The Alexandria City Council on Saturday unanimously voted on Saturday to align the city’s face mask ordinance with the state’s guidance.
That means that Governor Ralph Northam’s recent lifting of the mask mandate applies to vaccinated city residents, and that any additional changes his office makes will not need local approval.
The ribbon was cut at the Inova Cares Clinic for Women on Saturday, providing the West End with obstetrics and gynecological services.
The ribbon cutting was attended by a number of local politicians, including members of the General Assembly and Mayor Justin Wilson. Also unveiled was a new Inova Ewing Forensic Assessment and Consultation Teams department (FACT) to support domestic violence and assault victims.
About 40% of City residents have gotten their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, and nearly 30% have been fully inoculated.
Alexandrians can walk in to get their COVID-19 vaccine, as the city expects 12,650 doses this week, including first and second doses, according to the Alexandria Health Department.
Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson has asked City staff to prepare a revised face mask ordinance since news broke that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is advising that anyone who is fully vaccinated no longer needs to wear them.
“Fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask outdoors, except in certain crowded settings and venues,” the CDC said Tuesday. “For the purposes of this guidance, people are considered fully vaccinated for COVID-19 (more than) 2 weeks after they have received the second dose in a 2-dose series (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna), or (more than) 2 weeks after they have received a single-dose vaccine (Johnson and Johnson (J&J)/Janssen).”
Alexandria health director reflects on sudden retirement, tenure with city — “When Dr. Stephen Haering, director of the Alexandria Health Department for the past 11 years, unexpectedly announced his retirement on April 9, he did so for what he called ‘deeply personal’ reasons. Haering, whose retirement was effective immediately according to a city news release, told the Times in an interview that his departure was ‘not associated with the pandemic response.'” [Alex Times]
Vaccination drive brings a dose of hope for restaurant workers — “More than 1,000 restaurant and small business employees have filed through the doors of the old Fireflies restaurant over the past few weeks with the same purpose: receiving COVID-19 vaccinations. The location’s current vacancy made this the perfect site to administer such a large number of shots, Bill Blackburn, restaurateur and co-owner of Homegrown Restaurant Group, said. Blackburn joined forces with community organizer Charlotte Hall and Scott Shaw of Alexandria Restaurant Partners – who donated the space – to orchestrate the Alexandria Restaurant Drive whereby restaurant workers could receive vaccinations in a streamlined way.” [Alex Times]
Following new concerns about potential side effects, Alexandria and statewide health administrations are pausing all planned Johnson & Johnson vaccinations.
The news comes after the CDC and the FDA released a recommendation to stop using the vaccine after six patients reportedly developed a rare and severe type of blood clot.
“This does not include additional vaccine supplies from federal programs provided directly to participating pharmacies and Alexandria’s federally qualified health center, Neighborhood Health,” according to AHD.
Residents are encouraged to pre-register with the city to get on the vaccine waitlist at alexandriava.gov/Vaccines or call 703-746-4988 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
There’s a line nowadays that snakes around the corner from the old Pet Valu store at 3819 Mount Vernon Avenue in Arlandria. The store has been repurposed as a vaccine site for Neighborhood Health, which has given away more than 16,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to low income and mostly minority residents.
“We have provided 16,000 vaccines between all the sites, and 85% of them have been to people of color,” Neighborhood Health Executive Director Dr. Basim Khan told ALXnow. “We’ve ramped it up over time since we started. So at this point we’re at 5,000 vaccines a week.”
Two more Alexandrians have died of COVID-19 and the death toll from the virus now stands at 128.
The latest fatalities were in their 80s and 60s.
There have been seven more coronavirus-related deaths in Alexandria, bringing the death toll from the virus to 126.
Alexandria’s caseload now stands at 10,456. That’s 114 more cases since this time last week, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
There have been 12 more coronavirus-related deaths in Alexandria, bringing the death toll from the virus to 119.
Six of the deaths were residents in their 80s, four were in their 70s and two were in their 60s. Five victims were women and seven were men.
