coronavirus

Arlington Covid Cases Continue Upward Trajectory

By ARLnow.com

Another week, another high point for Covid cases in Arlington since the winter peak reached earlier this year.

The trailing seven-day average of new daily cases in Arlington is now 48, an increase of nearly 50% since the start of the month. Thirty-two new cases were reported this morning by the Virginia Dept. of Health, bringing the local pandemic case total to 17,207.

With 73.5% of the county’s adult population having received at least one vaccine dose, the rate of serious illness and death remains relatively low. Over the past 90 days the county has averaged just under three Covid-related hospitalizations per week and just over one death per month.

Nationally, there are signs that the current wave of cases fueled by the more contagious delta variant is peaking or has peaked, though some parts of the country are still seeing growth in cases.

Arlington County, meanwhile, is preparing for the expected rollout of vaccine booster shots.

From WJLA:

“We expect to have a busy winter,” said Hannah Winant, the Public Affairs Manager for Arlington County Emergency Management.

It’s all hands on deck as the county prepares to assist thousands of people arriving at vaccination sites wanting their booster shots as soon as next week.

“All eyes are on the feds with the booster rollout and youth approvals, but again we are going to have the people and resources in place,” said Winant. “As soon as those approvals are in place, we will be ready to roll.”

Covid Cases Reach New Seasonal High in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

After a pre-Labor Day dip, Covid case counts in Arlington are again heading upward.

As of this morning the county is seeing just over 44 cases per day, based on a seven-day moving average. That’s the highest point since mid-February.

Though likely inflated due to the Labor Day holiday, 77 cases were reported on Wednesday alone, the highest one-day total since early February.

Reports of Covid-related serious illness remain at a relatively low level: three hospitalizations and one death over the past week, according to the Virginia Dept. of Health.

Amid a continued rise in cases, but relatively low incidence of serious illness among those who are vaccinated, President Biden today is set to announce a stricter vaccine requirement for federal workers and contractors. From CNN:

President Joe Biden on Thursday will impose more stringent vaccine rules on federal workers, and take steps to encourage private businesses to do the same, during a major speech meant to lay out a new approach to combating the coronavirus.

Among the steps the President will take is signing an executive order requiring all federal workers be vaccinated against Covid-19, with no option of being regularly tested to opt out of the requirement, according to a source familiar with the plans.

The President will also sign an executive order directing the same standard be extended to employees of contractors who do business with the federal government.

In Arlington, 73.1% of the adult population has received at least one vaccine dose. That number, which excludes doses administered directly by the federal government, continues to slowly rise over time.

Arlington Opens Nominations for ‘Community COVID-19 Hero Awards’

By Vernon Miles

Arlington County is launching an awards program that aims to publicly recognize locals who stepped up to the plate to help their neighbors through the COVID-19.

Nominations for the “Community COVID-19 Hero Awards” are currently open online or in-person at any library.

Anyone who lives, works, or just spends “significant time” in Arlington can submit their nominee by Thursday, Sept. 30. According to a press release, the awards “honor Arlington residents, community groups and businesses which have made significant impact in the fight against the effects of the pandemic.”

Winners will be recognized at the October 16 County Board meeting.

“The County is home to many unsung heroes who have continually sacrificed to support others throughout the pandemic while enduring their own hardship — from driving neighbors to vaccine appointments, to donating meals from their small businesses, to organizing groups to share reliable health and safety information with those who may not otherwise have access to it, and beyond,” Aaron Miller, Director of the County’s Department of Public Safety Communications and Emergency Management, said in the press release. “We want to thank them for all they’ve done and use their stories as examples of exemplary citizenry to encourage others to do the same.”

Staff Shortages Cause ‘Frustrating and Unacceptable’ Start to New APS Virtual Learning Program

By Jo DeVoe

(Updated 9:25 a.m. on 9/8/21) The new virtual learning program in Arlington Public Schools, available to anyone uncomfortable with going to school in-person, has gotten off to a rocky start due to severe teacher shortages.

