Month: March 2021

March 11, 2021 at 7:20 p.m.

Alexandria City Offers COVID-19 Updates: New Guidelines For Long Term Care Facilities; Guidance for jobs and companies; Understanding Viral Vector Vaccines

For immediate release: March 11, 2021

The City of Alexandria and the Alexandria Health Department (AHD) urge residents to stay home and wear clothing as much as possible
Mask your nose and mouth, and wash your hands frequently.
Pre-register to receive the vaccine and you will be notified when appointments are available. AHD estimates that approximately 1 in 20 Alexandrians who test positive for COVID-19 will require hospitalization. Without these critical steps, additional lives can be at risk.

New guidelines for long-term care facilities

The U.S. Department of Health (HHS) has issued revised guidelines on how long-term care facilities deal with the risks of COVID-19 after they have been severely affected by the pandemic. The new HHS guidelines allow for additional activities and visitors as many residents and employees of long-term care facilities have been vaccinated. The highlights include:

• Residents should continue to maintain a physical distance of 6 feet within the facility.
• Compassionate care visits are permitted without restriction.
• Visitor tests and vaccinations are recommended (but not required).
• Visitors should be screened for symptoms and recent COVID-19 exposure (but not required).

Residents are now only allowed to have physical contact with visitors if the resident is fully vaccinated and both parties are wearing masks. To make visiting close contacts safer, HHS recommends the following:

• Hold outdoor visits if possible.
• Short periods of contact with distancing for the remainder of the visit are preferable to constant close contact, e.g. B. a hi hug and a goodbye hug with 6 feet of physical distancing in between.
• It is recommended that visitors take tests before visiting. Learn more about
  free tests.

Instructions for jobs and companies

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated guidelines to help
Workplaces and companies plan, prepare and react to create a safe environment for workers and employees in order to make their workplace safer. General guidelines are provided to employers and the specific guidelines are broken down by industry, including transportation and delivery. essential services; Food services; Manufacturing and industry; personal service and hospitality and more. Frequently asked questions can be searched by keywords and provide answers to suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases in the workplace. Reducing the spread in the workplace; Cleaning and disinfection of the workplace; Ventilation and more. Resources to assist with planning, guidelines, and operations; Managing cases, testing, and contact tracking; and dealing with stress and fatigue as well as printable flyers and signage. The city is
The Multilingual Resource Catalog provides materials specific to Alexandria. Many of these have been translated into Spanish, Amharic, and Arabic. All are available for download and printing or
can be requested.

Understanding Viral Vector Vaccines

The
The vector viral vaccine is a type of COVID-19 vaccine that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency distribution. Viral vectors have been used in vaccines and studies since the 1970s, most recently to combat Ebola virus outbreaks. Vector viral COVID-19 vaccines inject a harmless virus that the body uses to produce a spike protein that is on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19. The immune system then recognizes that the spike protein doesn’t belong and begins to fight off what it sees as infection by making antibodies and activating other immune cells to attack the spike protein. This process teaches the immune system to identify the COVID-19 virus in the future and protect the body. Viral vector vaccines do not contain the COVID-19 virus, cause infection with COVID-19, and do not affect or interact with a person’s DNA.

Johnson & Johnson is currently the only manufacturer of a COVID-19 vaccine against viral vectors approved for use in the United States and requires one dose instead of two. The side effects of a COVID-19 vaccine against viral vectors are similar to the mRNA vaccines used by Moderna and Pfizer. They range from pain and swelling at the injection site to chills, fever, and fatigue throughout the rest of the body, and they go away within a couple of days of receiving the vaccine.

Alexandria COVID-19 data at a glance

The seven-day moving average table below shows the number of COVID-19 cases, daily and cumulative cases and deaths, and provides detailed information on how preventive measures will affect Alexandria’s response to the pandemic. You can find an interactive version at
alexandriava.gov/114883. The vaccination card shows the total doses given in all facilities and the percentage of residents aged 16 and over who have been partially and fully vaccinated
alexandriava.gov/120654. Detailed data, including data on age, race and ethnicity, is available via links at
alexandriava.gov/Coronavirus.

Keep following measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 even after vaccination.
Get tested if you’ve been exposed to someone with COVID-19. If you test positive, you are helping your loved ones and neighbors by sharing your close contacts with “
What to do if you get sick
Spanish,
Amharic,
Arabic and
Farsi or this letter
Video.

# # #

You can find this press release at
alexandriava.gov/120874.

This press release was produced by the City of Alexandria. The views expressed here are those of the author.

[Sun Gazette Newspapers provides content to, but otherwise is unaffiliated with, InsideNoVa or Rappahannock Media LLC.]

Members of the Arlington County Board are expected to allow another developer to temporarily convert apartment space for hotel use next month.

The developer of the 809 unit property at 1555 Wilson Blvd. asks permission to use 100 residential units as hotel space from late summer. Eventually, the units would return to their originally intended purpose.

Moving to temporary hotel use has become a more common option for apartment and condominium developers in recent years as it allows for increased cash flow in the early stages of the lease or sale. For the district government, hotels are a money cow that generates significant income.

County board members are expected to announce a public hearing on the matter in April on March 20.

The apartment project is located on 2.7 acres in the western part of Rosslyn and is being built in conjunction with a new fire station and park. The hotel units would occupy the fifth to ninth floors of one of the two residential towers.

Greg Ellis of Manassas Park, Virginia, passed away on Tuesday, March 10, at the age of 63.

Greg was born on January 27, 1958 in Brockton, Massachusetts to David and Connie (Willis) Ellis. He is survived by both parents; his three brothers David, Steven and Chris; and several nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.

He received a degree in political science from the University of New Hampshire and in 1978 became the first volunteer for former US Senator Gordon Humphrey (R-NH) in his very first Senate campaign. Following this campaign and graduation from UNH, Greg moved to Washington, DC, where he worked as an advisor to newly elected Senator Gordon Humphrey.

Greg switched from Senate politics to conservative fundraising in 1983 when he was hired as a junior copywriter for Bruce Eberle and Associates, a leading direct mail and direct marketing firm. He later worked for another leading direct mail company, The Richard Norman Company. His last employer was American Target Advertising, the first and largest conservative marketing agency founded by political direct marketing pioneer Richard A. Viguerie.

Greg wrote literally thousands of donation packages and helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for Republican and Conservative causes throughout his 38-year career. His writing ability was well known and widely respected by conservative marketers.

He made a marketing copy for many large organizations such as the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), as well as candidates for the President, Senator, and House of Representatives, as well as for many political PACs, nonprofits, and charities.

Greg loved his job and was passionate about politics and marketing. He read everything he could get his hands on about both, and kept trying to learn more. He was proud to be at the top of his job. He also always took the time to mentor new writers, some of whom became top fundraising writers and own marketers.

Greg was an avid fan of the New England Patriots and the Boston Red Sox, Bruins, and Celtics. No matter where he was, if one of those teams was playing a game that could be watched on TV, online, or on the radio, Greg would be hired. He had a very dry and often very funny sense of humor and loved joking back and forth with fans of opposing teams, especially the New York Yankees, New York Jets and Washington Redskins.

His friendly joke was accompanied by a big grin and a wink. In other cases, he could appear thoughtful and calm, or even reserved. But despite a pause in conversation, friends knew his mind was actively spinning and came up with a funny answer that they both could reward by sharing a laugh. He will be greatly missed by his friends and co-workers.

Services are private and limited to close family members. The family asked for donations to be made to the Salvation Army on Greg’s behalf in lieu of flowers.