The average number of daily Covid cases continues to rise in Alexandria, and the number of deaths from the virus has risen by one to 186.

As of Monday (April 11), the number of reported Covid cases in Alexandria reached 30,932, and the seven-day average of cases is 52.3, up from 40.9 at this point last week, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

The number of cases in the city went into steep decline after a record-setting 12,822 cases in January, dipping to 1,227 cases reported in February. Also in February, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave the city a “Low” community level. The numbers continued to fall in March, with just 593 new cases reported.

In April, 781 new cases were reported, and the city is on pace to match the number of cases reported in February. The number of cases also continues to rise in Fairfax County and Arlington, and last week, the Alexandria Health Department issued a spring break travel warning.

In Alexandria City Public Schools, there have been 707 cases reported since Dec. 1. Of those, 603 are children and 123 are staff, but the numbers on the school system’s dashboard don’t add up.

The city remains in a state of emergency until June 30.

This month, VDH reported the following new cases in Alexandria:

• 47 new cases on April 18
• 51 new cases on April 17
• 59 new cases on April 16
• 52 new cases on April 15
• 68 new cases on April 14
• 45 new cases on April 13
• 44 new cases on April 12
• 36 new cases on April 11
• 17 new cases on April 10
• 61 new cases on April 9
• 55 new cases on April  8
• 52 new cases on April  7
• 35 new cases on April  6
• 30 new cases on April 5
• 17 new cases on April 4
• 31 new cases on April 3
• 35 new cases on April 2
• 46 new cases on April 1

Vaccine stats

• There are 23,642 unvaccinated Alexandria residents
• About 77% of residents (118,019 people) are fully vaccinated
• 85% (130,238 people) of residents got at least one dose
• 61,350 residents got booster shots

Find vaccine providers in Alexandria here. If you feel sick, get tested.

The Alexandria Health Department is asking residents to stay up to date on vaccinations and to travel safe this spring break.

The guidance was issued in the city’s weekly COVID-19 update.

“The best way to protect yourself and your loved ones is to stay up-to-date on your vaccinations,” AHD advised. “If you will be spending time with individuals at higher risk of severe COVID-19, consider getting tested one-to-three days before you travel to see them. Monitor yourself for symptoms after you travel.”

There has been an uptick in Covid cases this month, and the number of cases is now 30,655, an increase of 89 cases since Monday (April 11), according to the Virginia Department of Health. The seven-day average of new cases is now 46.6 — up from 40.9 on Monday. The number of deaths remains unchanged at 185.

Face masks are still mandatory on public transportation, including on buses, planes and trains.

Alexandria is currently at a low COVID-19 community level according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(Updated at 11:15 p.m.) Just as the spring weather blooms, Covid cases are on the rise in Alexandria.

As of Monday (April 11), the number of reported Covid cases in Alexandria reached 30,566, and the seven-day average of cases is 40.9 — nearly double what it was at this point last month. There have also been 415 cases so far this month, putting Alexandria on track to eclipse the number of 593 reported cases in March and reach the 1,227 cases reported in February.

The number of deaths from the virus remains at 185.

News of the uptick comes as cases are also on the rise in Fairfax County and D.C., due in part to the new BA.2 variant that started cropping up in Virginia in March.

There have also been 701 cases reported within Alexandria City Public Schools since Dec. 1. Of those, 597 are children and 123 are staff, although the numbers listed on the school system’s dashboard don’t add up.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave Alexandria a “Low” community level at the end of February, and the city remains in a state of emergency until June 30. Alexandria experienced the most-ever new cases in January with 12,822 cases.

In Alexandria, the Virginia Department of Health reported the following new cases this month:

• 36 new cases on April 11
• 17 new cases on April 10
• 61 new cases on April 9
• 55 new cases on April  8
• 52 new cases on April  7
• 35 new cases on April  6
• 30 new cases on April 5
• 17 new cases on April 4
• 31 new cases on April 3
• 35 new cases on April 2
• 46 new cases on April 1

Vaccine stats

• There are 23,850 unvaccinated Alexandria residents
• About 77% of residents (117,782 people) are fully vaccinated
• 85% (130,006 people) of residents got at least one dose
• 60,645 residents got booster shots

Find vaccine providers in Alexandria here. If you feel sick, get tested.

