As Alexandria moves toward the first phase of reopening its economy on May 29, the city’s health department is developing a new accreditation program to ensure compliance with enforced restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Alexandria Health Department initiative is currently labeled as the “ALX Promise,” and it’s a partnership with Visit Alexandria, the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce and business groups, according to AHD Environmental Health Manager Rachel Stradling.
Inova Alexandria Hospital remains at about half capacity, and the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations is not going down, according to a hospital spokesperson.
As of yesterday, the hospital was treating 59 patients for COVID-19, and the hospital system has capacity for more patients.
There are now 1,577 cases of COVID-19 in Alexandria, which is an increase of 33 cases since yesterday.
There are also 34 fatalities related to COVID-19 in the city, and it has been four days since the last deaths, which were a man and a woman in their 80s, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
Beyer Co-Sponsors COVID-19 Testing Legislation — “NEW: today I introduced bipartisan legislation to boost innovation for COVID-19 testing with my @HouseScience colleague @RepAGonzalez.” [Twitter]
Chamber of Commerce Hosting Virtual General Assembly Breakfast Thursday — “Please join us on May 21st for a timely virtual conversation with our General Assembly delegation. The delegation will discuss the 2020 session, Virginia’s COVID-19 response and the challenges currently facing the Commonwealth.” [Chamber of Commerce]
While T.C. Williams High School students aren’t gathering in-person to celebrate graduation, local celebrations are being held including a special lighting of the George Washington Masonic Temple.
“On Saturday, June 13, 2020, we encourage all residents of the most wonderful City of Alexandria to light up their homes in red, white and blue to support the graduating Class of 2020 from T.C. Williams High School,” Principal Peter Balas said in a newsletter. “I am excited to announce that the George Washington Masonic Temple will be illuminated in red, white and blue on June 13 in recognition of our graduates. Let’s light up the whole city!”
Feed The Fight Alexandria has given out more than 4,000 meals to Inova hospital workers during the pandemic, and the nonprofit’s founders plan to continue as long as there is a need.
Neighbors Ali De Jongh Whitley and Jennifer Kearney Desiderio modeled their work after Feed The Fight D.C., and since April have delivered daily meals to Inova Alexandria Hospital, Inova Mount Vernon Hospital and Inova Fairfax Hospital.
The sprawling Atrium building in the heart of Old Town (277 S. Washington Street) could be getting a major facelift as the building tries to attract new tenants.
The building, constructed in 1978 in a neo-traditional style, is five-stories tall and roughly 139,000 square feet. It takes up the entire block and one of its largest tenants is the Eagle Bank at the corner of S. Washington and Duke Streets.
(Updated on May 21 at 2:30 p.m.) A majority of the Alexandria City Council wants to know more about a month-long police teleworking initiative during the pandemic, and one member wants to see a full internal report.
Between April 6 and May 2, the Alexandria Police Department reduced its enlarged patrol presence (with added school resource officers, K-9 officers, traffic safety section officers and community relations officers), and on any given day had one-third of assigned patrol officers (18-24 officers) teleworking at home.
A 53-year-old Alexandria man was arrested today on charges of producing and distributing child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Abel Ambrocio was arrested for allegedly instructing an adult woman on Facebook to send him more than 100 pictures of the woman sexually exploiting a three-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl. He then allegedly sent the photos to another person, and the activities occurred over the course of several months, according to court documents.
In mid-April, Alexandria photographer Billy Sabatini took to Alexandria’s streets and found them empty. The coronavirus pandemic created a strange opportunity for him to take photos of places he visited hundreds of times, but never quite like this.
“It was really kind of eerie, because we’ve all been to these places especially at the foot of King Street where there’s always mobs of people during these spring days,” Sabatini told ALXnow. “There was nobody around at all. There was no sound, either, and it was very strange and very peaceful.”
As Alexandria’s COVID-19 cases continue to surge, Governor Ralph Northam on Monday announced that 3,000 free COVID-19 tests will be administered in Alexandria on May 25, and that the state’s most impacted areas will get additional testing throughout the remainder of the month.
Virginia Department of Health and the Alexandria Health Department have not announced where the tests will be administered. There have been 4,986 tests administered in the city so far, and details are being finalized on where the new tests will be conducted.
