coronavirus

BREAKING: Covid case count in Arlington spikes amid Omicron worries

By ARLnow.com
Covid cases in Arlington as of 12/17/21 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

(Updated at 4 p.m.) Arlington County just recorded the second- and third-highest single-day Covid case totals of the pandemic.

The 168 cases reported on Thursday was the county’s second-highest daily case total for 24 hours, before being supplanted by the 185 cases reported today. The local single-day record remains the 193 cases recorded on Jan. 9, 2021, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data.

Arlington’s seven-day moving average of new coronavirus cases spiked this week after a brief plateau, reaching an average of 98.4 cases per day today.

Hospitalizations — which typically lag reports of new cases by a week or more — are also on the rise, with six new hospitalizations between Monday and Thursday. Prior to this week, Arlington had not seen a day with a reported hospitalization since Nov. 29.

The county’s test positivity rate continues to increase as well, and currently stands at 4.7%. That doesn’t incorporate data from the past couple of days, however — preliminary numbers from VDH suggest a 9.3% positivity rate for lab reports on Wednesday, when 1,931 PCR tests were performed in Arlington.

This morning, a long line could be seen outside the county’s Covid testing booth in Courthouse.

Line for Covid testing in Courthouse on Dec. 17, 2021

The rise in cases in Arlington comes as the nation appears to be on the verge of a significant wave of cases fueled by the new, more infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19.

“It’s here now and it’s spreading and it’s gonna increase,” President Biden said today of Omicron case, as quoted by Axios. “We are looking at a winter of severe illness and death for the unvaccinated — for themselves, their families and the hospitals they’ll soon overwhelm.”

On CNN, one infectious disease expert described what’s coming as a “viral blizzard.”

In the New York City area, which is seeing a big increase in cases, the test positivity rate doubled over the course of three days last week. Closer to home, D.C. yesterday reported just over 500 cases, its highest single-day case total of the pandemic. Today’s D.C. case count was even higher.

While Arlington’s vaccination rate — more than 90% of the adult population has received at least one jab — makes the county less susceptible to the worst health outcomes from a large Covid wave, there could still be a sizable influx to local hospitals.

Statewide, hospitalizations are increasing, though Virginia still currently has 2,420 available hospital beds, including 383 ICU beds which typically used by Covid patients who need help breathing when the virus causes severe respiratory problems.

Hospitalizations in Virginia as of 12/17/21 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

Even if Arlington is fortunate enough to avoid a significant increase in serious illness from Covid this winter, a large wave would have other deleterious effects. Masking requirements may become stricter in some places and temporary closures of certain venues are possible. Daycare centers, pre-schools and K-12 schools could have outbreaks that send many students home to quarantine.

Arlington Public Schools has seen a more than 60% rise in cases over the past week, compared to the prior seven day period — 103 cases this past week compared to 64 cases the previous week.

The Biden administration today announced a new “test to stay” strategy that could keep students who were in close contact with those who test positive in schools, rather than quarantining at home for 1-2 weeks.

CNBC, meanwhile, reported today that Omicron is likely to further delay plans to return to bring workers back to office buildings. Others that have brought workers back may temporarily go back to remote-only, as the company behind ARLnow announced today for its in-person employees.

Expect more closure announcements and testing shortages in the coming weeks, experts caution. Just this afternoon, Arlington County said it was having issues with limited supplies of testing kits.

On the bright side, if Omicron infection patterns from South Africa hold, it’s possible that the current wave may be relatively short-lived and result in milder cases than the waning (but still present) wave of Delta variant cases.

More via social media:

Future looks uncertain for APS Virtual Learning Program

By Jo DeVoe

The future of Arlington Public Schools’ in-house Virtual Learning Program appears to hang in the balance.

The school system developed the program over the summer to give families an alternative to five days a week of in-person instruction. APS made in-person learning the default this fall after offering remote and later, hybrid instruction, last school year. About 600 students attend the VLP.

A little more than three months in, some educators say there are signs that the program may fizzle. We’re told the VLP was not listed as an option for next year during a recent middle school information night and that APS is processing a number of requests to return in-person.

APS confirmed there’s conjecture about the longevity of the program — which got off to a rocky start, in part due to staffing shortages — but said no decision has been made.

“While we know there is speculation about the future of the VLP, which was created as a response to the pandemic, no final decisions have been made,” APS spokesman Frank Bellavia said. “We will share information once a final decision is made regarding the program.”