With just 80 reported cases of COVID-19 over the last week, Alexandria has surpassed 30,000 total cases since the onset of the pandemic.

As of Friday (March 25), there have been 30,026 reported cases of Covid in the city, according to the Alexandria Health Department. The number of deaths remains at 185, and the seven-day average of cases is now 17.

Despite a “Low” transmission rating, the city remains in a state of emergency until June 30.

There have also been 637 cases reported within Alexandria City Public Schools since Dec. 1, an increase of 19 cases. Of those, 542 are children and 114 are staff, although the numbers listed on the school system’s dashboard don’t add up.

Vaccine stats

• There are 24,584 unvaccinated Alexandria residents
• About 76% of residents (117,044 people) are fully vaccinated
• 84% (129,532 people) of residents got at least one dose
• 58,662 residents got booster shots

Find vaccine providers in Alexandria here. If you feel sick, get tested.

As Covid transmission in Alexandria remains low and restrictions ease, many workers are returning to the office.

In March, talk of federal workers returning has been more prevalent. According to Axios, the Biden administration viewed the employees as a group who could lead by example with a return to in-person work.

But some employers have welcomed remote work, even closing physical offices. Others are remote still as a precaution after the ups and downs of new Covid variants jerked office plans on and off.

So tell us, are you still working from home or have you returned to work in person?

There has been another death and 137 new cases of the virus in Alexandria over the last week, bringing the total number of deaths to 185 and the number of cases to 29,946, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

Still, the pandemic is winding down in Alexandria. One of the biggest signs is the fact that it’s been nearly two weeks since the Alexandria Health Department last posted a COVID-19 update. The city last released Covid information on March 8 — a stark difference from nearly two years of daily updates from the city, and a surge in January that saw a record-setting 12,822 positive cases.

Additionally, as of March 15, VDH no longer publishes its Level of Community Transmission dashboard, and community transmission is now determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which gave Alexandria a “Low” transmission rating at the end of February.

Mayor Justin Wilson has also not mentioned Covid on social media since March 11.

There have also been 618 cases reported within Alexandria City Public Schools since Dec. 1, an increase of 15 cases. Of those, 529 are children and 107 are staff, although the numbers listed on the school system’s dashboard don’t add up.

Alexandria remains in a state of emergency until June 30.

Vaccine stats

• There are 24,584 unvaccinated Alexandria residents
• About 76% of residents (116,712 people) are fully vaccinated
• 84% (129,296 people) of residents got at least one dose
• 57,814 residents got booster shots

Find vaccine providers in Alexandria here. If you feel sick, get tested.

There were just 75 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Alexandria since this time last week, according to the Alexandria Health Department.

There are now 29,809 reported cases of the virus in Alexandria, up from 29,734 last Monday. The number of deaths remains at 184, and the seven day average of daily new cases is now 21, down from 84.5 this time last week.

On Thursday, March 10, the Virginia Department of Health retired a number of its Covid dashboards, and will no longer list cases by locality. New data specific to Alexandria will have to be pulled from the city’s Health Department’s COVID-19 dashboard.

Last Friday (March 11) marked the second year of the pandemic, and Mayor Justin Wilson said that the city is moving into a new phase. Face masks and distancing are no longer required in schools or government buildings — a sharp turnaround from the worst days of the pandemic, which were just two short months ago. There was a record-setting 12,822 positive cases in January, followed by a steep drop-off to 1,227 cases in February.

Alexandria now has a “Substantial” transmission rate from VDH and a “Low” community level of transmission from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There have also been 603 cases reported within Alexandria City Public Schools since Dec. 1, an increase of 10 cases. Of those, 517 are children and 104 are staff, although the numbers listed on the school system’s dashboard don’t add up.

Vaccine stats

• There are 24,733 unvaccinated Alexandria residents
• About 76% of residents (116,537 people) are fully vaccinated
• 84% (129,147) of residents got at least one dose
• 62,440 residents got booster shots

Find vaccine providers in Alexandria here. If you feel sick, get tested.

