Hello and welcome to Charlottesville Community Engagement. I’m your host, Sean Tubbs, and before we get started, I wanted to remind some of you and tell some of your for the first time that this program is an offshoot of a podcast I created in March 2020 to get information out about COVID-19.
Doing the Charlottesville Quarantine Report made me want to get back to journalism, and here I am a year and a half later with the 228th installment of this show and what is the 57th installment of the Charlottesville Quarantine Report. Let’s get right to it.
On today’s program:
Amid rising COVID cases, Governor Northam requires vaccines or weekly COVID tests for state employees
An infectious disease expert at the University of Virginia is concerned about this flu season
The Blue Ridge Health District takes questions on where we are at the moment in the pandemic
In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out: Help support black-owned business in the Charlottesville area. Check out the Charlottesville Black Business Directory at cvilleblackbiz.com and choose between a variety of goods and services, ranging from beauty supplies, professional services, and e-commerce. Visit cvilleblackbiz.com as soon as you can to get started!
You know there’s something serious going on with the public health response to the surge in COVID cases when there are press conferences at the local, University of Virginia, and state level all held on the same day. We’ll get through all of those in this episode of the program dedicated solely to COVID. Let’s start with the numbers today.
There are another 1,760 new cases of COVID-19 reported today by the Virginia Department of Health and the seven-day rate for positive test results is 6.8 percent. That’s up from 4.8 percent a week ago.
In the Blue Ridge Health District there are another 30 cases today and the percent positivity is at 4.7 percent. Dr. Denise Bonds is the director of the Blue Ridge Health District.
“We had a lovely couple of months where as vaccinations increased, our case counts went down, and unfortunately in this country we have had now had an increase of what’s called the Delta variant,” Dr. Bonds said.
Dr. Bonds said the Delta variant is changing guidance from national health officials on wearing masks indoors. Locally, restrictions are beginning to go back in place. For instance, Albemarle County will require all visitors to administration buildings to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status, beginning on Monday.
Part of the reason is that even people who are fully vaccinated could potentially still carry the Delta variant as the virus load is believed to be higher. So official guidance has changed.
“If you are vaccinated and know you have an exposure to someone who had a diagnosed case of COVID, the recommendations are that you get tested three to five days after that exposure and that you wear a mask when you are out in public for 14 days or until you have that negative test,” Dr. Bonds said. “That’s because we know with the Delta variant that you can become infected, have very mild or no symptoms if you’re vaccinated, but still be capable of shedding that virus to other individuals.”
Dr. Bonds said she has resumed wearing a mask when she goes to the grocery store and when she goes to a weekly exercise class.
The total for fully-vaccinated Virginians, including children, is 54.3 percent, up from 53.8 percent a week ago. The seven-day daily rate for vaccinations has increased to 13,031 a day, up from 11,840 a week ago.
Dr. Bonds comments came at a town hall this afternoon by the Blue Ridge Health District to provide information about how to get a vaccine, how to get tested, and the latest status on vaccinations. Jason Elliott is a communications officer with the Blue Ridge Health District. (watch the Town Hall)
“The math on this works out to about 61.8 percent of the Blue Ridge Health District having at least one dose and we’re sitting now at 56.5 percent of our Blue Ridge Health District being fully vaccinated,” Elliott said.
The Blue Ridge Health District is offering vaccinations four days a week at a smaller location at Fashion Square Mall in daytime and evening hours. They’re also offering shots at their headquarters one day a week. Their mobile vaccination clinic is also in use from time to time for something they’re calling Shot on the Spot.
“Coming up you’ll see us at Westhaven Health Day this weekend,” Elliott said. “We’ll also be at Lake Anna this weekend.”
The “Mobi” van will be on the Downtown Mall this Monday. There is still an active homebound campaign underway between the health district, UVA Health, and the Charlottesville Fire Department to provide vaccinations to people who cannot leave their home.
“The added bonus to this is that we take care of everything for your first and second dose, and you get that smoke detector set up or that battery replaced if you need that as well,” Elliott said.
We’ll hear more from the Blue Ridge Health District later in the program. Just before the town hall, the University of Virginia Health System held their weekly press briefing.
In the near future, booster shots for COVID may be on the horizon but are not currently recommended. Will that become an annual event? Dr. Patrick Jackson, an infectious disease expert, said it is too early to tell.
“With a lot of humility, we’re only known about this virus for about 19 months,” Dr. Jackson said. “There’s a lot of things still to know. HIV was discovered the year before I was born and my day job is to work on HIV virology so there’s just a ton we don’t know yet.”
Dr. Jackson said it is likely that COVID will likely remain present as a respiratory pathogen that continues to circulate similar to influenza.
