The Alexandria City Council, on Tuesday, will likely extend its local emergency declaration until January 31, 2022.
The declaration, which was first approved by Council in March 2020, has been continually updated every six months, and finds that “the emergency continues to exist and will exist into the future.”
Alexandria’s seven-day average of positive COVID-19 tests is now the lowest in Virginia.
The percentage was 3.1%, as of Tuesday, September 7, even though the city is experiencing a high level of transmission for the third straight week, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
With COVID-19 numbers sharply rising in Alexandria, the city is advising parents to expect cases at schools and daycares.
So far this month, 14 cases have been reported in Alexandria City Public Schools.
There has been a 155% increase in the number of COVID-19 cases reported in Alexandria this month versus July, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
As of August 24, there have been 521 new cases reported this month, a sharp uptick from the 204 new cases reported in July, which was a 343% increase over the 43 new cases in June. There has also been another death — the first since July 13 — and the death toll from the virus now stands at 142.
Alexandria’s COVID transmission levels have been upped from “substantial” to “high”, and the city’s Health Department is recommending that severely immunocompromised residents get a third vaccine shot.
Alexandria now has 12,490 cases of COVID-19 reported since the first case in March 2020. That’s an increase of 40 reported cases since Monday.
A vaccine mandate for Alexandria government employees will be ready for implementation by this fall, according to Mayor Justin Wilson.
“The policy is being finalized in place right now and should be in place in the September/October timeframe,” Wilson told ALXnow. “This will likely not come before Council as this is in the City Manager’s purview. Although he is of course keeping us up to date.”
As Alexandria City Public Schools plans a systemwide reopening to full-time in-person instruction on August 24, staff will not be required to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
ACPS told ALXnow that there is not a vaccine requirement at this time.
Alexandria ranks ninth in Virginia for small businesses — “Alexandria ranked ninth overall among Virginia localities with a small business index score of 39.17. The city was seventh for percentage of small business income — 10.11 percent.” [Patch]
Alexandria ranked by CDC as third best city in U.S. for surviving zombie apocalypse — “It seems the CDC-yes, the Centers for Disease Control were kind of bored a while back and actually posted a Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Guide which recently inspired a company called Lawn Love to dig into a bunch of data and develop 2021’s Best Cities for Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse and Alexandria, Virginia turns out to be a good spot to be in such an event.” [Zebra]
With the city starting to see an upswing in COVID-19 cases, the city is updating some of it’s guidance for local residents and directing them to resources — like where to go if you lost that vaccination card that was frustratingly not wallet-sized.
Over the last few months, there’s been an average of 10-20 new COVID-19 cases reported daily; a far cry from the peaks of hundreds of new cases earlier this year but a noticable increase. There has been a total of 73 new cases per 100,000 persons for the last seven days, which is considered substantial transmission.
Where you live in Alexandria can determine your life expectancy, and a newly released City plan is focusing on removing the effects of decades of discriminatory practices.
The Community Health Improvement Plan 2025 (CHIP) is a blueprint to address poverty, mental health, and housing policies and systems in the city. For instance, the average life expectancy in the city’s heavily Hispanic Arlandria neighborhood is 78, while more affluent areas like Old Town have a life expectancy of 87.
Alexandria has seen a jump in its COVID-19 numbers this month, as the state health department says unvaccinated Virginians are making up 99.6% of new cases.
The Virginia Department of Health, on Friday, revealed the information in a new dashboard that launched Friday. Alexandria has suffered 11,921 reported cases, 140 deaths and 572 hospitalizations since the onset of the pandemic. The last death was reported on July 1, there were two deaths in June and four deaths in May.