Teacher Josh Folb says it’s clear that commitment to the program is waning.

“In the past, everyone said that they were committed to the long term future of the VLP,” he said. “When that line changes to ‘We will let you know,’ they have obviously changed their level of commitment. Previously, it wasn’t a discussion.”

In October, for example, administrators laid out what they were doing to improve the program in the immediate and long term.

New and retired teachers and administrators were hired to fill in vacancies and a review of the program was underway. Staff had a new system for tracking and responding to emails and phone calls from families requesting assistance. APS hired a new principal to take over for interim leader Amy Jackson, who abruptly replaced the original VLP administrator, Verlese Gaither.

“We absolutely want to broaden our vision and program for a robust VLP,” Bridget Loft, the assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, told the School Board at the time.

But families continue to request to transfer to brick-and-mortar schools. The VLP program had 711 students in September, 630 in October and about 600 students this month.

Last week, APS asked families to indicate their preference for in-person or online instruction for the rest of the school year, a VLP teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, tells ARLnow. By Monday, families were told the following: “There is a significant number of requests from parents to have their children return to in-person instruction. We are diligently working to expedite those requests.”

Bellavia says that’s expected as children become eligible for the vaccine.

“Families have always had the flexibility to move back to in person learning when they were comfortable to do so,” he said. “Now that vaccines are available, families feel safer in sending their students back to school. Enrollment fluctuations have no bearing on staffing.”

Meanwhile, the VLP teacher — with whom ARLnow also spoke when the program debuted — said some of the communication and coordination problems she, fellow staff and parents ran into then persist today.

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First responders facing possible job loss petition county to reverse vaccine mandate

By Jo DeVoe

A group of Arlington County first responders and staff from other departments are petitioning the county to reverse course on its vaccine mandate.

Those who elect not to get the vaccine risk losing their jobs come February, per the county’s updated vaccine policy, shared with ARLnow.

Arlington County mandated vaccines for all government employees back in August, requiring those who were unvaccinated to submit to weekly testing. Since then, the county added a deadline to its policy: unvaccinated employees have until Feb. 1, 2022 to get the vaccine or get a medical or religious exemption. Those without a vaccine or an exemption on Feb. 1 will be placed on leave, and if they obtain neither before Feb. 28, 2022, they lose their jobs.

Some 278 of 3,137 permanent county employees are unvaccinated, including an unknown number of religious or medical exemptions, according to Public Health Division spokesman Ryan Hudson.

Those requesting the county to change its policy are asking for “more reciprocal ideas” for ensuring employee health and safety. The petition, started by firefighter Sterling Montague, has garnered nearly 300 signatures, from employees and their friends and family.

“More people came out in the last week than I ever knew of who are in support of the guys who don’t want to get the vaccine,” Montague tells ARLnow, adding that the coalition represents different demographics and opinions, including those who are vaccinated but oppose mandates.

“We aren’t uniformly anything,” he said. “We are anti-mandate for lots of reasons… [and] we have a diverse group that includes African-Americans and Hispanics.”

The petition says the mandate disproportionately harms people of color and it’s unclear what recourse folks have if those forced to take the vaccine suffer side effects. Objections to the shot, meanwhile, include that it was designed for a previous version of the virus and only protects for a short period of time and wanes, requiring an unknown number of additional boosters.

The county maintains that vaccines are safe and the best protection against COVID-19 — something echoed by the vast majority of doctors and public health professionals.

Arlington Public Health Director Dr. Reuben Varghese said mandates work, linking rising vaccination rates among those older than 18 to various mandates during a County Board recessed meeting on Tuesday.

Rather than terminate up to 10% of employees — while the county faces ongoing and predicted workforce shortages among first responders and in other county departments — the petition suggests affordable, at-work tests for unvaccinated folks and those who report to work with symptoms while counting previous COVID-19 cases towards immunization.

Testing isn’t cheap. For the last three weeks, that testing has cost the county about $7,300 per week, but it’s 100% reimbursed under the White House’s COVID-19 Disaster Declaration, Hudson said.

Those opposed to the mandate say these temporary solutions are important as the pandemic and the vaccines evolve and because they’re worried few who applied will be granted religious and medical exemptions.

“It’s like they’re trying to fire us before things change,” Montague said. “If, in a year, this is the same, you’d have a year more credibility to fire us, but it doesn’t make sense to fire us as soon as possible.” (more…)

Arlington’s post-Thanksgiving rise in Covid cases plateaus, for now

By ARLnow.com
Covid cases in Arlington as of 12/14/21 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

A post-Thanksgiving rise in Covid cases in Arlington appears to have plateaued over the past few days — at least for now.

