September 30, 2020
To the Fairfax County Community,

I wanted to take a moment to recognize Lilla Richards, former Dranesville District Supervisor, who passed away last week. Her institutional knowledge about Fairfax County's zoning ordinance helped bring about many positive land-use and environmental changes to Fairfax.

Lilla was a strong activist for her community. She was the President of the McLean Citizen's Association, worked to find a permanent home for the McLean Project for the Arts at the McLean Community Center, and was critical to the creation of the Old Firehouse Teen Center.

Lilla's archives are located in the Virginia Room at Fairfax Library. She was a Fairfax County giant and will be missed.

See below for the full September 30 edition of my newsletter. For COVID-19 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.
Board Meeting
Below is a brief update from our Board meeting. You can see the full package here.

FY2020 Carryover

  • Following a public hearing, the Board approved the FY2020 carryover, which is the allocation of unspent dollars from the previous year's budget. In Virginia, localities are required to balance their budgets annually. Most importantly, we set aside $15.19 million to our Coronavirus Pandemic Reserve in the General Fund. The reserve is funding set aside to accommodate the unknowns we are facing with COVID and is currently totaled at $25.03 million.
  • You can see the carryover package here and some highlights of critical County investments are:
  • COVID-19 response:
  • 40 new School Health positions (funded by CARES Act funding and by FCPS) to support COVID-19 cases and contact investigations. Following the pandemic, these hires will be redeployed to the School Health program.
  • 11 new positions to the Coordinated Services Planning call center to address the unprecedented increase in calls for service and to improve wait times.
  • 9 positions to the Fairfax County Public Health Laboratory to increase the capacity of COVID-19 testing from 500 COVID-19 samples a day to 1,000 samples a day.
  • $8.06 million towards the County’s environmental and energy strategies. This funding will help support our goal of reducing County energy use, for example converting 56,000 streetlights across Fairfax to LED lights, and expanding Electric Vehicle charging stations at County buildings.
  • $1.9 million towards the implementation of phases 2 and 3 of the body-worn camera program in FY2021. This includes a 40% increase to the Commonwealth's Attorney's budget with 15 new positions in their office.
  • $1.14 million to the Office of Elections to support the November 2020 election. Funding will support the staffing necessary to process absentee ballots and to staff voting locations, the purchase of ballots and registration notices, and supplies for polling and satellite locations.
  • The Office of Elections is run by an independent Electoral Board, not the Board of Supervisors. However, the BOS has approved all additional funding requests from the Electoral Board to ensure the resources are in place for this very large election year. This includes a record number of satellite locations that will open on October 14.

Other Items

  • As part of our response to COVID-19 and to encourage restaurant flexibility in creating safe socially distanced environments, our Board passed an ordinance in May that expanded outdoor dining and fitness options. Yesterday, I asked the Board to authorize a public hearing to extend the ordinance and to amend it to allow tents that are partially or completely closed. This is a simple way to help businesses as the weather gets cooler.
  • The Board approved the participation in a regional analysis of impediments to fair housing. This analysis will be conducted with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and other local jurisdictions across DC, Virginia, and Maryland. The final result will include a regional analysis and local analysis of each jurisdiction with goals and strategies to further fair housing.
COVID-19 and the Flu
Fairfax County Percent Positive COVID-19 Cases
COVID-19 Case Count

  • Case counts are relatively stable. While there has been a small increase in COVID-19 cases since restrictions were relaxed for Phase 3 of reopening in July, the Fairfax Health District has not seen the surge that other regions across the state have experienced.
  • As you can see in the chart above, the week of September 13-19 was the first week since late July that the percent positivity rate dropped below 5% - to about 4.2%.
  • A recent Virginia Department of Health antibody study estimated that since the pandemic began, 4.4% of Northern Virginians have evidence of COVID-19 infection.
  • That said, this pandemic isn't over and this isn't a time to relax. Remember, the number of cases reported is an underestimate because many cases are never tested or reported. That said, in general we continue to do well because residents follow masking and social distancing guidelines.

Long-Term Care Facilities

  • During the spring, outbreaks in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities accounted for many of the cases and most of the COVID-19 deaths in Fairfax County.
  • With aggressive interventions, most facilities have been able to progress to a reopening phase.
  • Routine testing of staff and residents has been implemented by many facilities, along with continued testing for people who are identified with symptoms.

