Vaccinations Outpace Cases In Fairfax 1 Year After First Case

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — One year ago on Sunday, Virginia's first COVID-19 case was reported in Fairfax County. Since then, the state's most populous jurisdiction has seen over 67,000 cases, 1,012 deaths, and social distancing and face masks becoming the norm, but there is a ray of hope with vaccinations topping 254,000 so far.

The first COVID-19 case on March 7, 2020 involved a U.S. Marine assigned to Fort Belvoir who returned from international travel on official business. Fairfax County's first COVID-19 death was reported on March 21, 2020 involving a man in his 60s whose cause of death was respiratory failure due to COVID-19. That was the third COVID-19 death reported in Virginia, following the first in the state on March 14.

A number of statewide measures aimed at combating the spread of COVID-19 came amid Fairfax County's first cases and deaths. Gov. Ralph Northam ordered K-12 schools to close starting on March 16 and decided to keep them closed for the rest of the academic year on March 23. That day, the governor also issued an executive order to limit social gatherings to 10 people, limit restaurants to takeout and delivery service, and close non-essential businesses. A stay-at-home order was issued on March 30 as Virginia's COVID-19 cases reached 1,000, and a face mask mandate was implemented on May 29.

The governor allowed the easing of some restrictions through phase one reopening for most of the state on May 15, but phase one and two were delayed for Fairfax County and the rest of Northern Virginia. Northern Virginia entered phase one of reopening on May 29 and phase two on June 12. All of Virginia moved to phase three on July 1 and has remained in that phase with tweaks to restrictions.

The latest easing of restrictions on March 1, 2021 involved increasing gathering limits to 25 people outdoors, a later time limit for alcohol sales and consumption at restaurants, allowing capacity at outdoor entertainment venues to be 30 percent capacity or up to 1,000 people, allowing outdoor recreational sports to have spectators at 30 percent capacity or 250 spectators per field, and allowing overnight summer camps to open on May 1. The governor also let a curfew from midnight to 5 a.m. expire at the end of February. A 10-person indoor gathering limit, face mask mandate, physical distancing requirements and business capacity restrictions continue.

On the education front, school districts in Virginia implemented a mix of hybrid and virtual instruction to start the current academic year. At Fairfax County Public Schools, limited groups of students returned for hybrid instruction, but that was dialed back before winter break. A new return to school plan approved by the school board started bringing back students who opted into hybrid learning on Feb. 16. All students who opted into hybrid learning will return in groups through March 16, but virtual instruction remains an option for students who choose it.

Fairfax County saw cases increase in spring 2020 before dropping off and remaining flat for the summer. But the highest level of cases so far came late in 2020. The county and Virginia as a whole saw a surge of cases starting in late November. A peak seven-day average of 696.7 daily cases was recorded in Fairfax County on Jan. 17, but numbers started to trend down later in January and in February. The latest average of daily cases in Fairfax County is 159.6 daily cases.

On the one-year anniversary of the first case, Board of Supervisors Chairman said the Fairfax County flag is flown at half staff in recognition of those who have died from COVID-19.

"This is a solemn anniversary and we still have a long way to go but I'm proud of our community during this time and happy to have successful vaccination efforts moving forward," McKay tweeted on Sunday.

SEE ALSO: Loss, Coping And Helpers: COVID-19 In Virginia A Year Later

Vaccination progress

Vaccine doses now surpass the cumulative cases in Fairfax County. Fairfax County leads the state with 254,850 vaccine doses administered as of Monday, according to Virginia Department of Health data. There are 161,522 people with at least one dose and 93,560 fully vaccinated. The age group with the most doses is people in their 70s. There are 37,970 people in this age group with at least one dose and 18,882 fully vaccinated.

COVID-19 vaccinations have been underway in Fairfax County since the Pfizer and Moderna two-dose vaccines were approved by the FDA in December, and now a third approved vaccine from Johnson & Johnson offers a single-dose vaccine. Vaccinations started with phase 1a groups: health care workers and long-term care facility residents and staff.

Phase 1b started on Jan. 11 in Fairfax County, allowing residents 75 and up to sign up with the Fairfax County Health Department, as well as certain essential workers and people living in correctional facilities, homeless shelters and migrant labor camps. Even more people became eligible on Jan. 18 when eligibility was expanded to anyone 65 and older and people 16 to 64 with an underlying health condition or disability. But with limited supply coming into the county, a wait list of eligible residents has formed. The preregistration site also crashed for a few hours and the vaccine hotline was busy on Jan. 18 due to the large amount of people trying to sign up.

With residents on the wait list questioning their place in line, the Fairfax County Health Department released a new data dashboard in February. The dashboard provides an hourly look at the wait list number, as well as the registration date the health department is making appointments for.

As of noon Monday, the wait list is 108,883, or 37 percent of the 292,284 registered. The health department is making appointments for people who registered on Jan. 19. That was the second highest day for registration with over 17,000 signing up that day. Jan. 18 was the highest registration day with over 44,000 signing up. The last weekly allocation of first doses to the health department was 19,220 during the week of March 1.

As the state launched a statewide vaccine preregistration system and hotline, Fairfax is the only health district not participating in the statewide system. Residents should continue using the local health department's preregistration form.