To the Fairfax County Community,
This week, the Fairfax County Police Department released its
2019 Use of Force Report. We are one of the few police departments in the Commonwealth of Virginia to produce a use of force report. While use of force incidents are rare overall in Fairfax County, about 45% of those subject to force are African American. This is troublesome because African Americans make up less than 10% of the population.
I also asked the Police Chief to provide a timeline to the Board for the release and publication of all FCPD police stops, to include traffic citations, traffic stops, and arrests, by police station and magisterial district, broken down by race, gender, and ethnicity of each individual in the data. Our
goal must be increased transparency moving forward.
This data is troubling, and we certainly have work to do. My office is reviewing the Use of Force policy and we are fielding community comments and concerns through the Public Safety Committee. We are committed to taking the necessary steps to reduce disproportionate contact between persons of color and the police. That's why I asked the Board on Tuesday to approve a partnership with the
My Brother's Keeper Initiative. That's why we always listen to the community's needs to assess the best steps moving forward.
See below for the full June 25 edition of my newsletter. For the resources mentioned in past newsletters, visit my
website. If you have a friend who would like to sign up for this newsletter, they can do so
here.
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Percentage of Positive Cases Fairfax Health District
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Fairfax County COVID-19 Data
- An update on the Fairfax County Health District's progress on the Governor's criteria:
- Percentage of positives tests over 14 days
- Status: At least seven weeks of a downward trend has been observed.
- Hospitalizations over 14 days
- Status: Since peaking at 53 reported hospitalizations on May 3, a general downward trend has been observed.
- Increased testing
- Status: The total number of PCR tests done in Fairfax County is reported on the VDH website as 76,425. The tests per week during the past four weeks has ranged between about 8,000 and 10,000 tests.
- Increased contact tracing capacity
- Status: Although the infrastructure is not in place yet, 76 people have been hired and are in varying stages of the training process. This will continue to grow in the weeks ahead.
- Enough hospital beds and intensive care capacity
- Status: Overall available hospital beds were at 25%; no change since the June 9 report.
- While a recent decrease in available adult critical care beds to approximately 25% has been observed (as of June 24), this remains above the low of 15% that occurred on May 17.
- Increasing and sustainable supply of PPE
- Status: PPE for hospitals appears to continue to be adequate.
Car and Real Estate Tax Payments
- At Tuesday's Board meeting, we voted to reduce penalties for late personal property and real estate tax payments this year.
- For late payments, the penalty was cut in half from 10% to 5%.
- The additional 15% penalty for car taxes on payments more than 30 days overdue was also eliminated.
- Read more.
Inova
- Inova is sharing information on their comprehensive care program to ensure everyone feels safe when visiting their facilities.
- Safe@Inova provides details about facility practices, their strict PPE requirements, and cleaning protocols.
- They want residents to know that it is safe to go to the hospital. This is especially important if you are experiencing an emergency.
Temporary Shelter for Vulnerable Communities
- The County is providing Quarantine, Protection, Isolation/Decompression emergency housing for those who are unable to practice infection control and meet eligibility criteria.
- The isolation/quarantine hotels are temporary sheltering sites only and do not provide health care services.
- If you have additional questions about whether you meet the criteria for these temporary shelters, call the Fairfax County Health Department Call Center at 703-267-3511.
- Learn more.
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Common Health Questions:
- People with COVID-19 have a wide range of symptoms reported - ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure. You might experience:
- Cough
- Fever
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Chills, repeated shaking with chills
- Muscle pain
- Headache
- Sore throat
- New loss of taste and smell
- Continue to follow the health guidelines:
- Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer if that isn't an option (especially when in public places)
- Cough and sneeze into your sleeve
- Don't touch your face
- Social distance
- What it means to social distance, self-isolate, and quarantine.
- The CDC recommends wearing non-medical masks to slow the spread of COVID-19. It is now required in Virginia.
- The New York Times (access to COVID-19 content is free) spoke with infectious disease experts, aerosol scientists, and microbiologists to find out if COVID-19 can land on your clothing, hair, shoes, and mail.
Resources:
- Fairfax County Health Department
- To view the number of cases in Fairfax County this page is updated at noon daily.
- Visit the County site on COVID-19, Health Department Website, and see their FAQs.
- To view multilingual health materials visit the County's Language Portal.
- Sign up for text message alerts: text FFXCOVID to 888777. Para inscribirse, textear FFXCOVIDESP a 888777.
- Call the Health Department from 9am-7pm weekdays and 9:30am-5pm on weekends: 703-267-3511
- Email: [email protected]. This account will be staffed Monday through Friday, 8am-8pm.
- Inova has a helpful FAQ.
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We recognize that we are in very trying times, but I hope you see in these newsletters that positive change has occurred over the last several months.
As I often say, we are truly lucky to live in Fairfax County where we have the resources to overcome challenges and a community who rises to the occasion.
Jeffrey C. McKay
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