This burst of words and soundbites comes to you courtesy of Rapture, open outside only on the Downtown Mall for lunch, drinks and dinner, with brunch served Friday through Sunday. But only if you feel safe. Take-out options available.
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The Virginia Department of Health is reporting another 1,127 cases of COVID-19 today, the highest such number in the past month. However, the seven-day positive rate declined to 7.5 percent, down from 7.7 percent yesterday. The number of deaths has increased by 13 to a total of 2,067. Of those, nearly 50 percent of the deceased were over the age of 80, a quarter were between 70 and 79, 15 percent between 60 and 69, 6.2 percent between 50 and 59 and 2.7 percent between 40 and 49. The numbers for the Thomas Jefferson Health District were not available at recording time. (VDH dashboard)
There have now been over 4 million cases in the United States and at over 143,000 deaths. According to a report on CNN, Johns-Hopkins University reported its first case six months ago on January 21, and it took 99 days to reach a million cases. The nation reached two million cases on June 10, three million cases on July 8, and now…. Four million. How long until we reach five million as a nation?
The Albemarle Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting on Monday at 3:00 p.m. to take up an ordinance that would allow the county to return to Phase 2 of the Forward Virginia Plan. Supervisors discussed the matter at length on Wednesday and will provide a summary of that meeting by Monday morning. Subscribe to the Charlottesville Quarantine Report podcast for more. (agenda)
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The Albemarle School Board held the first of three town hall meetings yesterday on the reopening plan for the upcoming academic year. At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Denise Bonds of the Thomas Jefferson Health District said she was concerned about the future availability of COVID-19 testing.
“Test resulting is delayed,” Bonds said. “It is now taking somewhere between five and 14 days to get rest results back from commercial labs because of the increased demand that’s being caused in the southern half of our nation and the large outbreaks that we’re seeing there.”
On Wednesday, Bonds told the Albemarle Board of Supervisors that the University of Virginia Health System appeared to be backing out of a commitment to help cover the costs of community testing. However, she had this news on Thursday.
“UVA continues to assist us,” Dr. Bonds said. “I think we’ve got a workaround. If you listened to the Board meeting yesterday there were some concern because the state will not pay for the test that UVA does so I think we’ve come up with a non-ideal but a functional work-around to move forward so that we can continue to use that valuable asset as we refer to it as having people from UVA out and testing in the community.”
Sentara Martha Jefferson has confirmed they will “temporarily discontinue” testing events in the community. Yesterday they held such an event at Washington Park but no others are scheduled. In a release, the company stated that it is making the move to preserve resources.
“The number of hospitalized and emergency room patients requiring testing is increasing and our laboratories daily capacity, due to restrictions on the supply of tests, are not able to meet the community testing needs at this time,” reads the July 23 release.
The release goes on to state that Sentara Martha Jefferson has provided more than 650 tests to the community, with 35 positives. More tests are currently being processed by the hospital. The Thomas Jefferson Health District currently has three testing events scheduled for next week. On Monday morning they will be at Agnor-Hurt Elementary in Albemarle. On Wednesday morning, they will be at Louisa County High School, and on Thursday morning they will be at the Earlysville Fire Department. You’ll need to call 434-972-6261 to schedule an appointment. (VDH page on testing sites)
As for Albemarle County schools, the second of three town halls will be held this afternoon at 2 p.m. and will be hosted by School Board members Katrina Callsen and Ellen Osborne. Monday’s meeting at 6 p.m. will be hosted by Judy Le and Katrina Callsen. (meeting information)
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Across the Commonwealth, more school systems are considering a pathway of online only for at least the beginning of the school year. Loudoun County voted earlier this week to not hold classes in person. York County’s superintendent is recommending the division go with remote learning for the first nine weeks, according to the Daily Press. That county’s school board will vote on July 30.
Dr. Bonds did not offer a recommendation on what Albemarle should do, but said that if classes are held in-person, facial covering must be normalized and contact between students must be limited. She gave this advice.
“If school is to be held in season, to really work on cohorting kids in small groups and limit the use of shared spaces. So small groups of students that stay in their classroom, go out to the playground together, and try and bring resources to the students. Can meals be brought to the student classroom. With library time, is there a way to bring those books be brought to the student classroom? And then if you are in a situation where normally students would rotate to different classrooms, can you instead in the same classroom, rotate faculty between?”
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Last night, the three Places29 Community Advisory Council met virtually and got an update on development in Albemarle County’urban area. For instance, County planner said there are currently 365 units in the site plan review process for North Pointe. North Pointe was originally rezoned in 2006 but has not been under construction until recently.
Other topics included the status of a new Autozone slated for U.S. 29 north of Greenbrier Drive, what’s going on with an office complex at the corner of Georgetown Road and Hydraulic Road, and a full update on transportation projects in the area. One of them will eventually connect the UVA Research Park directly to Hollymead Town Center by extending Berkmar Drive northward. Transportation planner Kevin McDermott explains.
“We have the Lewis and Clark Extension that brings you down to Airport Road but as those folks that go up there know, currently Berkmar doesn’t make it all the way up to Airport Road,” McDermott said. “What we’re trying to do with that project is continue that all the way up to Airport Road where it will be at an intersection with what has been known as Innovation Drive and construct a roundabout there.”
This project is called for in the Places29 Master Plan and is the county’s fifth transportation priority. McDermott said the Virginia Department of Transportation will reveal soon whether the Berkmar project will be funded. (Albemarle County Transportation Priorities 2019 update)
July 24, 2020: An update on community testing from Dr. Bonds