse practitioners, physician assistants, registered nurses, and licensed practical nurses that would join the vaccination team on a part-time, temporary basis. [Fairfax County Health Department]
Fairfax County Public School Trains Teachers for Concurrent Learning — Teachers at Holmes Middle School are learning how to use technology that will enable them to work with in-person and online students at the same time. The training is preparing them for about half of the school’s students to return for in-person instruction on Feb. 16. [ABC7-WJLA]
Photo via Beyond DC/Flickr
The number of daily reported COVID-19 cases in Fairfax County continues to drop, returning to similar case loads recorded in June.
The rolling weekly average of cases for this past week stands at 289 cases, down from a reported high of nearly 697 cases on Jan. 17. The number of daily cases has continued on a steep decline since hitting a record high of 1,485 cases on Jan. 17. Fairfax County reported just 89 cases today, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.
In June, the peak seven-day average was 303 cases.
The drop in the cases is also reflected in statewide statistics. As of Feb. 7, the rolling weekly average of cases was 3,478. Although this is still higher than any weekly average before December, the overall number of cases are declining steeply.
So far, the pandemic has claimed the lives of 826 people in the Fairfax Health District, which includes Fairfax County and the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church. 3,389 people have been hospitalized, and there have now been 62,502 total COVID-19 cases.
The drop comes as Gov. Ralph Northam directs all school divisions to explore options for in-person learning by March 15 and look into plans for extending school into the summer.
In Fairfax County, more than 120,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered, and 26,175 people are fully vaccinated.
Image via Virginia Department of Health
Eligible Fairfax County residents will soon have another option for getting innoculated against COVID-19, as CVS plans to start distributing vaccines at 36 stores in Virginia later this week.
CVS Health announced on Feb. 2 that it will offer the COVID-19 vaccine at its pharmacies in Virginia and 10 other states starting this Thursday (Feb. 11). The company anticipates receiving 250,000 total doses for the initial rollout of its vaccination program, which is being enabled by a partnership with the federal government.
“Our presence in communities across the country makes us an ideal partner for administering vaccines in a safe, convenient, and familiar manner,” CVS Health President and CEO Karen S. Lynch said. “This is particularly true for underserved communities, which have been a focus for us throughout the pandemic.”
Though Virginia was initially expected to receive approximately 26,000 doses that will be distributed to 28 stores, CVS spokesperson Amy Thibault told Tysons Reporter that the vaccine will be available at 36 locations across the state, including in Fairfax County.
Patch reported on Feb. 4 that the CVS at 3921 Prosperity Ave. off of Little River Turnpike will be among the stores to get the vaccine.
Thibault says a full list of the specific stores will be available through the CVS website and app once the stores start receiving shipments and appointments become available.
“Because locations and supply remain limited, we want to prevent stores from being overwhelmed by those who may seek a vaccination without making an appointment,” Thibault said.
Vaccinations will be available by appointment only. CVS has an online scheduling tool on its website and app for people to determine their eligibility and find locations offering the vaccine, but it has not opened up to Virginia yet.
CVS and Walgreens have been administering COVID-19 vaccines at long-term care facilities in Virginia, including Fairfax County, since Jan. 11 as part of the federal pharmacy partnership program.
Health officials told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors during its health and human services committee meeting last week that 2,936 residents and 3,133 staff at 55 skilled nursing and assisted living facilities in the county have gotten at least one vaccine dose so far, with four more facilities scheduled to start vaccinating residents and staff early this week.
According to Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, the Fairfax County Health Department’s director of epidemiology and population health, the two national pharmacy chains are conducting three vaccine clinics at each of the county’s long-term care facilities.
“They’ve done a fairly good job in terms of reaching people, with some facilities having 95 to 100% of their residents being vaccinated,” Schwartz said.
The Fairfax County Health Department says it will have more information to share on the CVS vaccine program for other eligible populations in the next day or so.
Photo via Google Maps
