coronavirus

BREAKING: Masks optional in Arlington County facilities starting Thursday

By ARLnow.com
Leaves and a face mask on the ground in Crystal City (Staff Photo by Jay Westcott)

Arlington County is making masks optional in county facilities — from community centers to County Board meetings — starting tomorrow (Thursday).

The county made the announcement this afternoon, following the lead of Arlington Public Schools, which made masks optional for students and staff on Tuesday.

“This decision follows new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued on Feb. 25, 2022, which updated how it monitors COVID-19’s impact on our communities,” the county said in a press release. “For the public and most employees, masks will no longer be required inside County facilities, so long as Arlington is in the ‘Low’ level,” as defined by the CDC.

Only about 13 daily cases and 0.3 daily hospitalizations are being reported per 100,000 Arlington residents, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data. That’s well below the threshold for Covid levels to be considered low by the CDC. All full-time Arlington County government employees, meanwhile, have been vaccinated or obtained valid vaccine exemptions, the county said this week.

Covid cases in Arlington as of 3/2/22 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

Earlier today neighboring Falls Church also announced that masks would be “welcome [but] no longer required in city facilities.” Additionally, the biggest office building in Arlington — the Pentagon — is now a mask-optional zone.

The dropping of mask mandates in Arlington is a dramatic reversal from just over a month ago, when the County Board expressed support for Arlington Public Schools suing the state over Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order to let parents opt kids out of mask wearing at schools.

At the time, in late January, the average rate of new Covid cases in Arlington was roughly ten times the current level.

As of today daily Covid cases in the U.S. have dropped to the lowest level since July 27, 2021, CNN reports.

The full county press release about the masking change is below.

Effective Thursday, March 3, 2022, Arlington County will no longer require masks for the public and most employees while inside County government facilities.

This decision follows new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued on Feb. 25, 2022, which updated how it monitors COVID-19’s impact on our communities.

The CDC’s new tool – COVID-19 Community Levels – looks at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area to determine a level of low, medium, or high.

Currently, Arlington County is “Low,” meaning individuals may choose to wear a mask based on personal preference and level of risk of developing severe illness.

For the public and most employees, masks will no longer be required inside County facilities, so long as Arlington is in the “Low” level.

Masks are still required in some specific locations, such as public transportation and where health or medical services are provided. People may choose to mask at any time. People with symptoms, a positive test, or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should wear a mask.

People who are at increased risk of severe illness–and family, friends, and coworkers who spend time with them–should consider taking extra precautions even when the COVID-19 Community Level is low.

This change in the County’s mask policy is consistent with the recent guidance issued by CDC and Virginia Department of Health, as well as Arlington Public Schools.

The pandemic is not over, but we are in a new phase. Although COVID-19 continues to circulate, we now have vaccines, tests, and treatments that work, and most Arlingtonians have some immunity from vaccines or past infection.

Vaccination remains the leading public health prevention strategy to protect individuals and communities from COVID-19. The CDC recommends everyone 5 years and older be up to date, meaning a person has received all recommended COVID-19 vaccines, including any booster dose(s) when eligible. To find a vaccine location near you, visit vaccines.gov, walk-in to one of the County’s clinics, or call our COVID-19 hotline at 703-400-5368.

NEW: No employees fired as a result of vax mandate, county says

By ARLnow.com
The COVID-19 vaccine (via Arlington County/YouTube)

Yesterday was the deadline for all Arlington County government employees to get vaccinated, obtain an exemption, or get fired. So far, no one has been fired.

“We’re happy to report that as of today, all Arlington County Government employees are in compliance with the vaccine policy,” county spokesman Ryan Hudson told ARLnow on Monday. “Approximately 99% of permanent County employees are vaccinated, with 125 individuals having received accommodations.”

As of Feb. 15, just six out of the county workforce of roughly 3,500-4,000 full-time employees had not yet been vaccinated nor obtained a valid exemption under federal guidelines. As of this morning, everyone was in compliance, Hudson said.

“No one was terminated,” he confirmed. “All County employees are in compliance with the policy.”

The news comes as Covid cases continue to decline in Arlington and as Arlington Public Schools held its first day of mask-optional, in-person school since the start of the pandemic.

As of this morning the seven-day moving average of new Covid cases in Arlington fell to 29 per day, according to the Virginia Dept. of Health, down from the peak of 646 daily cases on Jan. 12.

