Good morning, RVA! It's 55 °F, and you can expect potentially soggy highs in the upper 60s. Keep an eye out for rain later tonight. The good news: The seven-day forecast has some sunshine near its end!
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 752 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and five new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 53 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 14, Henrico: 20, and Richmond: 21). Since this pandemic began, 160 people have died in the Richmond region. Here’s a chart of the seven-day averages of the number of new cases in Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond. You can see Henrico’s big, quick spike early on with its nation-leading outbreak at the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center. Now each locality in the entire region sees, on average, about the same number of new cases each day as Henrico did during that terrible outbreak. For whatever reason, VDH’s data dashboard won’t show me the percent positivity for each locality this morning, but the line graph still exists. Even including antibody tests, which, remember, increases the denominator in the calculation, percent positivity across the entire region is up over the last week—slightly up in Chesterfield and Henrico, way up in Richmond.
The Governor named a bunch of folks to his COVID-19 Education Work Group, which will “help chart a path forward for determining how schools can safely reopen later this year.” My immediate impression from that very first sentence of the press release is that the group has decided to open schools in 2020 regardless of whatever we learn about COVID-19 between now and then. I’m certainly not saying the Commonwealth needs to cancel even more school—the current situation is untenable and by most counts inequitable—but I'd love to let the work group do some...work...and report back with what they've decided as the best path forward. Along those lines, I much prefer this quote, later on in the press release, from the Secretary of Education: “As we begin to think about how Virginia’s education system can operate in the summer and fall, it is crucial that we have the advice of a diverse, thoughtful group of education leaders...This group will use their expertise to guide our approach and help ensure that all voices are heard and all recommendations are made through the lens of equity.” Or even this quote from the Northam himself, from the recap of the Governor's Monday press briefing by the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Justin Mattingly: "It is very important for me to get our children back in schools...As soon as we can safely get our students back into the classroom, we will do that. I am hopeful that our students will be back in the classroom this fall.” Unfortunately, scrolling through the list of work group members I don't see anyone from the Richmond region (unless you count Fredericksburg or Powhatan) and I don't really see urban school districts represented (other than Chesapeake). I wish I had more time or I would pull the racial demographics of the school districts and the localities represented. A quick, back-of-the-napkin census query shows that the localities represented have a 56% White population—of course, that could be and probably is vastly, vastly different than the demographics of their public schools. Anyway, someone get Jason Kamras on this committee.
OK, who wants to run for mayor? Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says a judge "ruled candidates could appear on the ballot if they submitted 150 signatures from registered voters, with at least 10 in each of the nine City Council districts, by June 23." 10 signatures in each of the nine districts! That's an incredibly low bar, and you've got an entire month to cross it. Get to work, potential candidates.
City Council's Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee meets today at 1:00 PM. You can download the agenda here (PDF). I've got my eye on all sorts of legislation, and all of it appears to have survived Council's time-honored Agenda Cull and Continue that typically happens before each meeting. A couple highlights: RES. 2020-R016 has City Council asking the CAO to ask the Director of Public Works to figure out how to keep sidewalks and bike lanes open during construction. A sad, sad resolution that shouldn't have to exist, and, yet! Here we are! Plus, remember, RES. 2020-R034 will surplus a bunch of downtown property and clear the way for RFPs and new development and all sorts of things now that NoBro is dead and buried. Finally, with RES. 2020-R015 Council will attempt to modify the Commission of Architectural Review's decision to deny demolition of the 1922 section of the old George Mason Elementary School in Church Hill. Remember that whole thing? A simpler time it was!
It's Testing Tuesday! That's not a thing, but the Richmond City Health District will hold a free testing event today at Diversity Richmond (1407 Sherwood Avenue). You've got to live in Richmond or Henrico; have some COVID-19 symptoms; and not have insurance, have insurance that doesn't cover coronavirus testing, or live in an affordable housing community. Make sure to call 804.205.3501 to register in advance! Even if you don't meet those qualifications, you can still give the number a call and find a place that will get you tested.
I love these #HiddenGemsRVA videos from Richmond's Parks & Rec! Check out this one on Maury Cemetery (a place I've never been!) and this one on Pine Camp (a place I'm at all the time!). I'm looking forward to more of these videos and exploring some of these spots.
This morning's patron longread
Contact Tracing Explained
Submitted by Patron Casey. Yesterday, I made some jokes about contract tracers moonlighting as disease detectives. Here’s an informative piece from The Forge at Duke explaining a little about what actually goes into effective contact tracing.
Traditional contact tracing can be classified as active or passive. Active tracing involves proactive data collection by health system staff, while passive contact tracing relies upon voluntary response to surveys and other calls for information. Both are extremely useful, but both also have inherent limitations. The usefulness of active tracing is typically constrained by the number of tracers, the ability to get in touch with identified contacts, and the limitations of memory and willingness of contacts to share sensitive personal information. Passive tracing on the other hand can have a very broad reach, but is limited to the subjective responses of survey participants and is dependent on the good will of the community to respond candidly and at the necessary scale.
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