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Morning Notes

Published September 22, 2020 at 9:00AM

Virginia Tech Announces Advisory Board for Innovation Campus — “The board consists of company leaders along with several tech pioneers. Members include Sanju Bansal, founder and CEO of Hunch Analytics; Dave Calhoun, president and CEO of Boeing; Ted Colbert, executive vice president of Boeing; Joe DeSimone, professor at Stanford University and executive chairman and co-founder of Carbon; Lynne Doughtie, former chairman and CEO of KPMG; Regina Dugan, CEO of Wellcome Leap; Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm; Russ Ramsey, board chair of Greater Washington Partnership; Kathy Warden, CEO, of Northrop Grumman Corporation; Glenn Youngkin, co-chief executive officer of The Carlyle Group.” [Patch]

Beyer: Trump and Republicans Should Feel Same Urgency With COVID-19 as Ginsburg Replacement — “Imagine if Donald Trump and Senate Republicans felt this urgency about responding to a pandemic that has now killed over 200,000 Americans. 4 months ago the House passed a bill to help American families and boost the economy. Mitch McConnell said he didn’t feel any ‘urgency.'” [Twitter]

News

COVID-19 Update: Deaths at 68, Cases at 3,716 in Alexandria

By James Cullum

Published September 21, 2020 at 11:30AM | Updated September 21, 2020 at 1:16PM

Two more COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Alexandria, and the death toll from the virus now stands at 68.

The victims were in their 50s and 60s.

News

UPDATE: Alexandria City Council Extends State of Emergency to March 2021

By James Cullum

Published September 21, 2020 at 10:15AM | Updated September 23, 2020 at 11:55AM

The emergency room at Inova Alexandria Hospital. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

(Updated at 11:45 a.m. on September 23) The Alexandria City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved extending the declaration of a local emergency due to the pandemic from the end of this month t0 March 31, 2021.

If approved, the city will end up being under a state of emergency for a little more than a year. It would expire at midnight on March 31.

News

Four More COVID-19 Deaths in Alexandria

By James Cullum

Published September 16, 2020 at 10:30AM

The emergency room at Inova Alexandria Hospital. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

Four more COVID-19 deaths have been reported in Alexandria, bringing the death toll from the virus to 66. Three of the deaths occurred last month, and the most recent casualty was reported today by the Virginia Department of Health.

Three of the fatalities occurred in August and went unreported for a month until a periodic review of vital records, according to the city.

News

Morning Notes

By James Cullum

Published September 15, 2020 at 9:00AM | Updated September 15, 2020 at 7:35PM

Mayor: Council to Accelerate Sewer Capacity Projects — “Our ’16 Storm Sewer Capacity Analysis identified 90 areas where the system does not meet our CURRENT design standard of a 10-year storm. Our Stormwater Utility Fee was implemented in ’18 to fund capacity and environmental compliance. Council will now discuss how to accelerate.” [Facebook]

Beyer Attacks Trump’s Environmental Stance — “Trump’s climate change strategy is the same as his pandemic strategy: play it down and pretend it isn’t happening. There are a record number of named storms in the Atlantic and the west coast is on fire.” [Twitter]

News

ALIVE! Gets Donation of Large Refrigerated Shipping Container

By James Cullum

Published September 14, 2020 at 3:30PM | Updated September 14, 2020 at 5:19PM

ALIVE! received a refrigerated container. (Courtesy photo)

ALIVE! has given away hundreds of thousands of pounds of food since the onset of the pandemic, and on Monday the nonprofit got an additional boost with the donation of a large refrigerated shipping container.

The trailer was a gift from AMX Leasing, which is a part of Abilene Motor Express. It was arranged by Alexandria Living Legend Marion Moon, the CEO of the Convention Tradeshow Freight Specialists.

News

COVID-19 Update: Cases at 3,613 in Alexandria, No New Deaths

By James Cullum

Published September 14, 2020 at 2:30PM | Updated September 14, 2020 at 3:01PM

Alexandria has seen an increase of 86 cases since this time last week, and the city’s seven-day positivity rate is no longer the lowest in the region, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

There have been 62 deaths in the city due to the virus (unchanged since last week) and there are or have been 3,613 cases of coronavirus in the city since the first case was reported on March 11.

News

City Council Passes Mask Ordinance, and There’s No Fine for Noncompliance

By James Cullum

Published September 14, 2020 at 1:35PM | Updated September 18, 2020 at 11:33AM

Walking on King Street in Old Town, Alexandria (staff photo by James Cullum)

The Alexandria City Council on Saturday passed an ordinance requiring everyone in the city to wear a face mask in public.

The measure passed 5-2, and a $100 civil penalty for not wearing a mask was removed from the ordinance before passage after it was universally agreed at the meeting by council and city staff that it will not be enforceable. The city manager must now designate city staff to hand out masks and citations to lawbreakers.

News

COVID-19 Update: Cases at 3,527, No New Deaths in Alexandria

By James Cullum

Published September 8, 2020 at 10:30AM

Alexandria has seen an increase of 149 cases since this time last week, and the city’s seven-day positivity rate continues to be lowest in the region, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

There have been 62 deaths in the city due to the virus (unchanged since last week) and 3,527 cases of coronavirus in the city. There have also been 33,332 (polymerase chain reaction) tests administered in the city so far, 4,342 antibody tests and the city’s seven-day positivity rate is the lowest in the region at 4.3%.

News

Del Ray’s New ‘Wellness District’ Expands Offerings With Wellness Month

By James Cullum

Published September 3, 2020 at 4:45PM | Updated September 3, 2020 at 10:14PM

The wellness-related businesses in Del Ray have banded together to form The Wellness District, and the annual week devoted to providing care to the community has expanded into the entire month of September.

All this month is Wellness Month in Del Ray, and the offerings include gong meditations, outdoor yoga and free mental health webinars.

News

Alexandria’s COVID Positive Testing Rate Lowest in Region

By James Cullum

Published August 31, 2020 at 11:30AM

As the city suffers the latest death by COVID-19, the seven-day positivity rate is now the lowest in the region at 4.5% of residents tested for the virus, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

On Friday, the city reported that an Alexandria resident in their 50s died from the virus, bringing the death toll to 62. There are now or have been 3,378 cases of coronavirus in the city.