Daily hospitalizations, meanwhile, are averaging 0.3 per 100,000 residents, well below the CDC’s new 10 hospitalization per day per 100,000 residents threshold for Covid levels in a community being considered low.

Six Covid-related deaths have been reported by VDH over the past week.

The CDC’s new ‘community level’ indicators (via CDC)

BREAKING: Masks optional at Arlington Public Schools as of March 1

By Jo DeVoe

(Updated at 4:10 p.m.) Arlington Public Schools is effectively repealing its mask mandate for all students and staff.

The move, which takes effect tomorrow (March 1), responds to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, which was released on Friday. No opt-out form is required for those who do not wish to wear masks.

The CDC changed how it measures the severity of Covid at the local level and relaxed its masking guidelines. Now, it advises most Americans to wear a mask only when Covid-related hospitalization rates are high so as not to overwhelm hospitals. When that rate is low or moderate — it’s currently low in Arlington County, according to the CDC — people can forego face coverings.

More from a School Talk email sent to APS families this afternoon:

Dear APS Staff and Families,

On Friday evening, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published updated guidance that included new metrics for measuring COVID-19 community levels.

The CDC’s new guidance lists Arlington’s current COVID-19 community level as low, and states that masks should be optional in communities at the low level.

APS will continue following the CDC’s guidance for operating safely to allow everyone — students, families, staff and visitors — to decide whether they will wear a mask at school and on the school bus. This change takes effect March 1, and there is no opt-out form required. APS will adjust these requirements, should community levels change. More information is available online.

Mask-wearing is a personal decision based on individual circumstances, and I ask everyone to support our students and each other. We will continue to foster inclusive, safe and supportive learning environments for all. Families, please talk to your student(s) regarding your expectations for mask-wearing and remind them to be kind and respect their peers as they exercise decisions to wear a mask or not.

Although APS is dropping its mask mandate, Arlington’s Public Health Division is waiting for more guidance from the state, says spokesman Ryan Hudson.

The county has required visitors to county facilities to wear masks if they can’t maintain six feet of distance from others. Arlington Public Library has required visitors age two and older, regardless of vaccination status, to mask up since August, which also won’t be changing right now, says library spokesman Henrik Sundqvist.

“In light of the CDC updating the way it monitors COVID-19’s impact on our communities, Arlington County is awaiting updates on the Virginia Department of Health’s mask guidance,” Hudson said. “At this time, there are no changes to the mask policy for County employees and government buildings.”

Right now, the VDH page on masking recommendations is blank save for the following message: “VDH is currently reviewing its mask guidance. Thank you for your patience; updated information will be available soon.”

Once a decision is made, Hudson said, the county will update residents via newsletter, website updates and social media.

“Layered prevention strategies — like staying up to date on vaccines and wearing masks — can help prevent severe illness and reduce the potential for strain on the healthcare system,” he noted.

There hasn’t been a blanket mask mandate in Virginia since former Gov. Ralph Northam lifted it for those who are fully vaccinated in May of last year. But Arlingtonians have had to wear masks in public schools, county buildings and libraries. Anecdotally, residents also stepped up voluntary masking whenever Covid cases surged.

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Covid cases and test positivity rate continue to fall in Arlington

By ARLnow.com
Covid cases in Arlington on 2/25/22 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

The Omicron wave continues to wane in Arlington.

The seven-day moving average of new daily Covid cases dipped below 50 this week and currently stands at 43, after a mere eight new cases were reported in Arlington today. The last time the daily case count was that low was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data.

The seven-day average test positivity rate in Arlington, meanwhile, remains below 5%. Today the rate is 4.4%, after briefly dipping to 4% yesterday.

Covid hospalizations have held relatively steady in February, after peaking in mid-January. Four hospitalizations have been reported in Arlington by VDH over the past week. Four Covid-related deaths have also been reported over the past week.

Amid the backdrop of declining cases, mask requirements are being loosened.

On Tuesday, a new state law will prompt Arlington Public Schools to allow parents to opt their children out of the school system’s still-in-place mask mandate.

On Friday, George Mason University — which has a campus in Arlington’s Virginia Square neighborhood — appears poised to potentially relax its masking requirement.