During the first week of school, 340 of the more than 700 students enrolled in the program were assigned subs rather than permanent teachers, and many did not receive class schedules. Instead, many virtual students saw their classes canceled or they were shuffled into multi-grade classes and “virtual waiting rooms” without teachers or monitors.

And today (Tuesday), APS announced another upheaval: the administrator assigned to the new program, Verlese Gaither, has been replaced. Amy Jackson, Supervisor of Educational Technology & Programs, will lead the Virtual Learning Program until a new administrator is appointed.

Complaints started shortly after the first day of school. A discussion thread on a local parenting message board titled “APS VPL is a dumpster fire” has garnered more than 200 comments since it was first posted last Tuesday.

Parents of virtual students are also raising their concerns with the School Board and administrators, asking for appropriate staffing and improved communication. One of their requests — a meeting with APS — will be met with a town hall set for tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 7 p.m.

“The VLP is a critical program for vulnerable students and their families during this unprecedented pandemic,” Laura Haltzel, whose son is learning at home for health reasons, tells ARLnow. “Families want the virtual program to succeed and would like to work with APS to try to resolve some of the challenges we experienced in the last week. We believe that many problems can be solved with the appropriate allocation of teaching staff and administrative support.”

APS apologized in a School Talk email sent to families this afternoon.

“As we prepare to start the second week of school, we want to apologize for the challenges students encountered accessing their classes in the Virtual Learning Program last week,” the school system said. “We understand that this was a frustrating and unacceptable start to the school year for our VLP families and are working to ensure that these issues, related to staffing, scheduling, technical support and communication, are addressed as quickly as possible. We are also committed to ensuring that VLP students will have permanent teachers assigned to their classes as soon as possible.”

School Board Chair Barbara Kanninen likewise apologized and affirmed the board’s commitment to making the program work.

“I want to personally apologize to our VLP students and families,” she tells ARLnow. “Our goal is for the Virtual Learning Program to be an innovative, engaging, and rewarding academic experience for our students. The School Board is 100% committed to the program and we support the immediate steps APS is taking to ensure its success.”

Haltzel is part of a group of parents who wrote to administrators and School Board members on Monday outlining their concerns, which include a lack of staffing and a lack of communication.

“The combination of these above concerns, coupled with the silence from the APS School Board and Dr. Duran, has left VLP Parents concerned, frustrated and unsatisfied,” the group’s letter said. “Most critically, VLP students are demoralized and distraught.”

There are about 740 students enrolled in the VLP, including 63 students added since Aug. 16 via medical exemption appeals, a fluidity that APS says impacts staffing and class sizes.

With the changing class sizes and staffing shortages, some students were placed in courses through Virtual Virginia and other similar programs, while others were placed in a temporary classes to work on asynchronous assignments developed by APS teachers assigned to brick and mortar schools. These classes were monitored by an adult and students will receive feedback on their work from their teachers in September.

Families report incidents of online bullying between the younger and older unsupervised students in these mixed-grade “waiting rooms.” They say their younger students are upset and no longer enthusiastic about school.

Meanwhile, APS said in its email to parents today that it is committed to solving the teacher shortage quickly. As of Thursday, APS had 92 virtual teachers, but it still needed 106 teachers to fill out the program, a spokesman said. According to parents, some teachers initially assigned to the virtual program were later reassigned to teach in-person.

Parents say it wasn’t until they started asking questions that APS acknowledged that staffing was the problem.

(more…)

Arlington Sees Slight Dip in Covid Cases Heading into Labor Day Weekend

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 1:25 p.m.) The start of the extended Labor Day weekend is a day away and there’s a bit of good news beyond the nice weather: there’s been a slight dip in coronavirus cases.

After a mid-August plateau, the seven-day moving average of new cases in Arlington started moving upward again, peaking at 41 cases per day this past Saturday, Aug. 28. That’s now down to about 32 cases per day, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data.

The rates of both Covid tests administered (1,134 to 1,051 daily tests per day) and test positivity (4% to 3.5%) have also dipped during that approximate time period, suggesting that while people being out of town due to pre-Labor Day vacations may partially explain the dip in cases, it’s not the entire explanation.

