County Manager Proposes $17.5M COVID-19 Contingency Fund

ARLINGTON, VA — When County Manager Mark Schwartz presented his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2022 on Monday, he asked the Arlington County Board to set-aside $17.5 million for a COVID-19 contingency fund.

"That includes eviction prevention, additional food for our food banks, potential additional assistance for small business, assistance funding for the costs of responding to the pandemic for us," Schwartz said, during a Monday afternoon news conference. "That means the purchase of PPE, doing some of the work associated with vaccination and testing and sort of retrofitting our facilities. I'm hoping again that we don't need to use that $17.5 million."

Last year, Schwartz had to redo the FY 2021 budget due to a decline in county revenue associated with the pandemic, so his new budget proposal acknowledged the county may still faced many challenges due to COVID-19.

Schwartz described his FY 2022 proposal as a "bridge budget" between the pandemic and the post-pandemic world. The contingency fund is designed to help county residents and businesses survive the pandemic and thrive once it's behind them.

"Once we get to a situation where I'm hoping that we have something approaching herd immunity and the right number of people vaccinated, and we have our restaurants able to open up and inside dining in a way that people aren't afraid to do it, and then our hotels, that to me would be a good sign," he said.

The budget approval process will take several months, with the adopted budget going into effect on July 1.

Virginia Department of Health confirmed 42 additional cases of COVID-19 Friday in Arlington. That's identical to the 42 new cases reported on Thursday. The total number of COVID-19 cases in the Arlington Health District stands at 12,768.

One new death was reported in the Arlington Health District on Friday. The total number of COVID-19-related deaths in Arlington stands at 212. A total of 753 people have been hospitalized in Arlington due to COVID-19.

The positivity rate of testing in the Arlington Health District for COVID-19 has continued to decline since it peaked at 13.4 percent on Jan. 2.

Virginia Department of Health reported that 199,873 COVID-19 tests have been taken in Arlington, with a 5.9 percent positivity rate. Statewide there have been 7,204,657 COVID-19 tests taken, with a 8.2 percent positivity rate.

As of Friday morning, 27,895 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered and 8,371 people have been fully vaccinated in the Arlington Health District. Statewide, 1,471,242 doses of the vaccine have been administered and 393,306 people have been fully vaccinated.

There have been 53 outbreaks of COVID-19 in the Arlington Health District. There have been 27 outbreaks at long-term care facilities, 13 in a congregate setting, one at a correctional facility, four in health-care settings, six at a child care facilities, one at a college or a university, and one at a K-12 facility. The total number of cases associated with an outbreak is 951. There have been 299 reported coronavirus cases in Arlington involving health-care workers.

There have been 559,930 total cases statewide, according to data reported by the Virginia Department of Health. In Virginia, there have been 7,098 coronavirus-related deaths to date. There have been a total of 23,369 hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

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Globally, more than 110.4 million people have been infected by COVID-19, and over 2.4 million people have died, Johns Hopkins University reported Friday morning. In the United States, more than 27.8 million people have been infected and over 493,000 people have died from COVID-19.

VDH breaks down the number of cases and deaths in Arlington by age, race and ethnicity. The breakdown by age is as follows:

Arlington residents should take the following actions to help prevent the spread of COVID-19:

• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• Wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. An alcohol-based hand sanitizer can be used if soap and water are not available.
• Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw the tissue in the trash.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.

Also see ...

• Winter Weather To Delay Over 100K Vaccine Doses For Virginia
• Virginia Coronavirus Update: 2,304 Additional Cases Reported
• Data Migration To VA Vaccination System Is Slow Going
• Virginia Coronavirus Vaccine Hotline Joins Statewide Online Form
• Arlington Coronavirus Update: Positivity Rate Lowest In 3 Months
• Arlington Coronavirus Update: More Than 26K Vaccine Doses Given
• Virginia's Statewide Coronavirus Vaccine Pre-Registration Open
• Arlington Vaccine Doses Near 23K; State Halts Pre-Registrations
• Local Vaccine Registrations To End As Virginia Takes Over System