Alexandria’s Covid numbers are going down, but the numbers of new reported cases continues to rise by the hundreds on a daily basis.
There have been 26,907 total cases reported by the Virginia Department of Health as of today (Monday, Jan. 18), and the number of deaths has climbed by two since last week to 163. Sunday, Jan. 17, saw the the fewest single day number of cases reported so far this year with 191 new cases.
The Alexandria City Council will likely extend the city’s state of emergency from the end of January to June 30, 2022. Tuesday night’s (Jan. 11) vote will be the fifth extension of the declaration since the pandemic began in March 2020.
The declaration, which was first approved by Council in March 2020, has been continually updated, and finds that “the emergency continues to exist and will exist into the future.”
Fresh from a bout with Covid that left Mayor Justin Wilson isolating in Spain, Wilson’s first virtual town hall of 2022 launched with a discussion of the current situation with COVID-19.
Alexandria has seen record-high levels of confirmed Covid cases thanks to the highly infections omicron variant. Wilson implored locals to swap out the simple cloth masks for more effective N95 or KN 95 masks.
Alexandria surged past 20,000 new cases of COVID-19 going into the New Year, and on Sunday (Jan. 2) set yet another single-day record for the most reported cases ever.
COVID-19 peaked in Alexandria on Sunday with 1,040 newly reported cases, according to the Virginia Department of Health. As of today (Tuesday, Jan. 4) there have been 20,875 reported cases, which is more than 3,000 within the last week.
Alexandria is seeing an uptick in reported COVID cases in part due to the Omicron variant, but it could also have something to do with the record number of Alexandrians getting COVID tested before the holidays.
Mayor Justin Wilson said on Twitter that the city saw its single biggest day for COVID testing last Friday.
In the last two weeks, Alexandria went from just over 15,000 reported cases of COVID-19 to surpassing 16,000 cases.
As of today (Monday, Dec. 20) there have been 16,075 reported cases of the coronavirus in Alexandria, and more of 800 of new infections have listed since this time last week by the Virginia Department of Health. There have also been 156 deaths from the virus.
Alexandria’s transmission rate remains “High” for the second week in a row, as the first case of the Omicron variant has been detected in Virginia, which just surpassed 1 million cases of COVID-19.
There have been 1,000,694 reported cases of COVID-19 in Virginia since the pandemic began in March 2020. There have also been 14,957 deaths statewide.
As the city prepares for the Scottish Christmas Walk Weekend, Alexandria’s COVID-19 infections have continued a steady decline through the holidays.
The upcoming annual festivities were put on hold last year, and it usually bring thousands of visitors to Alexandria.
The Alexandria Health Department is advising residents to take COVID-19 tests before and after traveling this Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
“Everyone has a role in keeping COVID-19 out of holiday gatherings,” AHD said in a release, and advised unvaccinated residents to skip traveling altogether. “If travel is unavoidable, get a COVID-19 test 1-3 days before and 3-5 days after travel. Those who are fully vaccinated should still monitor themselves for symptoms after travel or large gatherings and get tested if needed.”
Old Town Books to open ‘Juniors’ pop-up shop — “Old Town Books is opening a winter pop-up shop called Old Town Books Juniors this month.” [Alexandria Living Magazine]
Public invited to help lay wreaths at Alexandria National Cemetery Dec. 18 — “On Saturday, Dec. 18 — the same day as the wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery — there is another gathering planned for Alexandria National Cemetery.” [Zebra]
Alexandria is one of several localities around Virginia selected for a Virginia Department of Health (VDH) program that will be distributing free COVID testing kits from the local libraries.
Alexandria libraries could, this week, begin distributing COVID-19 testing kits, the VDH said in a press release.
