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Arlington Residents and Friends,
I write to update you on where we are in responding to COVID 19. Again, for your safety and so that we outsmart and outwork this virus, please go here: https://health.arlingtonva.us/covid-19-coronavirus-updates/ scroll to the bottom, and sign up for daily updates. It is really important that you stay updated.
More below, but first 60 seconds of hope for you to consider as we think about our heroes--our health care workers and frontline responders:
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Take 60 seconds for a little bit of hope as we work through this.
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Where do we Stand on Cases PPE, Beds, and Ventilators: Facts, please:
We continue to face a very serious pandemic in the country, this region, and in Arlington. As of today, we have over 19,500 confirmed cases in the National Capital Region and 790 confirmed cases in Arlington. We have community spread and, although we see an important and hopeful slow in the rate of increase in cases, we have not yet seen a sustained slowdown in the region and in Arlington to know that we have in fact flattened the curve. In short, there is hope, but not yet conclusive proof, of progress.
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To see the Arlington specific data with respect to infections and fatalities, with significant, but not complete disaggregation with respect to age and race, go the above button Virginia Department of Health and then scroll down to the Data Download tab, click on the links and then search for Arlington in the excel documents.
(If the above button is not working on Sunday afternoon, please try again on Monday morning, since it has been done for 30 minutes. Here is the URL: https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/)
On ventilators, PPE, and beds, we continue to have capacity and will be sharing data later this week in a simple dashboard that reflects our regional progress, which is the right way to think about it per Dr. Varghese. We have contingencies should we face spikes in hospital beds and ventilators.
Our health experts are speaking daily with our nursing homes to make sure the care is as good as possible to slow spread there and minimize infections. There are no easy answers on this and it continues to be my area of greatest concern. Since it is public via the Department and through the Department of Health: we have seen 32 fatalities in Arlington. Even one is 1 too many. We have not yet flattened the curve so all of us must be vigilant because we remain at serious risk.
To have hope, Andrew Cuomo has shown us, we must have knowledge and facts. Click below on Friday's Town Hall to learn where we are and get knowledge, facts, and hope:
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Friday's Facebook Town Hall. Go to 7:00 minutes and hear about: modeling the virus, capacity as a region, testing, Dr. Varghese and our best thinking on the preconditions we will need to see (not soon) on opening up. We need vigilance.
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How We Are Responding:
Continuing to Work for Your Health
The County is taking many steps to help. First, the Board is working to finalize the Budget, which will happen via a work session tomorrow (Monday) at 2 pm and then adoption on Thursday. We are and will prioritize health and do so with those most in need in mind. (We also met on Saturday, but I will report on that meeting after our recessed monthly meeting on Tuesday.)
Second, here are links to a number of very important steps we have been taking. All are part of our COVID response: health, hunger, housing and eviction prevention, and small business grants:
All of that said, people want to know about what our thinking is on when we loosen restrictions. The above town hall with Chair Garvey and Board Member Dorsey is a great report on where we are on that question. Testing has and will increase in Virginia as the Governor has made it a priority. (We are continuing to work on that in Arlington, too....)
The other way to learn about opening up is the Governor's presentation from Friday. 14 days of decrease in rolling average of infections and hospitalizations is what we would need to start. Other standards as well. My view: before June 10th will not happen and after it we must meet health benchmarks first.
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Click here to listen to the Governor's Friday Press Conference of 34 minutes (First 10 minutes may work if you are tired :).)
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Chair Libby Garvey and County Manager Mark Schwartz have also been working to make the point that Governor Northam and Governor Hogan, along with Mayor Bowser must meet health standards for our region in addition to Virginia. (I love Bristol, VA, but we have more in common as far as the spreading of the disease with DC and suburban Maryland than Bristol.) To see our message on regionalism and reopening, click below:
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Finally, contact tracing, which many of you have asked about. Our initial contract tracing is not the large scale tracing we are and will need to build to reopen. We are going from 170 to a much larger number above 300 of tracers that we will need. Please go here to become part of our database. We believe we will have the ability to virtually call to help contact trace from home within the weeks, so this is a great way to volunteer.
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I know you are tired of waiting to know when we might be able to open up. I am too. But, as my parents used to say to me, we are not there yet.
For our seniors who have been 28 of the 32 that have passed away in Arlington so far and for one of the youngest and earliest patients at Arlington Hospital Center: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/coronavirus-covid-19-recovery-francis-wilson-virginia-dc/2020/04/16/0bb55974-7858-11ea-a130-df573469f094_story.html we absolutely must keep staying home, washing our hands when we go out and come back in, wearing a mask whenever in doubt, and working hard to avoid catching or spreading this deadly virus.
Enduring, serving, and working through this with you,
Matt
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