Charlottesville Community Engagement
Charlottesville Community Engagement
September 18, 2020: 15 total cases at UVA dorm, quarantine continues
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September 18, 2020: 15 total cases at UVA dorm, quarantine continues

Today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out is for Abundant Life Ministries, “working hard to create a better future for the Charlottesville community.”

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The University of Virginia has recorded 52 positive tests on its COVID-19 tracker after three days of only reporting single digit numbers. All of the cases are from students and that brings the total to 430 positive cases since August 17, with 382 of them students. The Cavalier Daily reports that the high number is due to a testing machine being “temporarily offline.”

“The large number of cases include a number who were tested earlier in the week and do not represent a sudden spike over the last 24 hours,” said deputy spokesman Wes Hester in a statement.

Changes will be made to the UVA dashboard today, according to the Cavalier Daily. Students in the Balz-Dobie dormitory remain in mandated quarantine while waiting for test results after five residents tested positive. Those five tests were not reflected in the 52 cases reported Thursday, but UVA announced this morning that follow-up testing yielded another ten cases in Balz-Dobie for a total of 15. 

“In accordance with the University’s COVID-19 Prevention, Detection, and Response Plan, students who tested positive have been notified and are being placed in isolation housing,” reads an update on UVA’s Facebook page “All students with positive tests are doing well. Their close contacts, including roommates, are being placed in quarantine housing.

Statewide there are another 1,242 cases of COVID-19 this morning, and a total of 77 new cases in the Thomas Jefferson Health District. Of that figure, sixty are reported as being from Charlottesville and eight are from Albemarle. That may represent the cases at the University of Virginia. There are only five new cases from Fluvanna County, which has seen a spike this week due to a test of all inmates and staff at the women’s prison there. 

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Early voting starts today at registrar’s offices across Virginia and runs for 46 days through November 3. What will the results be?

“Three words --  we don’t know,” said UVA presidential prognosticator Larry Sabato on a Center for Politics webinar Thursday. “That’s why your crystal ball is being more cautious than certainly we were in 2016 and frankly more cautious than some are being this year. This is an unprecedented presidential election. We have never had a presidential election during a pandemic.” 

Sabato said there has also not been a presidential election during such a severe downtown in the economy. He said different models published in recent weeks by the Center for Politics show different results. 

Alan [Abramowitz] believing that Biden will win fairly handily and Jim [Campbell] projecting a close popular vote which to me says that Trump will win the electoral college in all probability,” Sabato said. “The fact that these two very able political scientists could produce results so different should suggest to all of us that while we love to jump to conclusions and we love to jump to conclusions and we love to fill in and color a map and not leave any states out, we really ought to express a little bit of humility.” 

Episode 5 of the Sabato’s Crystal Ball - America Votes 2020 is available for viewing on YouTube.

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A nonprofit group that matches caring adults with children that need guardians is seeking new families. Community Attention Foster Families works in Albemarle, Charlottesville and Greene County and trains people to become “compassionate caretakers” who support vulnerable children. Those sessions take about 27 hours to complete and prepare families for the experience. 

“Becoming a foster parent is an incredible way to give back to our local community,” said CAFF Recruitment Specialist Nicole Hawker,  in a press release. “You have the opportunity to empower children and youth as well as their biological families towards hope, healing and family restoration.”

Hawker will lead an informational session on foster care on Monday. If you or someone you know is interested in participating, send her an email at CAFFinquiries@charlottesville.gov.

There were 218 children in foster care in the three communities as of the beginning of this year. 

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Tonight is the launch of Live Arts new season, albeit an atypical one that is being streamed on Facebook rather than at the theater on East Water Street. The Forging Ahead Season will begin at 7 with a “coffeehouse” hosted by Shelby Marie Edwards and with live performances from  Amrita Shankar, Johnny Butcher, Monica Edwards, and Nathaniel Star. The event is free but Live Arts will request viewers to pay what they can and to purchase a season pass. (watch)

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