Community Center To Resume Regular Activities After Serving As COVID Vaccine Site

ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington County is planning to reopen the Walter Reed Community Center on April 5 for basketball, volleyball, pickleball and table games.

The community center, at 2909 S. 16th Street, has served as a COVID-19 vaccination clinic since January 2021. Arlington will continue to administer vaccines at the community center, but the size of the clinic is shrinking.

After reopening for the sports and games on April 5, the Walter Reed Community Center will resume all other activities starting April 18, County Manager Mark Schwartz said this week at a county board meeting.

The Walter Reed Community Center and the Arlington Mill Community Center at 909 S Dinwiddie Street have served as sites in the county to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Local pharmacies and doctor’s offices also provide COVID-19 vaccinations.

Schwartz said the county's eventual goal is to integrate the county's COVID-19 vaccination program with the full-time vaccination activities at Sequoia Plaza on Washington Blvd., which is currently reserved only for clients of the county's Department of Human Services.

At Tuesday's board meeting, Schwartz emphasized that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over. Arlington County had dropped to 24 new cases of the coronavirus per day in early March, but had climbed back to an average of 35 new cases per day earlier this week.

"The surest sign that it’s not over is we’re continuing to see new cases of COVID in Arlington," Schwartz said.

Arlington County has administered 197,700 vaccines at its public health clinics since the first vaccines were rolled out 15 months ago. Nearly 78 percent of Arlingtonians are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Schwartz said the county will be prepared to administer second booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine to residents when the Food and Drug Administration authorizes requests from pharmaceutical companies. "Our public health clinics will be ready, whatever the decision is," he said.

Last Saturday, Arlington officials honored county residents who lost their lives over the past two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 321 county residents have died from the disease over the past two years. In the county, there have been 40,408 positive cases of the coronavirus, and 1,076 residents have been hospitalized with the disease caused by the virus.

RELATED: COVID-19 Losses: Arlington Honors Residents 2 Years Into Pandemic