The seven-day moving average of new daily cases in the county currently stands at 67, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data. That’s up from an average of 23 cases per day Thanksgiving weekend.

The last time the Covid caseload was this high locally was mid-February. However, with 91.4% of the adult population in Arlington now at least partially vaccinated, reports of serious illness and death are down significantly since then.

No new Covid-related deaths have been reported in Arlington since Dec. 3, according to VDH.

Despite the current plateau in cases, Arlington’s test positivity rate continues to point upward. After dipping below 2% around Halloween, the test positivity rate over the past week stands at 4.4%.

Nationally, there’s both good news and bad news about the pandemic today.

The bad news is that the Biden administration reportedly expects a “large wave” of cases this winter due to the emerging Omicron variant.

“New data from South Africa and Europe hint that Omicron cases are poised to explode in the U.S., where the vast majority of the population isn’t well protected against infection,” Axios reported today. “A new analysis by South Africa’s largest private insurer paints a picture of Omicron’s clinical risk: Two doses of Pfizer’s vaccine appear to be significantly less effective against severe disease with Omicron than previous variants.”

The good news is that the effective end date of the pandemic might be in sight. Drugmaker Pfizer announced today that a new therapeutic drug that combats serious illness from Covid appears to be highly effective.

“Pfizer’s updated results for its experimental treatment for Covid-19 showed it cut the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% if given to high-risk adults within a few days of their first symptoms, the company announced in a news release Tuesday,” CNN reported this morning. “Pfizer hopes it can eventually offer the pills, under the name Paxlovid, for people to take at home before they get sick enough to go to the hospital. Paxlovid combines a new antiviral drug named nirmatrelvir and an older one called ritonavir.”

Such a drug, if it receives FDA approval, could herald the arrival of Covid’s endemic stage, where the virus continues to circulate but poses a lower risk of hospitalization and death thanks to vaccines, prior infection and antiviral treatments — much like the flu.

Until then, the focus of local health authorities remains mitigation measures to prevent rapid spread of the virus and continuing to promote vaccinations and vaccine booster shots. Arlington County is currently offering boosters for 16-17 year-olds, in addition to adults.

https://twitter.com/ReadyArlington/status/1470389549641736194

County libraries run out of free at-home COVID-19 rapid tests within hours

By Matt Blitz
Arlington Central Library (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Within hours of offering free at-home COVID-19 rapid test kits on Friday, Arlington County libraries ran out.

All seven open library locations were offering tests — 360 tests in total, across all branches — but all were claimed by 12:10 p.m.

Demand was higher than expected, Arlington Public Library Deputy Director Anne Gable tells ARLnow, and people lined up at library doors to get the tests. The number of tests sent by the Virginia Department of Health was based on previous responses at other libraries in the Commonwealth, she notes.

Each branch received a different number of tests.

“It was proportional to the user base of the locations,” writes Gable. “Meaning, the more heavily used locations got more tests and the less used locations got fewer tests.”

More test kits are expected to be available sometime this week and staff will make sure more will be offered this time around.

Some residents were upset with the lack of tests.

Meanwhile, Fairfax County Libraries received 20,000 COVID-19 rapid tests and all branches were still stocked as of Friday afternoon.

In recent days, there’s been an ongoing national conversation about why there are so few low-cost, at-home COVID-19 tests available in the U.S., particularly in comparison to Europe.

Arlington’s director of emergency management took to social media to remind residents that if they are in need of a COVID-19 test more immediately, there are three free county testing sites open daily.

Library hours remain limited until Jan. 3, when seven out of eight branches will fully reopen for the first time in nearly two years.

Covid cases still rising in Arlington as county records new ten-month high

By ARLnow.com

A post-Thanksgiving rise in Covid cases has continued unabated this week.

On Thursday, Arlington County recorded 85 cases, the biggest one-day case total since Feb. 6. The seven-day moving average of new daily cases is now 62, the highest point since mid-February.

The test positivity rate in Arlington is now 4%, a point last seen in August.

Cases are also rising at Arlington Public Schools, according to the school system’s Covid dashboard. So far this week there have been 56 positive cases, compared to 43 last week, according to APS data.

With high rates of vaccination in Arlington, reports of serious illness remain low, however. One Covid-related death has been reported since the start of the month. The net number of hospitalizations for the month is actually negative — down by three — after the Virginia Dept. of Health cleaned up some previous hospitalization data.