Nicole Burlimann now has a completely different life. Exactly two years ago, she was the food and beverage manager at the Hilton Garden Inn — facing a busy spring full of events. Then COVID hit, her position was terminated and she collected unemployment for months while watching and waiting for restrictions to be lifted and normalcy to resume.

After four months, Burlimann started working part-time at Piece Out Del Ray (2419 Mount Vernon Avenue) when it opened in the summer of 2020. The restaurant is owned by the Ponzi family, and they later promoted Burlimann as general manager at their St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub and Market 2 Market locations in Del Ray.

“I wake up every day feeling very fortunate and thankful to live where I live, to have the support system that I have,” Burlimann said. “Now I just go with the flow. And that’s knowing that it’s so much worse for so many other people… I didn’t think we’d have that second wave that we had. But I am really looking forward to the spring as things are loosening up and an uptick in business.”

Today (Friday, March 11) marks two years since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization, and the first case in the city was reported at Virginia Theological Seminary. That two-year period saw Alexandria tread through dramatic social waters with the Alexandria City Public Schools system’s conversion to online learning and eventual return to in-person instruction, local businesses experiencing dramatic closures, demonstrations against police brutality and much more.

To date, there have been 184 reported deaths and 29,809 cases reported in Alexandria. The worst month of the pandemic was just two months ago, as January saw more than 12,000 cases. The numbers of new cases have dropped considerably since then, and restrictions have been loosened to a point of normalcy not seen since March 2020.

Starting this month, face mask mandates were lifted in City government buildings and within Alexandria City Public Schools, and the Alexandria will soon start charging businesses rent for their use of parklets — parking spaces in front of businesses converted to dining areas.

The decision was made after guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave Alexandria and its neighboring jurisdictions a “Low” community level of transmission. Inova Alexandria Hospital has even lifted its visitation requirements.

No pandemic playbook

Mayor Justin Wilson, who celebrates a birthday on March 11, told ALXnow that the city is entering into a new phase of the pandemic.

“We’re heading into a different phase that’s a lot closer to normal,” he said. “We’re not going to shut things down anymore because we have vaccines, and we can we can protect those who are vulnerable and make sure everyone else can continue living their lives. But I also think there’s gonna be a lot that will probably never return to normal. And some of that’s okay.”

Wilson says the city was faced with a managing a catastrophic emergency situation without a playbook.

“There was no playbook, there were no rules,’ Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson told ALXnow. “In the beginning our big ask was going to all of the utilities like Dominion, Verizon, Comcast, and asking if they could give forbearance and not cut off their customers, and they all agreed, which was great. All of our utilities agreed and actually held to that for a long, long time — a year in-plus. Yeah. Then we sent a letter to landlords asking them to not not evict tenants. Early on, there was so much pain and tumult and everything that you were just trying to address and it was like triaging patients.”

The city extended services made possible through emergency federal funds, millions of pounds of free food was distributed by ALIVE!,

and the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership helped businesses receive millions in federal grants.

Wilson, who contracted the virus in Spain in December, has posted COVID-19 updates on social media every day of the pandemic. That practice that ends today, he tweeted.

Some thoughts on March 11, 2022: pic.twitter.com/C9GxVnK7Zd

— Justin Wilson (@justindotnet) March 11, 2022

Back to business

Like many businesses, Bill Blackburn and his partner Mike Anderson of the Homegrown Restaurant Group had to furlough employees, get Paycheck Protection Program loans, and figure out how to keep their six restaurants afloat in Carlyle and Del Ray. While his staff are longer required to wear face masks, a number of changes to his businesses are permanent.

“In regard to the last two years, it feels in some ways like it’s been two decades,” Blackburn said. “In some ways, it feels like two weeks. We’ve gone through so many transformations, we’ve had so many false starts. It just seems like that we we’ve constantly been changing. Staff has turned over, styles of service have changed and we have outdoor service tents, outdoor dining, to-go windows, ordering with QR codes, a new point-of-sale system, adding DoorDash and Uber Eats — all these things have just become such a main part of business.”