“It is increasingly likely that on March 4 we will announce a pivot from our current mask requirement to a mask-optional university environment – with two vital exceptions: It is likely that masks will still be required for all in-person class environments and other similarly enclosed, close-contact settings with greater than 50 people,” GMU’s president said in an email to families yesterday.

“In all other settings, we will support and encourage the wearing of masks as individuals find appropriate for their circumstances,” the email from Dr. Gregory Washington adds. “We will of course continue to monitor our progress, and will revert to masking if necessary.”

APS continues requiring masks in schools while School Board ‘pauses’ virtual option

By Jo DeVoe
Arlington School Board member Cristina Diaz-Torres (via Arlington Public Schools)

Arlington Public Schools says it will require masks when community transmission levels of Covid are high and substantial — with the caveat that parents can opt out in light of a new state law.

Meanwhile, it will not be reinstating its fledgling Virtual Learning Program (VLP) next school year.

APS reaffirmed its mask requirement during a School Board meeting last night (Thursday) while acknowledging parents have the right to opt out starting March 1, per a new law passed on Monday. Senate Bill 739 codified Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s second executive order after entering office, which allowed parents to opt their children out of mask requirements. The school system had attempted to buck the executive order and joined six other Northern Virginia school boards in a lawsuit challenging Youngkin’s order, but the new law makes those efforts moot.

Now, APS will require vaccinated staff and students to wear masks when community transmission is high and substantial. Unvaccinated staff and students will also have to wear masks when transmission is moderate.

“Our plan will and always has been to use science and data to decide when to ease masking,” Superintendent Francisco Durán said. “We all want to get to a place where we can see each other’s faces remove our masks safely, but we don’t want to do that when it’s too soon, and undo the progress that we’ve made.”

APS matrix for when masks are required (via Arlington Public Schools)

The change in masking policy comes as the Arlington School Board voted unanimously (4-0) to “pause” an in-house virtual learning program designed to meet the needs of families who did not feel comfortable with in-person learning during the pandemic. (School Board member Reid Goldstein was not present to vote.)

“We started this process with a sense of optimism… and yet our vision didn’t match our capabilities,” School Board member Cristina Diaz-Torres said. “Our intent did not match our impact. We did this fast, we — in hindsight — can look around and see many missteps and errors in communication.”

School Board member and VLP liaison Mary Kadera said she was tempted to vote against the pause because its rationale has “not been clearly and convincingly communicated.”

“However, because I have invested a great deal of time, energy and political capital in getting this recommendation to a stable state, and because I believe Virtual Virginia can and will provide robust instruction, I will vote to support it,” she said.

The VLP provided a combination of live, virtual instruction by APS teachers and independent work through third-party online education vendors, including Virtual Virginia. It served about 570 students in total: mostly students of color, students with disabilities, low-income students and students learning English. APS set aside about $10.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to cover the program costs.

But, six months into the school year, APS concluded the program in its current form should end because it is too expensive and academic performance in the VLP is worse when compared to student performance in brick-and-mortar schools, among other concerns.

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NEW: Arlington’s test positivity rate drops below 5%

By ARLnow.com
Covid test positivity rate in Arlington (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

In another encouraging sign that we’re near the end of the current Covid wave, Arlington’s test positivity rate has dropped back below 5%.

The trailing seven-day average test positivity rate is now 4.8%, according to new Virginia Dept. of Health data. The local rate has generally stayed below 5% except during this winter’s Omicron-variant fueled wave, last winter’s wave, and the initial spring 2020 wave.

Cases are also continuing to fall, dropping to a daily average of 64 today, a tenth of the Jan. 12 peak of 646 cases per day. The last time the average rate of new Covid cases in Arlington was below today’s level was Dec. 10.

Covid cases in Arlington (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

Covid-related hospitalizations, meanwhile, have fallen to three per week as of this morning. Four Covid deaths have been reported over the past week in Arlington. Deaths are a lagging indicator that generally follow earlier rises in cases and hospitalizations.

At Tuesday’s County Board meeting, Arlington County Manager Mark Schwartz said that “Arlington continues to see a decrease in our cases and hospitalizations.”

“While cases continue in the right direction, I just wanted to take the opportunity to remind everybody that they still need to use multiple strategies to keep themselves safe from COVID-19,” Schwartz said. “The best defense that we have against hospitalization and death is still vaccination and staying up with boosters.”