(As pointed out by a reader, the timing of the dip may also correlate to college students returning to campus.)

Hospitalizations and deaths in Arlington attributed to Covid are still being reported, though at a lower level compared to earlier in the pandemic. A dozen hospitalizations and two deaths have been recorded over the past month, according to VDH.

Arlington’s high (and slowly rising) vaccination rate — nearly 73% of the adult population has received at least one dose — is likely a major contributor to the relatively low incidence of serious illness and death.

There’s some talk of the current delta-variant-fueled Covid wave peaking on a national level, though the jury is still out as to what the next few months will hold. That’s especially true given the emergence of a new viral variant dubbed “mu” that’s said to have a greater ability to evade immunity from vaccines or prior infections.

Eagle Cleaners Saved From Closure, Manager Still Plans to Buy Business

By Jo DeVoe
Eagle Cleaners (staff photo by Joseph Ramos)

After its future briefly dangled over a precipice, Eagle Cleaners in Williamsburg will be sticking around.

Last week ARLnow reported that manager of the dry cleaning business, Mathew Srebrow, was given one week to either buy the business for $250,000 or shut it down. He said the directive came from the trustee who controls the ownership interest in Eagle Cleaners and had plans to sell it.

That dispute was resolved — for now — on Friday. The dry cleaning shop can stay put at least until the lease is up in five years.

“Long story short… the landlord presented the trustee with a bill of what it’d cost to break the lease,” Srebrow said. “The trustee has no choice but for us to be here — now he’s begging us to be here.”

Eagle Cleaners has been controlled by a trustee and operated by Srebrow since his father put the business in a trust before he died of cancer in 2019. While Srebrow didn’t disclose the cost to break the lease, he said it was a number that the trustee “would never have been able to afford.”

Srebrow says five years is enough time to hire a lawyer and make an offer on the business.

“We’re going to be here for more than five years,” he said. “Once I buy it, I will get another lease to stay here forever.”

Srebrow will be repurposing the money raised so far from his GoFundMe page toward that end. He started the page five days ago in hopes of raising enough money to buy the business on the trustee’s terms.

So far, the page has collected $8,760 in donations, and Srebrow recently set a new goal of $25,000 to fund his new approach.

“The community has pulled together and shown amazing support,” he wrote on the fundraising page. “We are open for business with our normal business hours. Thank you all who have donated! It’s looking like legal advice with the option to buy the store will be needed to keep the store on [its] current path of staying open. Funds raised will be going towards this effort.”

Srebrow said he wants to hire a lawyer to ensure that his bases are covered, that the GoFundMe passes muster, and that last week’s events are not repeated.

“This was my dad’s store,” he said. “One of his wishes before he passed from cancer was to keep the store running. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Local Real Estate Market Slowing — “When it comes to housing prices and sales, red-hot Arlington County cooled a bit last month compared to last summer — a modest slowdown that the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors says was typical throughout the region. NVAR reports the median price of a home that sold in Arlington County last month was 9% lower than a year ago, and the average number of days on the market, or how long it took to sell a home, was up 35% compared to last July.” [WTOP]

County Board Still Opposes Gondola — “This week, all five members of the Arlington County Board confirmed to the Washington Business Journal their position hasn’t changed. Even the two new Democrats to join the board since it penned that 2017 letter — current Chair Matt de Ferranti and Takis Karantonis — said in interviews that they remain unconvinced, despite the proponents’ recent success in pushing the District to budget $10 million toward the purchase of a potential D.C. landing site near the Key Bridge.” [Washington Business Journal]

Review of Pentagon City Irish Eatery — “Armstrong’s talented hand again showed itself when I sank my teeth into the corned beef. The chef says that each brisket takes three weeks of preparation before it’s ready for diners. He adds that corned beef is more of an Irish-American food than an Irish one, owing to a fusion of influences that met in New York or Boston. His version certainly owes a debt to Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine.” [Northern Virginia Magazine]

Arlies Voting: Urgent Care Clinic — Voting on the latest Arlies category ends Tuesday afternoon. Let us know about your favorite local urgent care clinic. [ARLnow]