The mask rule has also been lifted by Alexandria Restaurant Partners, according to partner Scott Shaw. ARP owns owns Mia’s Italian Kitchen, Vola’s Dockside Grill, Theismann’s Restaurant and Bar, Lena’s Wood-Fired Pizza & Tap, Palette 22 in Shirlington, The Majestic, and opened BARCA Pier & Wine Bar a year ago.

“We’re back to running restaurants again without the complication of the complications of COVID,” Shaw said. “We feel very fortunate to have survived. It was an enormous amount of work by our team. It was just hard work. It was hard work to close the restaurants, and hard work to partially reopen. It was hard work at every stage of the game. We’ve developed a resiliency and, and adaptability that we didn’t know we had.”

Visit Alexandria also predicts that tourism will rebound, but that the hotel industry will continue to struggle.

As for nonprofits, ACT For Alexandria made impressive strides during the last two years breaking records raising millions in their annual one-day Spring2ACTion fundraiser. This year, ACT is asking for $2.5 million for the fundraiser, which is on April 27.

“We have a very generous community, and nonprofits that have been doing incredible work all year,” said ACT for Alexandria’s Brandi Yee. “It’s another chance for community members to support the nonprofits who are still on the front lines helping people who have been affected by Covid.”

Natalie Talis, a population health manager with the Alexandria Health Department, says staff are tired and a little burned out.

“The Alexandria Health Department is still here, whether or not COVID is,” Talis said. ” We will always be that important resource for helping to provide guidance to businesses, to nonprofits, to faith-based entities, as well as to residents, in terms and what are those best ways that you can protect yourself and the people around you.”

Alexandria remains in a state of emergency until June 30.

Effective March 11, we will have expanded hours for visitors.

• Visitors must be 16 years or older
• Everyone must wear a surgical/medical-grade face mask at all times. Mask will be provided if needed. Info: https://t.co/n7ZkvDWXhG pic.twitter.com/qM24IMa0Jp

— Inova Health (@InovaHealth) March 10, 2022

As of Monday (March 7), Alexandria City Public Schools staff are no longer required to wear face masks in schools.

Staff were informed of the rule change in an email on Friday (March 4) that wearing masks in ACPS facilities and vehicles is optional, with few exceptions. Additionally, all ACPS staff (not including substitutes) will get paid emergency leave if unable to work due to COVID-19.

“Effective Monday, March 7, 2022, due to the updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, masks will be optional for staff in ACPS facilities and vehicles, with a few exceptions,” wrote Melanie Kay-Wyatt, the ACPS acting chief of human resources. “Specifically, ACPS will continue to require school health staff to wear masks when they are providing medical services to students. These staff members are being notified separately of their mask requirements. ACPS strongly encourages all staff to continue to wear masks.”

Teachers will not divide classrooms based on masking status, ACPS recently announced.

The change comes a week after the face mask mandate was lifted for students on March 1 — the same day that Alexandria made the wearing of face masks optional in city government buildings.

Wearing masks is still encouraged during periods of “Substantial” and “High” transmission, which the city has experienced for much of the pandemic. Alexandria and its neighboring jurisdictions currently have a “Low” community level of transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

ACPS has also increased pay for substitutes.

Daily substitute pay has been increased from $110 per day to $124.50, and long-term substitutes has been increased from $157.59 to $172.09 per day.

“The nationwide substitute teacher shortage has reached such a critical level that ACPS will increase substitute pay for the rest of the 2021-2022 school year,” ACPS told teachers. “In July 2022, ACPS will review the need for extending the substitute pay increase for the 2022-2023 school year.”

Local businesses will have until the summer to enjoy the fruits of a temporary program that has allowed restaurants to provide curbside pickups, suspend regular operating hours and sell alcohol to-go.

City Council, on Saturday, will consider extending the temporary relief program to local businesses from April 1 to June 30, and expire along with the city’s state of emergency that same day.

The proposed extension would “provide restaurants and retailers the benefit of more time to submit applications for commercial parklets and construct the necessary decking for those who choose to continue use of on-street parking spaces,” city staff said in a report.

Additionally, on Tuesday, City Council approved a staff proposal to start charging annual rent to business owners for their use of parklets.

The following measures are now permanent, and would not be impacted by the new deadline: