Today’s sense of what’s going on is brought to you by the College Inn, a place that is ready to bring you a variety of food and beverages throughout Charlottesville via delivery. That includes ice cream! Place your order online at thecollegeinn.com or phone 977-2710.
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Both the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and Charlottesville City Council will convene today in special meetings to discuss moving each jurisdiction back into Phase 2 of the Forward Virginia plan. Supervisors go first at 3 p.m. with consideration of a new emergency ordinance to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Board met last Wednesday and discussed the matter for several hours, before delaying the vote. Now they’ll vote on an emergency ordinance that would require facial covering in all indoor public places and limit the number of people at outdoor gatherings to 50, with some exceptions. That’s what the restrictions were when Virginia was in Phase 2 in mid-June.
The exceptions include churches, weddings, restaurants and wineries, as well as “expressive activity on a public street, public sidewalk, in a public park subject to park rules, and on other public property expressly designated for expressive activity by its governmental owner or occupant.”
The Albemarle ordinance if adopted would be in effect from August 1 to September 30. (ordinance)
Charlottesville City Council will convene at 4 p.m. for its special meeting on an emergency ordinance. Albemarle Supervisors had discussed wanting to know if the city planned to impose more stringent restrictions than the state. The city’s ordinance mirrors the county’s with some differences. (city ordinance)
The Louisa County Board of Supervisors also has a special meeting called for 3 p.m. today, but no agenda is available. The Jefferson Madison Regional Library Board of Trustees also meets at 3 p.m. for a regular meeting. All library spaces have been closed to the public since March.
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Over the weekend, Virginia added another 2,203 new COVID-19 cases according to the Virginia Department of Health. The number of fatalities rose to 2,078 and the seven-day positive testing rate remained steady for three days at 7.5 percent. In the Thomas Jefferson Health District, another 49 cases were reported for a total of 1,600. On Sunday, the 7-day positive rate was at 6.7 percent.
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An epidemiological model put together by the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute projects that will have around 15,000 new COVID-19 cases each week by early September. This week the number of new cases was 7,137 between Monday and Sunday, up from 6,760 the week before. The latest weekly report from the Biocomplexity Institute states that 12 of Virginia’s Health Districts are experiencing a surge in cases, including the Rapphannock-Rapidan District. The report states that 752,188 cases of COVID-19 have been avoided in Virginia so far but that could change is physical distancing continues to wane.
"Cell phone data indicates that Virginians are increasingly returning to work and visiting local businesses, almost at prepandemic levels," reads the July 24 report. "This is good news, if residents and businesses follow the guidance in the Forward Virginia plan." (UVA Model)
A fourth year football player at the University of Virginia has tested positive for COVID-19, reports the Daily Progress. T.J. Kitts of Tazewell had posted his result on Twitter but has since deleted the post. (Daily Progress article)
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The Albemarle School Board will hold another virtual town hall meeting at 6 p.m. this evening to take comment and provide information about different options for the upcoming school year. Two previous sessions are recorded on the county’s website. (register here) On Wednesday, the Greene County School Board will hold a special meeting to vote on pushing back the beginning of the school year to September 8. The Greene County Record and Daily Progress report that more than a hundred teachers and parents have sent a letter to the school board requesting an online only option.
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Albemarle County will hold a webinar at noon on the Lift Grant program which is expected to provide funding to up to 100 small businesses in the community. The initiative is part of how the county is using its allocation of the federal CARES Act. (register)
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Thanks for reading. This begins the third week of a daily newsletter I’m putting together to try to make sense of a lot of information in these changing times. If you have information you’d like to share, or would like to support the programming, please contact me. Please send this on to anyone you think would be interested.
July 27, 2020: Albemarle Supervisors and City Council both meet to discuss COVID-19 restrictions