Data Dashboards

  • This week, the Virginia Department of Health launched a new Pandemic Metrics Dashboard, which shows a visualization of COVID-19 community transmission by region.
  • Remember you can look at the County's dashboard here.

George Mason University Support

  • The Fairfax County Health Department has weekly meetings with GMU.
  • We have a team dedicated to containment at the university for case investigation and contact tracing.
  • You can view GMU's COVID-19 dashboard here.

Flu

  • With the COVID-19 pandemic still in full force and influenza season now starting, it’s more important than ever that everyone do their part to help prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses.
  • We encourage everyone 6 months of age and older to get a flu shot this year and every year. 
  • Flu shot clinics through Fairfax County and more information can be found here.
The Chairman's Task Force on Equity and Opportunity
As our County responds to COVID-19 and begins the journey to recovery, we see the convergence of a public health crisis and an economic crisis, and with recent national and racial unrest, are confronted by the realities of injustice and systemic racism. Our community is looking to local government for leadership, and it has never been more important for us to maximize our resources to meet the immediate and long-term needs of our residents and to understand what is driving these challenges.

These challenging circumstances, however, give us a transformative opportunity as local government to form and change policy and to align and leverage our investments to shape the structure of opportunity across the County, strategically and intentionally. But this is not just a process to reveal what the government should do – we must also leverage the insights, experiences, professional networks, and industry and institutional understanding that exists within our community to develop the big ideas and compelling frames that will shape a vision for an equitable future. 

With a focus on understanding the County’s past and looking toward the future, I have convened the Task Force on Equity and Opportunity to consider:

  • The circumstances and systems that have made certain places and populations vulnerable. And specifically, how institutional and structural racism have contributed to these situations and conditions.
  • The voices that must be lifted to better understand and address these issues.
  • The actions that can be taken to reshape Fairfax County into a place where all can thrive; including, what might accelerate or facilitate progress and what stands in the way of progress.

The Task Force is comprised of 43 members representing the diversity of Fairfax County and bringing a range of experiences and perspectives, including residents, institutional leaders, and subject matter experts. People who are interested in providing input should email [email protected] or call 703-324-2321. The Task Force is organized into four committees:

  • Cradle to Career Success
  • Community Health
  • Community Safety and Justice
  • Equitable Communities

The Task Force kicked off on September 11 and their meetings will conclude with a presentation of the recommendations to me on December 4. The recommendations of the Task Force will then be shared with the public and presented to the Board of Supervisors at a meeting to be scheduled in January 2021, though strategies may be identified and forwarded for consideration for implementation throughout the process. From January to June 2021, plans for implementation will be developed for accepted recommendations in alignment with the Countywide Strategic Planning process.
Health
Common Health Questions:

  • People with COVID-19 have a wide range of symptoms reported - ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure. You might experience:
  • Fever or chills
  • Cough
  • Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
  • Fatigue
  • Muscle or body aches
  • Headache
  • New loss of taste or smell
  • Sore throat
  • Congestion or runny nose
  • Nausea or vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Continue to follow the health guidelines:
  • Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer if that isn't an option (especially when in public places)
  • Cough and sneeze into your sleeve
  • Don't touch your face
  • Social distance
  • What it means to social distance, self-isolate, and quarantine.
  • The CDC recommends wearing non-medical masks to slow the spread of COVID-19. It is now required in Virginia.
  • The New York Times (access to COVID-19 content is free) spoke with infectious disease experts, aerosol scientists, and microbiologists to find out if COVID-19 can land on your clothing, hair, shoes, and mail.

Resources:

  • Fairfax County Health Department
  • To view the number of cases in Fairfax County this page is updated at noon daily.
  • Visit the County site on COVID-19, Health Department Website, and see their FAQs.
  • To view multilingual health materials visit the County's Language Portal.
  • Sign up for text message alerts: text FFXCOVID to 888777. Para inscribirse, textear FFXCOVIDESP a 888777.
  • Call the Health Department from 9am-7pm weekdays and 9:30am-5pm on weekends: 703-267-3511
  • Email: [email protected]. This account will be staffed Monday through Friday, 8am-8pm.
  • Inova has a helpful FAQ.
We recognize that we are in very trying times, but I hope you see in these newsletters that positive change has occurred over the last several months.

As I often say, we are truly lucky to live in Fairfax County where we have the resources to overcome challenges and a community who rises to the occasion.

Jeffrey C. McKay
Contact the Office

[email protected] | 703.324.2321 |