In a statement yesterday, Northern Virginia health districts referred to the current rise in cases as a new “winter surge.”

As disease transmission increases, Public Health leaders in the Northern Virginia region (Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun, Arlington Counties, including all towns and municipalities- and the City of Alexandria) are encouraging residents to maintain their vigilance in curbing the spread of COVID-19 to minimize hospitalizations and deaths during this winter surge.

Since the start of this pandemic almost two years ago, there have been more than 2,600 COVID-19 deaths, 9,000 hospitalizations, and 230,000 cases in northern Virginia. Many of the hospitalizations and deaths occurred during last winter’s surge.

Fortunately, this winter we have wide access to vaccinations, which have been shown to lead to a dramatic reduction in hospitalizations and death. Additionally, indoor mask use in work and school settings has been shown to significantly decrease the risk of transmission; this is seen most strikingly in the higher number and size of COVID-19 outbreaks in school settings where masks are less used, such as in athletics or in schools that have higher rates of mask exemptions.

“Northern Virginia residents have continually shown that we can work together to fight the COVID-19 pandemic – through vaccination, indoor mask use, testing and staying home when sick,” said Dr. David C. Rose, health director for the City of Alexandria. “We all need to keep up our defenses throughout the winter surge to best protect ourselves and to keep our kids in school.”

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Arlington one of the top localities in country for use of public transportation, census data shows

By Matt Blitz
A Metro train heads east as traffic heads west along I-66 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Arlington County continues to be one of the top localities regionally and nationwide for residents using public transit to commute to and from work, recent census data shows.

Earlier this year, a trove of U.S. census data was released. While much of it remains in need of analyzing, some enterprising researchers are pulling from 2020 data sets to drill down on very specific questions, like which counties have the highest percentage of workers using public transportation to commute.

Arlington is No. 10 among U.S. counties, with 27% of residents using public transportation for work commuting, according to one researcher’s parsing of the data.

A county official said the data does line up with the county’s own findings.

“The numbers, overall, don’t surprise me because Arlington has been focused for a really long time on building a community that maximizes travel options and has really rebuilt itself around rail and more recently, focused on bus,” says Arlington’s Transportation Bureau Chief Dennis Leach.

However, he notes that 2020 data should be “approached with a lot of caution” due to COVID’s impact on public transit use and the challenging task of collecting data through the pandemic year.

In 2010, according to Census data, an estimated 28.5% of Arlingtonians used public transportation to commute to and from work. By 2019, that number ticked up slightly to 29.7%.

While preliminary 2020 data shows a nearly 3% decrease in public transit use by Arlington workers, Leach notes that it’s really hard to make an apples to apples comparison to previous years due to remote work, a shift in commuter patterns, and the lack of travel in general — all of which are related to the pandemic.

“I don’t think we’re actually to see really good [transit] data… until sometime in 2022 or even maybe as far out as a full year later, in 2023,” Leach says.

What is clear, according to Leach, is that Arlington is much less auto-dependent than other local jurisdictions.

While D.C. remains number one locally in terms of use of public transit, with more than a third of residents using it to commute, Arlington is number two, well above nearby localities like Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Montgomery County, Md.

Dr. Delario Lindsey, a professor at Arlington’s Marymount University who is studying urban development and equality, agrees that there’s been a considerable effort to make public transportation more accessible in Arlington in recent years. He says the county is currently doing a “decent job” in developing and building infrastructure that’s more accommodating to non-car-related travel, driven by the desires of a younger generation.

“There’s been an identifiable generational shift by millennials and post-millennials to not to be as car-dependent,” Lindsey says. “[They] want to live in communities that tend to be more accessible to public transportation, or be walkable, or bike-friendly.”

In Arlington, this is reflected in the immense growth of the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor over the last decade, which has a number of rail and bus transit options.

While Lindsey notes as well that 2020 and 2021 statistics won’t be able to tell a complete picture, he fully expects that the number of Arlingtonians using public transportation to commute to and from work will only grow over the next several years.

“I’d bet on that trend to keep going up,” he says.

APS requests $15 million in federal funds for academic recovery programs

By Jo DeVoe

(Updated 1:10 p.m.) Arlington Public Schools is applying to the state for more than $15.6 million in federal funds to tackle pandemic-era learning loss.

The school system says it would use the money to provide more specialized instruction, before- and after-school tutoring and expanded summer school offerings.

