For the last two months, Arlington County has been getting your sewage tested to measure community Covid infection levels.
The Department of Environmental Services is sending weekly samples to Biobot, a Massachusetts-based health tech startup that got its start monitoring wastewater for opioids but pivoted to COVID-19 testing during the pandemic. The company now tests wastewater samples for municipalities nationwide.
If you haven’t received a Covid vaccine booster shot yet, expect a call or text message from the state health department.
Arlington residents started getting the reminders from the Virginia Dept. of Health this week, at a time when the local decline in Covid cases is showing signs of bottoming out.
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.
(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.
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.
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.
New Covid Testing Location — “Arlington County is opening an additional no-cost COVID-19 testing kiosk at Sequoia Plaza. The kiosk is in partnership with Curative, which operates four additional sites in the County. The kiosk is located at 2100 Washington Blvd, on the service road behind the Stambaugh Human Services Center building (Sequoia 1). Beginning on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, the kiosk will operate Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.” [Arlington County]
Va. Changing Covid Tracing Efforts — “Today, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) announced it is changing from attempting to investigate every case of COVID-19 and trace all contacts to focusing on follow-up of outbreaks and cases in high risk settings. This response is more effective when a virus spreads very easily and quickly and many infected people do not have symptoms.” [Virginia Dept. of Health]
Local child care centers will have to stay the course with longer quarantine and isolation periods, says Arlington County’s Public Health Division.
That could mean multiple contingency plans for parents with kids in child care, who have already weathered holiday closures and winter-weather closures. (Many facilities follow the snow closure or delay lead of Arlington Public Schools, which was closed all week.)
Exactly one month ago, the average Covid test positivity rate in Arlington was 3.5%. Today that rate is 26.1%.
The positivity rate has been soaring amid a Covid wave fueled by the highly-contagious Omicron variant. The wave has produced sky-high case totals, but has yet to correspond to a surge in serious illness.
A post-Thanksgiving rise in Covid cases has continued unabated this week.
On Thursday, Arlington County recorded 85 cases, the biggest one-day case total since Feb. 6. The seven-day moving average of new daily cases is now 62, the highest point since mid-February.
The average rate of new daily Covid cases in Arlington has risen more than 50% between early November and now, two days before Thanksgiving.
As locals prepare for feasts and family gatherings, Covid has rebounded from its seasonal low of about 20 cases per day earlier this month. The seven-day moving average now stands at 32 cases per day, though that is still well below Arlington’s Delta wave peak of 48 cases per day, reached in mid-September.
Elementary-school-aged children will soon be able to get the Covid vaccine from Arlington County.
The county’s public health division says it will start offering free jabs to 5-11 year-old children on Saturday. That follows the FDA’s emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for the age group last week.