“In Arlington County, approximately 86% of eligible residents have received at least one dose, and 64% of the kids in the 5-11 year old range have at least one dose,” he noted.

Cases are falling across the Washington region. Earlier this week D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that the District would lift its vaccine mandate for businesses and “dial back” some of its indoor masking rules. Virgina, which has generally had lighter restrictions than neighboring D.C. and Maryland during the pandemic, is set to make masks optional for public school students on March 1.

APS must make masks optional by March 1, will present new policy today

By Brandi Bottalico
The Arlington School Board at a meeting

Arlington Public Schools will present a new masking policy at a school board meeting tonight (Thursday) in light of a new law that requires masks be optional by March 1.

The school system hasn’t yet outlined how it will change its policy, which currently mandates students wear masks indoors, but the new state law allows parents to opt their children out of mask requirements.

“APS has been reviewing the latest health guidance and planning for when we can safely ease our masks requirements,” spokesperson Andrew Robinson said in a statement. “We will present our plan and revised policy at Thursday’s School Board meeting. We have come far together as a community in maintaining safe, open schools, even during the Omicron spike, and we will continue that work together.”

Arlington Public Schools has continued to require students to wear masks, bucking Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order after a temporary injunction was granted.

The Arlington School Board and six other Northern Virginia school boards sued Youngkin challenging his power to prohibit local mandates and were able to continue requiring masks until the lawsuit was resolved. But Senate Bill 739 makes that suit moot, establishing the order as law.

“This new legislation supersedes the Executive Order, so the injunction in the Arlington case is moot starting March 1,” a spokesperson in the Office of the Attorney General told ARLnow.

The bill ultimately passed the state Senate last week and the House of Delegates Monday before it swiftly made its way to Youngkin for a signature.

And as APS may have to roll back its masking requirement, the school board is also set to vote on whether to pause an in-house Virtual Learning Program (VLP) it debuted this school year for families who preferred keeping their kids home due to the ongoing pandemic.

“VLP families fear that many, faced with an impossible choice, will be forced back into APS facilities,” said the VLP Parent Coalition, which represents families in the program, in a statement. “Immunocompromised children and families will have no choice but to put themselves at risk for COVID-19 infection.”

APS has said that students may continue with virtual instruction through the state’s online learning platform, Virtual Virginia, if they or a family member has a medical condition that complicates going to school every day. APS staff will supplement whatever Virtual Virginia courses don’t cover and will support students during the transfer to their home schools.

But this alternative will likely result in less live, remote instruction for students when they have already experienced learning loss due to the pandemic and to understaffing when the VLP got started, the parent group said.

Jo DeVoe and Matt Blitz contributed to this article.

JUST IN: Daily Covid cases drop below 100 for first time in nearly two months

By ARLnow.com
Covid cases in Arlington as of 2/10/22 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

For the first time since mid-December, the past week has averaged fewer that 100 new, reported Covid cases per day in Arlington.

The seven-day moving average fell below the three-digit mark today and currently stands at 97. Four of the past five days have seen fewer than 75 cases reported in the county, according to the Virginia Dept. of Health.

Those numbers are high relative to most other points during the pandemic, but the trend remains down, even if the rate of reduction has slowed.

Covid hospitalizations in the county, meanwhile, are averaging just over one every two days. No new Covid-related deaths have been reported this week, though last week saw a spike of 11 reported deaths, according to VDH data.

Arlington’s test positivity rate has continued its steep drop and is now 6.2%, after peaking at just under 30% to start the year.

Arlington Public Schools has similarly seen a big decline in cases among students, though numbers remain elevated. According to the school system’s Covid dashboard, there have been 130 student cases over the past seven days, compared to 164 during the prior seven-day period. One month ago, ARLnow reported 864 student cases over a seven day period. A month before that, at the start of the Omicron-variant-fueled wave, there were just 56 positive student cases reported over the same length of time.

In an email to families yesterday, Superintendent Dr. Francisco Durán said the school system’s new “test-to-stay” program will start on Monday. APS, which has fought in court to keep its mask mandate in place, is also getting a new testing vendor.