Breakthrough Covid Cases Underreported? — “Virginia’s breakthrough case numbers are likely an undercount. Issues with data reporting made it difficult to report and verify cases among vaccinated people.” [Virginia Mercury]

Nearby: Car Swept Away in Flood Waters — “Here’s what can happen when a huge amount of rain causes flash flooding. A reader sent this photo of a car in the Upper Long Branch Stream between the cul-de-sacs at 6th Street and Glen Forest Drive in Bailey’s Crossroads.” Arlington County firefighters responded as mutual aid on this water rescue call, per scanner traffic last week. [Annandale Blog]

Learning Gaps, Outdoor Lunch Top of Mind for APS Administrators, Parents

By Jo DeVoe
1/10

For the first time since March 2020, most Arlington Public Schools students will be in their classrooms for five days of in-person learning, starting Monday.

Some students will continue at a distance, but overall, the school system says it is focused on three areas this year: accelerated learning, health and safety, and social-emotional learning, according to last night (Thursday’s) School Board meeting.

Parent groups meanwhile, tell ARLnow they are keen to see how these plans to close learning gaps and mitigate the virus’s spread are implemented at local schools.

“Accelerated learning is a key focus for us,” Superintendent Francisco Durán told the School Board during the meeting last night. “What that really means is helping teachers help students focus on grade-level material, while reinforcing what they know from the previous year and what gaps they may have to help them move forward.”

Students will be taught grade-level material with any supports needed to make the content accessible, he said. Teachers will build social-emotional learning into the school day.

Administrators pointed to performance this spring on state standardized tests to illustrate the impact of distance learning. But the data, which contrasted performance in the 2020-21 year with those of the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years, came with a number of caveats from the Virginia Department of Education.

Participation in VDOE’s Standards of Learning (SOL) testing during the 2020-21 school year was down “significantly” in all subject areas compared with pre-pandemic participation, according to a presentation. For example, only 75.5% of students in tested grades took reading tests in last year, and just under 79% took math tests, compared with 99% in both subjects in 2018-19.

“The major takeaway is that districts should not use 2021 SOL results to compare to previous years,” according to a presentation slide. “Given the wide variability in participation and modalities, comparison of APS students’ scores with neighboring divisions scores is discouraged.”

A few drops were particularly stark, especially in math. Performance rates dropped 20-40 percentage points for students in grades 3-8, for low-income students, for Black, Hispanic and Asian students and for emerging English-language learners.

“Virtual learning had a tremendous impact on mathematics progress,” Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Bridget Loft said last night.

In a statement, Arlington Parents for Education — which advocated for full-time in-person learning while APS was offering remote and then two-day-per-week in-school learning — said the results should surprise no one.

“Superintendent Durán and the school board made a choice to keep Arlington public students from receiving a full day of instruction for over a year. That choice had many consequences —  none so obvious now as the staggering drop in academic decline illustrated in this data,” APE said. “[It’s] the students who didn’t have access to outside tutors, at-home support from parents or pod coaches who were set even further behind their peers.”

The group said APS must tackle educational disparities with research-based best practices and increased instructional time.

(more…)

Morning Poll: Are You Taking More Precautions Due to the Delta Variant?

By ARLnow.com

Arlington might not be as hard-hit as places with lower vaccination rates, but the delta variant of the coronavirus is still infecting dozens of people a day in the county.

The latest data from the Virginia Dept. of Health shows the seven-day trailing average of new infections in Arlington ticking up from 32 to 36 cases per day since Tuesday.

With elevated infection rates but relatively low hospitalization rates in Arlington, we’re wondering whether locals have started taking more precautions over the past month or so.

Have you been more diligent about masking up, social distancing, or avoiding crowds since cases started rising two months ago? Or have you gone about your daily life much as before, putting trust in the vaccine and its ability to protect against infections or against serious illness in the event of breakthrough cases?

Let’s find out where the community currently stands.

Eagle Cleaners in Williamsburg Starts GoFundMe to Stave Off Closure

By Jo DeVoe

Update on 8/31/21 — The business is staying open.

