To the Fairfax County Community,
In case you missed yesterday's news, after extensive discussions with my Northern Virginia regional colleagues, we sent a joint letter to Governor Northam presenting COVID-19 data from our Health Directors. Their data was placed in comparison to the criteria laid out by the Governor in order for the state to move into the first phase of his Forward Virginia plan.
Today, Governor Northam announced that he will make a final decision about the Northern Virginia moving forward into Phase I of Forward Virginia on Wednesday. I greatly appreciate his acknowledgement that Northern Virginia’s health data is significantly different than the rest of the Commonwealth as well as his consideration of the population and density of our region. Remember, the population size of Fairfax County alone is greater than eight states.
This request was made in response to the Governor's suggestion that certain data benchmarks should be met ahead of reopening. Northern Virginia Health Directors tell me that we don't meet those same health criteria needed to move forward. That data includes:
- A downward trend of positive tests for over 14 days
- A downward trend of hospitalizations for over 14 days
- An increased capacity for both testing and contact testing
- Sufficient hospital beds and ICU capacity
- A sustained supply of personal protective equipment
You might be wondering how this is possible. Although social distancing and access to PPE is working to flatten the curve, we are still in the exponential growth cycle of our epidemic curve. That means for now cases are still increasing. In Northern Virginia as a whole, the percentage of positive cases of those tested is 25%, while the rest of the state is at 10%. So we still have some work to do.
Again, I recommend that you look at the data laid out by our Health Directors here and Fairfax County's case data here.
Though we acknowledge the data is not there yet, we are hopeful this can be achieved soon. We all want to reopen as soon as possible based on public safety and data.
Also, below you will find a video message from Dr. J. Stephen Jones of Inova. He addresses how Inova has responded to COVID-19 to date and how Inova is working to meet the community's needs.
See below for the full May 11 edition. For the resources mentioned in past newsletters, visit my website. If you have a friend who would like to sign up for this newsletter, they can do so here.