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.
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.
Wearing face masks in government buildings is now optional in Alexandria, as nearly two years of the pandemic restriction winds to a close.
The decision, which was announced on March 1, comes after new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave Alexandria and its neighboring jurisdictions a “Low” community level of transmission.
The hour-long presentation at Alexandria City High School focused on new programs to offer free associate degrees to Alexandria City High School graduates, improving graduation rates for Hispanic males and sticking to the ACPS 2025 Equity For All Strategic Plan. The speech did not focus on more controversial issues, such as Covid-related mandates or public safety issues within the school system.
“Our strategic plan takes us through 2025 and I know it sounds like it’s far away, but we’re already in 2022,” Hutchings said. “And we will still have much to accomplish to fulfill all of these accomplishments.”
Alexandria City Public Schools told students in today’s morning announcements to respect the decisions of their peers who choose to not wear face masks in schools or on buses.
Senate Bill 739 went into effect today, allowing for Virginia parents to elect to opt their children out of mask wearing — reversing course on a rule that has been in effect since the beginning days of the pandemic in 2020.
After nearly two years of the pandemic in Alexandria, Mayor Justin Wilson says it is now time to turn the corner against COVID-19.
In his monthly newsletter, Wilson wrote that more than 80% of city residents have been vaccinated, more than a third have gotten booster shots and anyone can get a vaccine who wants one.
Alexandria, Fairfax County and Arlington now have low Covid transmission levels, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC’s last update on community levels was on Feb. 25. The Virginia Department of Health still lists the city’s transmission rate as high, although the categorization has not been updated since Feb. 19. Alexandria has experienced high transmission since December.
Alexandria’s DASH bus service is headed back to regular service after the omicron surge of COVID-19 forced the bus system to operate with a reduced schedule.
DASH scaled back its weekday bus service in December, with many lines operating on the reduced weekend hours and frequency.
The rapid decline in Covid cases continues in Alexandria, but the transmission level remains high, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
There were 14 were cases of COVID-19 reported in the city today, according to VDH. That’s the lowest number of new daily cases since November 29, 2021, when 13 cases were reported.
Alexandria teen shot to death in D.C. — “According to a news release from D.C. police, officers responded to reports of a shooting in the unit block of Chesapeake Street in Southeast D.C. around 8:09 p.m., where they located Francis suffering from multiple gunshot wounds in a parked car.” [Alex Times]
Alexandria Schools start ‘Test to Stay’ program — “The new program will allow some students to return to school following five days of quarantine under a variety of conditions.” [Alexandria Living]
Regardless of a reporting inaccuracy by the Virginia Department of Health, Alexandria’s Covid numbers are still going down.
VDH identified 220 cases that were “inaccurately auto-generated duplicated in the case reporting system,” which is why there were 19 cases reported on Feb. 6, 20 cases on Feb. 7 and 43 cases on Feb. 8 — all sharp contrasts to the hundreds of daily cases being reported the previous week. Additionally, three deaths from January were also added to the city’s death toll, which now stands at 176.