New Vendor for Weekly In-School COVID Testing: Over the past several weeks, APS has been working with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) to address challenges with our current testing vendor, CIAN Diagnostics. VDH has advised that the best course of action for APS is to transition to a new VDH-approved provider, Aegis Solutions. Aegis will begin providing the weekly in-school COVID testing on Mon, Feb. 14. Families currently opted in with CIAN will receive an email with a link to update their consent later today with Aegis Solutions. While this is an inconvenience, it’s a necessary change to sustain the weekly screening as a preventative measure.

Test-to-Stay Program Starts on Monday: Reminder that free, proctored testing for eligible students identified as close contacts will be provided at Syphax on school days, starting Monday from 2:30-7 p.m. The VDH Test-to-Stay program helps keep students who are not up-to-date on their COVID vaccinations in school if they are identified as close contacts, as long as they are asymptomatic and test negative for five days following the exposure. Close contacts exposed on or after Mon, Feb. 14, 2022, will be eligible for the test-to-stay program; students exposed prior to that date are not eligible and should complete their 5-day quarantine. As a reminder, students who are up-to-date on their vaccinations are exempt from quarantine if they have no symptoms and wear a mask consistently. Guidance is available online.

NEW: Bill making masks optional for students passes Va. Senate

By Matt Blitz
The final vote in the Virginia State Senate for S.B. 739 (photo courtesy of screenshot/Virginia General Assembly)

A bipartisan bill that will allow parents to opt their kids out of masking rules at schools has passed the Democrat-controlled Virginia State Senate, despite opposition from Arlington’s senators.

The bill would take effect on July 1. If it were also to pass the House of Delegates and be signed into law by the governor, it would essentially make the local school boards’ recent, tentative court victory over Gov. Glenn Younkin’s executive order on masks in schools moot.

The legislation took shape yesterday when Sen. Chap Petersen, a Fairfax County Democrat, proposed an amendment on the Senate floor to a Republican-proposed bill that continues a requirement from last year to keep schools open five days a week for in-person instruction. Chapman’s amendment effectively sunsets mask mandates in time for the next school year.

The amendment “permits a parental option in regard to wearing a mask on school property,” Petersen told ARLnow. “We need to return to normal for the benefit of our children, and this legislation helps us get there.”

The amendment received significant Democratic support on Tuesday, passing the Senate with 29 votes in favor, including ten Democrats, and only nine votes opposed. Among local legislators, Sen. Janet Howell (D-32) voted in favor of the amendment while Sen. Barbara Favola (D-31) and Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-30) voted against it.

All three voted against the final bill, which passed by a 21-17 vote today.

Youngkin declared victory after the vote today. It’s likely to pass the Republican-controlled house.

“Kids across the Commonwealth win with this bipartisan vote today,” Youngkin said in a statement. “Parents are now empowered to decide whether their children should wear a mask in schools. I promised that as governor, Virginia would move forward with an agenda that empowers parents on the upbringing, education, and care of their own children. I am proud to continue to deliver on that promise.”

“This vote also shows that school boards who are attacking their own students are stunningly detached from reality,” the statement continued. “It’s time to put kids first and get back to normal.”

Petersen told ARLnow’s sister site FFXnow that he proposed the amendment because he’s frustrated that no deadline had been set by Fairfax County Public Schools for lifting mask requirements or “shown scientific proof” that it has made difference in limiting Covid’s spread.

He agreed with Youngkin that masks should be optional in schools, but said decision needs to be made by the Virginia General Assembly as opposed to the governor.

That was the basis for the decision made by the Arlington Circuit Court last week to issue an injunction on banning mask mandates. In its lawsuit against the governor’s order, Arlington Public Schools cited a Virginia law passed during the pandemic that requires schools to take necessary, federally-recommended safety measures to combat the spread of the virus.

With the new bill overriding that clause, the court victory could be short-lived for APS and other Northern Virginia school districts that opposed the governor’s order. The bill’s implementation could even potentially be moved up after it reaches the governor’s desk, the Washington Post reported

When the bill gets to Youngkin’s desk, the aide said, the governor could add an emergency clause that would require the law to be implemented immediately. That would have to go back to the General Assembly for approval. Most bills with emergency clauses require 80 percent approval from the legislature, but a governor’s request for emergency needs only a simple majority vote. If that’s granted, the mask law could go into effect as soon as the end of February, the aide said.

Sen. Ebbin wrote to ARLnow in an email after the amendment passed that, while he isn’t opposed to lifting mask mandates soon, he wants the decision to be based on data.

