Governor Northam has provided additional information and taken added action, including banning events of more than 100.

Arlington County's emergency response team led by our County Manager, Director of Public Health, and Director of Emergency Management has been working with state officials today and is acting appropriately to make sure this step for safety is taken.

Click on the picture above to listen to Governor Northam's press conference. In it, he asks you to consider if it is really necessary for you to go out now. Please use that test in the decisions you make, including whether avoiding bars or restaurants is best at the current time. We all need food, but we must keep that social distance as much as possible and use the underlined test above. 

In the meantime, do the five:

1 HANDS Wash them often--before and after you go to a new space
2 ELBOW Cough into it
3 FACE Don't touch it
4 FEET Stay more than 3 ft apart and 6 feet apart wherever possible (Please do this in each of your decisions about where you go--ask yourself is it really that important that I go out right now?)
5 FEEL sick? Stay home!

If we all do the 5, we will keep each other safe, minimize infections, and preserve our health care system for those most in need, as determined by patients in consultation with health care professionals.

And we will also make sure our seniors and those with compromised immune systems have the least risk of getting infected, which is critical. 

Thank you, 

Matt