coronavirus

News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Here Comes the Next Cicada Generation — “Cicada nymphs have started hatching during the past week. They’re the offspring from our recent cicada swarm, and they’ll rain down from above for the next few weeks, with numbers totaling in the billions… wearing a hat in the woods is a good idea for the next few weeks. Just in case you walk under a tiny, divebombing nymph.” [Capital Weather Gang]

Rent Rising in Arlington — “It was upended during the worst of the COVID crisis, but the Arlington apartment-rental market continues roaring back to life, according to a data analysis by Apartment List. With an average rental rate of $1,962 for a one-bedroom unit and $2,375 for a two-bedroom unit, Arlington’s month-over-month rental rate in August grew 3.6 percent from July, compared to a 2.6-percent increase nationally, ranking the county 22nd among the nation’s 100 largest urban areas.” [Sun Gazette]

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Schools

JUST IN: APS Announces Universal Mask Mandate for Return to School

By Jo DeVoe

Arlington Public Schools will require universal masking at the start of the school year, regardless of vaccination status, according to an email to families this morning.

The order applies to all students, staff and visitors inside APS buildings and on school buses, Superintendent Francisco Durán said in the announcement. Masks will not be required when eating or during outside recess, P.E. class, athletics and other outdoor activities.

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Schools

Divide Over School-Issued Devices Remains After Year of Online Learning

By Anuj Khemka
Arlington Public Schools students learning on their devices while in-person during the pandemic (via APS/X)

Seven years after the initial rollout of Arlington Public Schools’ digital learning initiative, and after a year of heavier use due to distance-learning, opinions on tech in schools remain divided.

For today’s students and parents, virtual learning during the pandemic only highlighted the benefits of and exacerbated the drawbacks to iPads and laptops. Parents say their kids struggle to focus, navigate programs and engage with the material. Students tell ARLnow that the devices can make their learning easier, more efficient and more interesting, but some have also outsmarted controls to watch TV and play games.

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News

Vaccine Efforts Hone in on Myth-Busting, Young People to Target Disparities

By Jo DeVoe

Amid a rise in coronavirus cases, community leaders and the Arlington County Public Health Division are continuing to find ways to target particular demographics for which more outreach is needed.

So far, 70% of the adult population in Arlington and 61.8% of the county’s entire population has at last one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, excluding federal doses, according to the Virginia Dept. of Health dashboard. Nearly 64% of the adult population and 56% of the overall population is fully vaccinated. But these percentages start to vary more when broken down by age group, race and ethnicity.

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News

Coronavirus Cases Still Rising in Arlington Amid Renewed Focus on Masks

By ARLnow.com
A discarded face mask in Crystal City (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

(Updated at 11:05 a.m.) Earlier this summer, new coronavirus cases were reaching new lows. Now cases remain on the rise across the county, Commonwealth and the country.

In Arlington today another 18 cases were reported, bringing the seven-day trailing average up to 16 cases per day, the highest point since May 5.

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Feature

Restaurant Tech Startup Imagines Post-Pandemic Future for Contactless Payments

By Jo DeVoe
GoTab Founder and CEO Tim McLaughlin (courtesy GoTab)

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn. 

Ballston startup GoTab, which facilitates QR code ordering in restaurants, has picked up a lot of extra tables over the last 18 months.

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Schools

APS Encourages More Parents to Enroll As It Prepares for Full-Time In-Person School

By Jo DeVoe

With one month to go before school starts, parents are being urged to enroll their kids in some Arlington public schools amid a continued drop in enrollment.

Screenshots and emails provided to ARLnow indicate some elementary schools, including Discovery and Jamestown, need just a few more kindergarteners before they can officially get one more kindergarten class. The correspondences say the extra class would reduce class sizes and keep teachers at the school they were teaching at last year.

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Around Town

Clarendon Gym Barry’s to Open Doors for the First Time Since Last Summer

By Dana Munro
"The Red Room" at Barry's in Clarendon (courtesy of Barry's)

(Updated at 1:15 p.m.) A year after closing due to the pandemic, Clarendon gym Barry’s is preparing to reopen later this summer.

The gym, which first opened in Clarendon in January 2020, had a short run before it had to shut down operations in August because of the coronavirus. Now, the bootcamp-style gym is gearing up to reopen its doors at 2825 Wilson Blvd this summer, a company representative said.

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News

Clarendon Day Cancelled Again This Year

By ARLnow.com
Street scene from Clarendon Day 2017 (file photo)

Organizers have pulled the plug on this year’s planned Clarendon Day celebration.

For the second year in the row, one of Arlington’s biggest street festivals will not be happening. The Clarendon Alliance, which organizes the fall event, made the announcement yesterday.

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News

After Quiet June, Coronavirus Cases Starting to Rise in Arlington

By ARLnow.com
Arlington COVID-19 test positivity rate as of July 13, 2021

After hovering around zero since Memorial Day, coronavirus cases in Arlington have started to rise again since the beginning of July.

The rate of new cases remains relatively low, but the trend is unmistakable: up. Eleven new cases were reported yesterday, bringing the trailing seven-day average to six cases per day.

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News

Newly Renovated Columbia Pike Library Reopens After 16 Months

By Matt Blitz
Children and Arlington Public Library Director Diane Kresh, right, prepare to cut a ribbon to open the newly renovated Columbia Pike Public Library (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

(Updated at 2:40 p.m.) With a snip of a ribbon, the newly-renovated Columbia Pike Branch Library officially opened for the first time since March 2020.

The library on S. Walter Reed Drive, which first opened in 1975, underwent a significant makeover including new furnishings, updated carpeting, fresh coats of paint, additional meeting rooms, modernized audio-visual equipment and new lighting.

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