Earlier: After operating for 25 years and weathering the worst of the pandemic, Eagle Cleaners in Williamsburg is on the brink of closing.

Manager Mathew Srebrow is pinning his hopes on community support to pull through.

His father opened the store at 6402 Williamsburg Blvd in 1996. Before his father died in 2019, he put the business in a trust — but now, the trustee who took over ownership plans to sell Eagle Cleaners and retire. He said the trustee told him on Saturday that he has until Wednesday, Sept. 1 to buy the business for $250,000, or shut it down so that the equipment can be sold.

“It’s really unfortunate what’s happening,” Srebrow said. “I have a lot of customers in tears, some offering legal advice… The way it’s closing just makes no sense.”

Srebrow started a GoFundMe page yesterday (Wednesday) to raise the money. He said he believes the money can be raised, but emphasized he only has one week to reach the $250,000 goal.

“I refuse to go down without a fight,” he wrote on the page. “Let’s make this goal a reality.”

The dry cleaning industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, and loyal patrons have stepped up to help the businesses stay afloat. Last summer, a local veteran started a fundraiser for First Virginia Cleaners and last fall, devoted customers set up a GoFundMe page for Old Dominion Cleaners along Lee Highway.

After pandemic restrictions ended, but before workers began trickling back to offices, Srebrow spoke with ARLnow about how the pandemic and remote work have nearly wiped out 25 years of stable business.

“We had so many people come in [after the article came out], bringing comforters, bedding — no one was using dress clothes, but they were bringing whatever they had, just so we could make it — and we made it.”

Now, Srebrow said he’s hoping the community will help him keep the business open and under his ownership.

“We love all our customers in the community,” he said. “Nobody wants us to go, nobody.”

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Kitten Rescued from Van — ” Caroline Elpers, a deputy animal control officer with Arlington County, responded to a call from a woman on Aug. 15. The woman said she was walking her dog and she’d heard the mewing of a cat coming from the inside of a van parked on the street. ‘Initially, the call stated that the cat was in the van,’ Elpers said, who arrived on the scene around 10 a.m. ‘Once I got there, it was apparent that the cat was underneath the van, running under and into the engine.'” [Patch]

Pandemic Doesn’t Stop Tax Collection — “Over the past year, staff of the Arlington treasurer’s office has been tasked with collecting $997 million in taxes due on real estate and personal property (both vehicles and business property). To date, more than $995 million of it is in hand. Treasurer Carla de la Pava on Aug. 16 confirmed to the Sun Gazette that the county’s tax-delinquency rate for the past year stood at 0.18 percent, a near-record.” [Sun Gazette]

New Faregates Coming to Local Metro Stations — “Work is also underway to replace the faregates at 13 additional stations, with new faregates being phased in as they are completed and ready for service. Eastern Market and Forest Glen are expected to be completed within the next week. That will be followed by the completion of Friendship Heights, Crystal City, Capitol South, the north entrance of Union Station, Arlington Cemetery, National Airport, and Addison Road in the coming weeks.” [WMATA]

New Pro-People Coalition Launches — “The National Landing Business Improvement District (BID) partnered with local stakeholders today to launch the ‘People Before Cars’ Coalition to unite area organizations around shared priorities to create a safer and more accessible transportation network in National Landing.” [Press Release]

N. Va. Gov’ts Welcome Afghan Refugees — “The Northern Virginia Regional Commission… issued a statement regarding regional refugee resettlement on Tuesday. ‘Citizens of Northern Virginia are following with great concern and compassion the evacuation of Afghan refugees by the brave men and women of our Armed Forces and civilian agencies,’ the statement read. ‘We welcome our new neighbors and wish them much success as they transition to a new life here in the region and across the United States.'” [Prince William Times, Twitter]

N. Va. School System Goes Virtual Only — “Rappahannock County Public Schools on Monday announced that the schools will switch to virtual learning for the remainder of the week while officials work to create a new system to mitigate spread of COVID-19 as the virus has created a flurry of cases within the schools since the academic year began… Officials said a high number of flu cases reported in the schools was also taken into account when deciding the closure.” [InsideNova]

Flickr pool photo by Tom Mockler

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