There are over 4,197,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus, around the world and 1,347,936 confirmed cases across the country. The global total number of deaths stands at 286,669, and the United States’ at 80,684. Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University has been keeping up-to-date information through an interactive map.
As of Tuesday morning, Virginia had 25,070 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 3,300 people hospitalized, 850 deaths and 149,436 people tested. Fairfax has the highest total number of cases, with 6,200 to date, with 946 hospitalized and 243 deaths. Arlington has reported 1,399 cases with 286 hospitalized and 60 deaths. Alexandria has 1,224 cases with 139 hospitalized and 30 deaths. Loudoun County has 1,195 cases with 116 hospitalized and 30 deaths and Prince William County has 3,554 cases (including Manassas and Manassas City), with 339 hospitalized and 58 deaths. You can keep up with the commonwealth’s daily updates here. (Virginia Department of Health)
Regional
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, tallied in at 64,832 in the DMV on Tuesday morning. Maryland reported 33,373 cases, Virginia reported 25,070 and Washington, DC reported 6,389. The death toll has reached a total of 2,861, with 1,683 in Maryland, 850 in Virginia and 328 in DC. (Virginia Department of Health; Maryland Department of Health; Stay Home DC!)
Local
Gov. Ralph Northam has said he expects to leave Northern Virginia out of the commonwealth’s Phase 1 reopening later this week. The region has accounted for nearly 75% of Virginia’s total case count each day (On Monday, of the nearly 1,000 new COVID-19 cases reported, almost 750 of them were in Northern Virginia), and the region’s population makes up about 40% of the entire state. (The Washington Post)
Local
Northern Virginia businesses are beginning to respond to the delay of Phase 1 opening across the region, including the owner of Illusions of Shirlington on Campbell Avenue in Arlington. Irma Wheeler said the salon was prepared to open Saturday, with appointments already on the schedule for the upcoming week. “We are devastated. Totally devastated. We are ready. We are taking every precaution,” even making sure that there would be no more than 10 people, including staff, at a time inside the salon, Wheeler said. “It’s just not fair, at the last minute, when [Gov. Ralph Northam] announced it,” Wheeler said. With cases still on the rise across the region, it is not yet known when restrictions will be eased in Northern Virginia. (WTOP)
Local
Dr. Edward Puccio, a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and medical director of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Inova Loudoun Hospital, wants residents to continue to seek emergency treatment, if necessary. In recent weeks of the outbreak, hospitals have seen a sharp decrease in emergency treatments, including heart attacks and general injuries, leaving many to fear that patients are ignoring symptoms, self-treating with medication or avoiding treatment altogether due to the increased risk of COVID-19. “Some people are high-risk; some of them are low-risk, but in the past they would all get evaluated,” Puccio said. But local hospitals have set up a variety of ways to keep non-suspected-coronavirus patients separate from others. “You should have no concerns about coming to the emergency department and checking in, being screened and being evaluated inside your private emergency department room,” Puccio said. (WTOP)
Local
A walk-up COVID-19 testing site is opening in Columbia Pike today, which is part of a partnership between Arlington Free Clinic and Virginia Hospital Center. Residents are advised to get a referral from a doctor, then call to make an appointment to get tested at the clinic. The clinic will be open every weekday from 1 to 5 p.m. (ARL Now)
Regional
Doctors at Children’s National have reported two additional cases of the inflammatory disease now being linked with COVID-19 in children. In recent weeks, with over 15 children in New York City exhibiting symptoms, doctors and researchers have begun to link the novel coronavirus and Kawasaki disease, a somewhat rare inflammatory condition that affects blood vessels, causing a rash, red eyes, a fever and swollen hands and feet. (The Washington Post)
Regional
Washington, DC now has an additional 400-plus beds due to a makeshift hospital created at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, which will be ready to serve up to 100 patients this week. “The patients who will be coming here will be low acuity COVID-positive patients, meaning these are patients who need neither a ventilator or an ICU bed,” said DC Mayor Muriel E. Bowser. The city is currently at 71% capacity in its hospitals, not including the new additional beds. (WTOP)
National
Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease doctor and leader of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will testify to the U.S. Senate today that reopening the economy too quickly could lead to “needless suffering and death.”
“The major message that I wish to convey … is the danger of trying to open the country prematurely,” Fauci wrote to The New York Times late Monday. “If we skip over the checkpoints in the guidelines … then we risk the danger of multiple outbreaks throughout the country.” (The Washington Post)
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