This money would add to the $18.9 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) III funds APS was allotted in April of this year.

“Every state received funds to distribute to school divisions as they saw fit,” Superintendent Francisco Durán said in a Nov. 16 School Board meeting. “We have heard from [the Virginia Department of Education] that school divisions, all of them, will receive some [money] if they apply.”

Applications were due last week, and the funds can be used through September 2024.

“We should know in January what funds APS may be awarded to support this work,” said APS spokesman Frank Bellavia. “We should know what grant funds we were awarded by the end of January.”

APS’s possible spending plan if it receives new grant funding (via APS)

Earlier this year, APS said that it would use the $18.9 million in ARPA funding it was allotted to balance the 2022 budget, which included paying for assessments, summer school, 12 reading and math coaches and a new Director of English Learners.

The bulk — $10.5 million — went to the new Virtual Learning Program, which had a bumpy start and today serves 630 children from diverse background. Of those students, 77% are Black, Hispanic or Asian, 60% are eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch, and 39% are English Learners, according to APS.

None of these expenses, however, increases instructional time for children, which is what parent advocacy group Arlington Parents for Education says the money should have been spent on. The organization formed last year to advocate for full-time, in-person learning while APS was remote, and now focuses on learning loss and ARPA spending.

The group had a lukewarm response to the additional instructional time outlined in the grant application.

“While any funds tied to additional instruction time are welcome, this application will likely be too little, too late. The state ESSER funding will not fund any new instruction until at least fall of 2022 and is expressly tied to providing expanded summer school, before and after school instruction, and tutoring,” APE said. “It is disappointing that APS must again (as with the reopening of schools in spring) be led by the state to do what it already has the resources to do and should already be doing, which is to provide more instructional time.”

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Lebanese Taverna launching membership program, continues to embrace Arlington as home

By Matt Blitz
1/4

The four-decade-old, Arlington-born Lebanese Taverna is launching a new membership service, providing customers with a “Chef’s Tasting” menu or a curated selection of Lebanese wines at home every month.

“This is a way to share our culture, like the things we do at home, the snacks that we eat, and the things that my parents used to make,” co-owner Grace Abi-Najm Shea tells ARLnow. “This is kind of deconstructing the food and the culture from the restaurant and bringing it to your home.”

The rotating offerings will highlight “some of the more authentic and under-explored parts of our menu,” the website notes. This could include stuffed rolled cabbage, shanklesh (Lebanese cheese balls), or okra and lamb stew.

“This is for the person who’s willing to be adventurous,” Shea says.

The wine membership (called “A Lebanese Wine Tour”) includes options for two, four, or six bottles a month and will have wines from “old, historic vineyards to new up-and-coming wineries.”

The first food and wine membership boxes will be available for pick-up or delivery starting later this month, Dec. 16.

Lebanese Taverna’s first location opened in 1979 in Arlington’s Westover neighborhood and remains a staple of the community’s commercial strip. The restaurant was founded by immigrants Tanios and Marie Abi-Najm, who had come to the U.S. to flee the civil war in their home country of Lebanon.

Since then the restaurant has expanded to more than a dozen locations in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C., including different concepts like the fast-casual Lebtav, which has a location in Ballston. The original Westover restaurant at 5900 Washington Blvd remains at the heart of the company, which is now run by the five Abi-Najm siblings, including Grace.

She says the last 20 months, which saw dining rooms shuttered and a rise in takeout and delivery, have been a “roller coaster” and have made it clear that the family needs to adapt to a new reality for restaurants, Shea said.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the word pivot a thousand times, but restaurants have to find different ways to get their products to their customers and find new customers,” Shea says.

The membership idea was born out of the success the family has seen with the Lebanese Taverna Market at 4400 Old Dominion Road near Waverly Hills, where customers are able to take home dishes, snacks, and wines.

Throughout the pandemic Arlington has remained a stronghold for Lebanese Taverna, Shea said, noting that quick service and takeout business have remained particularly strong here. Locations outside of the county saw bigger drops in business.

“In Arlington, they have watched us grow up. They have a special place in our heart and I think we have a special place in their heart,” said Shea. While talking, she got a little choked up.

“Arlington has been our biggest cheerleader since day one,” Shea said.

Overall, Lebanese Taverna is at about 80% to 90% of pre-pandemic sales, she notes.