“I think vaccination will continue to be a major emphasis for COVID-19,” Dr. Jackson said. “In terms of how often that vaccination will need to be updated, I think that’s unknown right now. There are reasons to believe that COVID-19 will mutate more slowly than influenza does so it might not be a yearly vaccine but there might be periodic updates that are recommended.”
Dr. Jackson said last year there was virtually no transmission of influenza because of social distancing and this may present a problem.
“Every year when the flu season comes around, you kind of rely on people having been exposed the previous year and recovered to kind of tamp down on the amount of transmission that flu can run through in a population,” Dr. Jackson said. “So I do think that in this upcoming flu season that vaccination is going to be incredibly important and we’re going to have to ramp up our efforts to vaccinate people because I think having kind of missed the last flu season is that we are kind of set up for a worst season this time around.”
Dr. Jackson was asked at the press conference what he wanted Governor Northam to do to take steps for public health.
“We already have a lottery in Virginia,” Jackson said. “We might as well have a vaccination lottery. I think that there’s at least some data that that helps get some people off the fence. Things the Governor can do to encourage vaccination particularly among state and local governments would be very helpful, up to and including expanding some vaccination mandates for people who are in a public facing role I think would be positive.”
Dr. Jackson said it is also important that people who are sick get time off from work.
“Paid time off for staff who are not feeling well to go home, recover, get tested, is super important, and supporting students who are not feeling well to continue their education, whether that is remotely,” Jackson said. “In an ideal world, and this is outside of the hands school system probably is allowing parents to take time off from work to care for their kids when they are sick rather than sending them in.”
You’re reading Charlottesville Community Engagement and it’s time now for another reader-supported announcement.
The nonprofit group Resilient Virginia works to inform decision makers and officials about how to prepare for a changing world. They’re holding their annual event virtually this year, and registration prices go up at the end of this week. The Resilient Recovery Conference will take place the mornings of August 25, August 26, and August 27. Take a look at the details of the event as well as pricing at resilientvirginia.org.
It has been a few months since Governor Northam held a press briefing specifically to address COVID-19. The pediatrician took to the dais today, wearing a mask, in order to give updates.
“When we last spoke in early May, things were looking very good,” Northam said. “And they still are overall. This summer our case counts have dropped to the lowest we have seen since October of 2020. And we have been seeing drops in hospitalizations, deaths, and in our percent positivity.”
However, the number of cases and the percent positivity have begun to increase as the number of vaccinations began to stall. That’s given the Delta variant room to spread.
“The arrival of the Delta variant combined with the number of people who are not vaccinated is driving our case counts back up,” Northam said. “A large majority of the people getting infected now are unvaccinated. They haven’t gotten their shot.”
Northam stressed that Virginia is still reporting lower numbers each day than at the height of the winter surge.
“And I am confident we will not go back to that point,” Northam said.
Northam said since January, 99 percent of COVID cases have been in people not fully vaccinated.
“Even though Delta is more contagious, vaccinated people are still strongly protected against getting so sick that they have to go into the hospital,” Northam said. “Nearly every single person who has died from COVID has been unvaccinated.”
Northam announced mandatory vaccinations for the 120,000 people who work for the Commonwealth of Virginia by September 1.
“Anyone who chooses not to be vaccinated will have to get a COVID test every week and show proof of a negative result,” Northam said. “And I really encourage local governments and private companies to do the same thing.”
Northam urged those who are hesitant to get the shot now.
“The time for waiting is over,” Northam said. “Millions of people around the world have been vaccinated and we are fine. Three hundred and fifty million doses have been distributed in the United States including nearly ten million right here in Virginia.”
Children under the age of 12 are still not eligible to get a vaccine, though Northam said he is hopeful approval from the Food and Drug Administration will come within the next month. Under Virginia law adopted by the General Assembly this past winter, schools are required to offer in-person instruction five days a week and they are to follow guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control. (read the bill)
“The CDC guidance is that people in schools need to be wearing masks,” Northam said.
Several districts have already taken votes stating mask-wearing will be optional. Northam urged these localities to consult with their legal counsel and to reconsider.
“It’s the law of the land and we expect our school districts throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia to follow the law,” Northam said.
Northam stopped well short of issuing a mandate for indoor masks. The state of emergency declared on March 12, 2020 has now expired. On August 5, 2021, Northam invoked some of the messaging used back in the early days of the pandemic.
“One of the things I said when all this started is that we as Americans are fighting a biological war and our enemy is the COVID-19 virus and when I served in the United States Army, one of the things that was so reassuring to me as an American was that Americans were on board with our mission. They were behind everything that we were trying to do to win this war. I would just hope that Virginians and Americans would look at this as a war and want to win that war.”
So for now, just like I was doing in March 2020, I’m remaining vigilant, watching the numbers, and changing my behavior again.
August 5, 2021: Governor Northam requires state employees to get vaccinated; Albemarle to require masks of county visitors