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Covid cases continue to fall, but rate of decline slows

By ARLnow.com
New Covid cases in Arlington as of 2/7/22 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

Covid continues to infect Arlington residents at rates higher than most of the pandemic, but the slope of new cases is still pointing downward.

Sixty-seven new local cases were reported today by the Virginia Dept. of Health, bringing the seven-day moving average down to about 124 cases per day. That’s down more than 80% from the peak average of 646 cases per day on Jan. 12.

The test positivity rate in Arlington, meanwhile, continues to fall. It’s now 8.2%, down from the peak of 29.3% on Jan. 2.

Covid test positivity rate in Arlington as of 2/7/22 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)

The sustained decline of the current Omicron wave in Arlington is indisputably good news, but there are caveats.

First, 124 cases per day is still well above the average rate of new cases for everything other than the previous peak of the pandemic roughly a year ago.

Second, the downward trend is flattening, suggesting that the baseline rate of new cases may be higher with the more infectious Omicron variant.

Finally, people are still getting seriously ill with Covid. In the week since the start of the month, four people have been hospitalized due to Covid symptoms. The number of Covid-related deaths in Arlington, meanwhile, has increased by a net of 10 during that time.

(The Virginia Dept. of Health’s reporting of Covid deaths has been uneven during the past few months, however, with pauses and jumps due to new practices, identified issues, and backlogged processing.)

Virginia Hospital Center ER chief Mike Silverman said in his latest public social media update that the emergency department is also seeing a big drop in cases, though the overall picture is a mixed bag due to complications from prior Covid infections during this winter’s wave.

“In my last shift, I actually did not diagnose any patients with Covid. That is pretty amazing,” he wrote. “We have seen the number of patients who present with symptoms that we diagnose come down by about 90% over the last 6 weeks… We were diagnosing more than 200 patients a week who presented with symptoms a month ago and now, over the last couple of weeks, we’re in the range of 10-20 patients/week.”

“However, I saw several patients with persistent shortness of breath 2-3 weeks after having COVID and despite a fair amount of testing, I wasn’t able to determine a cause,” he added. “I haven’t written much about long COVID because we don’t typically see it in the ER, but I do wonder if we’ll start to see more Omicron patients who present with persistent respiratory symptoms.”

Scammers may have posed as Arlington businesses in Covid grant applications

By Brandi Bottalico

Local authorities thwarted potentially fraudulent attempts to obtain Covid grant funds intended for struggling Arlington small businesses.

Seventy-four applications for Arlington Economic Development’s GRANT 2.0 program were identified as suspicious, officials say. While AED was reviewing the 529 applications it received, it noticed unusual data in some, such as incorrect contact information or submissions for businesses that had been previously closed.

“Upon further review with the Treasurer’s Office and Arlington County Police Department, staff learned some of these questionable applications contained incorrect business license numbers and/or suspicious/blacklisted IP addresses,” AED spokesperson Cara O’Donnell told ARLnow.

Thanks to its “multi-tiered review process and cross-departmental verification of records,” the activity was caught early before any distribution of funds.

“At no time were these attempts successful,” an email AED sent to business owners reads. “Your security is our utmost concern, and it is extremely disheartening that individuals would use federal rescue funds targeted to small business recovery for potentially criminal activity.”

The Arlington County Police Department is investigating the applications. AED and the police department recommend business owners watch their financial activity and remain vigilant.

“In cases of business identity theft, individuals are sometimes able to gain access to business and/or business owners’ financial information, account numbers or other personal data and then open lines of credit or obtain business loans based on the business’ identity and creditworthiness,” the email states.

If business owners see any unusual financial activity in their accounts, the police department recommends it be reported online or to 703-228-4300.

“At this point in the investigation, police have not uncovered evidence nor received any reports from affected businesses that their information was used in any other manner,” ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage told ARLnow.

AED announced in September that the  Small Business GRANT 2.0 program would provide $2 million to up to 200 eligible businesses and nonprofits. The program focuses on industries most affected by stay-at-home orders and those that had not previously received state or federal funding.

The grant application period was between Oct. 6-10 for small businesses in industries including arts and entertainment, child care, hotel and accommodations, personal services, restaurants and food service, and retail.

There were 76 eligible businesses and nonprofits selected from the applicants and awarded $10,000 to go toward salaries, benefits and other capital and operating expenses affected by Covid.

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