Despite tough times, the restaurant and the family has continued to help charitable causes they believe in. Last summer, Lebanese Taverna spearheaded a fundraising drive to support relief efforts in Lebanon after an explosion in Beirut killed hundreds and injured thousands. Over $150,000 was raised through those efforts, Shea says.

This past August, the family also helped raise money for Lebanese citizens to assist with their fuel and electricity needs. Around the same time, the restaurant worked with the World Central Kitchen to provide meals for Afghan refugees.

Shea is encouraged by the continued return to normalcy with sales returning closer to pre-pandemic levels and cooking classes at the Lebanese Taverna Market coming back in January. But she remains concerned about the future due to the newly-announced variant and the already-here cold weather limiting outdoor dining.

“As good as I feel about where we are today is as scared as I am about tomorrow,” she says.

Meanwhile, Shea and her family will keep serving Arlingtonians flavors of their home country, whether it’s inside a restaurant or at home, as they have been for more than 40 years.

“My whole family is so passionate about our culture, our food, our cuisine,” she says. “We are looking forward to giving customers something a bit different than the restaurant experience.”

Cornucopia of county closures on Thanksgiving and Black Friday

By Matt Blitz
Arlington County government headquarters in Courthouse

Most county operations and services, including COVID-19 vaccinations and testing, will be closed or operating on a limited schedule for the Thanksgiving holiday on both Thursday and Friday.

County government offices, courts, community centers and libraries will all be closed both on Thursday, Nov. 25 and Friday, Nov. 26.  The Long Bridge Aquatics & Fitness Center will also be shuttered, and COVID-19 vaccinations and testing at county facilities will be paused.

Arlington County schools are closed today, as well as Thursday and Friday for the holiday.

Metered parking won’t be enforced on either day, providing Thanksgiving diners and Black Friday shoppers another thing to be thankful about.

Trash, recycling, and yard waste collection will not happen on Thanksgiving, though it will resume on Friday. Thursday routes will be run on Friday and Friday routes will be run Saturday, Nov. 27.

Arlington Transit (ART) buses will operate on a holiday schedule on Thursday, meaning many lines won’t be running. Friday will operate under the Saturday bus schedule.

Metro will be running on Thanksgiving, though at an even further reduced service level due to the pulling of the 7000 series cars after last month’s derailment.

Parking will be free, however, at all Metro-owned garages and lots.

Arlington sees slight bump in Covid cases as Thanksgiving nears

By ARLnow.com
Covid cases in Arlington as of 11/23/21 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

The average rate of new daily Covid cases in Arlington has risen more than 50% between early November and now, two days before Thanksgiving.

As locals prepare for feasts and family gatherings, Covid has rebounded from its seasonal low of about 20 cases per day earlier this month. The seven-day moving average now stands at 32 cases per day, though that is still well below Arlington’s Delta wave peak of 48 cases per day, reached in mid-September.

The bump in cases — Arlington currently has “substantial” community transmission of the virus, according to the Virginia Dept. of Health — is nonetheless a reminder that Covid is still spreading, after a relatively quiet first half of the summer that was set against the backdrop of a steep rise in vaccinations.

With 81.5% of the population having received at least one dose, the county is now focused on booster shots for adults and recently-authorized vaccine shots for younger children.

The relatively high vaccination rate has helped to tamp down severe illness in Arlington.

So far this month in Arlington there have been 615 new cases, but only 12 Covid-related hospitalizations and four deaths have been reported, according to VDH data.

Local, state and federal authorities are urging anyone gathering for the upcoming holidays to take health precautions.

“Public Health leaders in the Northern Virginia region — including Arlington County — are encouraging residents to maintain their vigilance in preventing the spread of COVID-19 this fall and winter and throughout the holiday season,” Arlington County said in an email last night. “Getting vaccinated, washing your hands, and taking travel precautions are just a few of the ways to enjoy a safe and healthy Thanksgiving.”

“Although Northern Virginia localities have some of the highest vaccination rates in the state — 73% of Arlington’s adult population is fully vaccinated — there is still Substantial Community Transmission in Arlington,” the county’s email added. “We must remain vigilant to protect those who are not eligible for vaccination and those at higher risk for serious illness.”

Thanksgiving health “recipe” (via Arlington County)

Nationally, about two-thirds of Americans plan to celebrate Thanksgiving with friends or family outside of their immediate households, according to a recent Axios poll.

The poll also found that Americans are less worried about the health impacts of such gatherings.

“This year, 31% see a large or moderate risk in seeing friends or family for Thanksgiving — way down from 64% a year ago,” Axios reported.

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