To the Fairfax County Community,

It's amazing how much can change in a week. As you likely know, the CDC updated their masking guidance for fully vaccinated individuals advising that it was safe to resume most activities that you did prior to the pandemic, without a mask. The chart below outlines this. Virginia's (and Fairfax County's) masking and social distancing guidelines have been updated as a result, more on that included in this newsletter.

This is great news for all who have been vaccinated and who have been so diligent this past year with masking, social distancing, and protecting our community. I hope this change serves as an incentive for those who have not yet been vaccinated, to get vaccinated. Find an appointment here. All three available vaccines are safe, effective, and will allow us to return to normal.

While I understand that there are concerns about this change, we will continue to follow the data to make sure the community is safe. For some perspective, our COVID-19 case numbers continue to drop. For the week ending on May 9, our percent positivity rate was 1.59% and the week before that was 2.66%. At the same time, over 53% of the Fairfax County population has received at least one vaccine dose.

In addition, the Board met today. You can review the full package here and some highlights are below.