August school graduation option on table as County navigates Governor’s COVID-19 reopening plan

As noted in our related overview on Tuesday, May 12, Warren County Board of Supervisors’ work session, Deputy County Emergency Services Director Rick Farrall briefed the board on the planned reopening of county buildings and departments as part of the governor’s Executive Order 61 COVID-19 pandemic reopening plans.

Options for public school graduations, including the potential of full graduation ceremonies in August, were also put on the table as the Class of 2020 prepares to say goodbye to its classmates in unusual circumstances.

In response to a question from Supervisor Carter, Farrall also explained the rationale for the 6-foot social distancing recommendation. Six feet is the average distance droplets travel when a person coughs, sneezes, or even breathes heavily in some circumstances, the board was told.

If it’s good enough for two mayors, it’s good enough for us – Front Royal Mayor Gene Tewalt, left, and ‘Mayor of Main Street’ Ralph Waller practice social distancing and masked breathing in front of Waller’s Main St. Pawn Shop this past weekend. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini

County Administrator Doug Stanley introduced Farrall into the caucus room for his briefing to the quorum of physically present members, Mabe, Cullers and Fox, and the two remotely patched-in members, Carter and Oates.

“Rick and I have been talking the last few days, not only about the governor’s phase one (reopening) but also what our response is … and factored in some of what we’re dealing with thus far these past few days with the (County) Treasurer and Commissioner (of the Revenue),” Stanley told the board in opening the discussion. Stanley noted those county financial officers would be brought into the discussion, as Farrall soon noted, on Thursday.

Farrall said the joint County-Town COVID-19 Emergency Management Team, which Mabe is the chairman of, would issue a press release at its weekly press briefing on Thursday, May 14, outlining the phased-in reopening plan for county departments and buildings. One change noted was the utilization of at least one normally locked emergency exit at the Treasurer-Revenue Commissioner side of the Warren County Government Center as an exit point, so customers will not have to pass those waiting their turn in the hallway from the main entrance.

Farrall said those county department heads would likely be present with him, Mabe and Stanley in Thursday’s COVID-19 Emergency Management press briefing at which highlights of the governor’s Executive Order 61 would be reviewed in context to County operations. Major areas of immediate attention will include openings and maintenance of social distancing guidelines in the County’s Parks & Recreation system. Outdoor activities have been cited as preferable to indoor ones within the context of the COVID-19 health precautions.

Above, Rick Farrall and Walt Mabe at previous local COVID-19 Emergency Management briefing are very socially distanced. Below, for the most part locally the media has been VERY socially distanced from the boards it covers during the pandemic response.

Farrall noted the graduated reopening plan within Governor Northam’s Executive Order 61 appears to maintain differences between the timing of phased-in reopening between harder hit areas like Northern Virginia and less-impacted rural Northern Shenandoah Valley ones, including Warren County and Front Royal.

For details on County reopening in a fluid and unfamiliar health and economic landscape, stay tuned for our coverage of tomorrow’s Joint COVID-19 Emergency Management Team briefing. The May 15 briefing will be the first in two weeks. Last Thursday’s scheduled seventh weekly briefing was canceled – perhaps they were preparing for the big looming changes that are now upon us in the coming weeks.

One thing stressed by officials at both state and local levels is that the reopening plan does not mean the health threat is gone, but rather in an overall statistical stabilization or recession. For the reopening plan to succeed without the likelihood of a rebound in cases, the public must continue to be aware of precautionary guidelines to minimize the opportunity for contagion. So, as we try to begin our return to social normalcy and economic recovery, stay safe, stay smart – and good luck to us all.

See Farrall’s COVID-19 briefing to the supervisors, including the county administrator’s discussion of school graduation possibilities, as the last agenda item in the below-linked recording of the supervisors’ May 12 virtual work session: (Video by Dewaye Coats, courtesy of Warren County)

Updated statistics

It is hoped Virginia has passed its collective peak of continually rising COVID-19 statistics as a phased-in reopening plan beginning in the coming week is unveiled for the commonwealth and the county.

A check of the Virginia Department of Health website the morning of Wednesday, May 13, reported: 26,746 confirmed cases; 927 confirmed deaths; and 3,520 hospitalizations in the Commonwealth of Virginia from the COVID-19 virus.

That is up from 20,256 cases; 713 deaths; and 2,773 hospitalizations in Virginia on May 5.

The total number of people tested in Virginia as of May 13 is 180,084 of the state’s 8.7 million population.

As for Warren County, on May 13 there were 88 cases, 1 death, and 10 hospitalizations reported. That compares to 68 cases, 0 deaths, and 4 hospitalizations on May 5.

As for the six-jurisdiction Northern Valley-based Lord Fairfax Health District of which Warren County is a part, on May 13 there were a total of 768 confirmed cases; 28 deaths; and 72 hospitalizations reported.

Perhaps surprisingly of those health district totals: 16 deaths were counted from Page County’s 140 confirmed cases and 19 hospitalizations. Comparatively, on May 13,

• Shenandoah County had 271 cases, 8 deaths, 23 hospitalized;
• Frederick County, 182 cases, 2 deaths, and 15 hospitalized;
• Winchester, 71 cases, 1 death, and 3 hospitalizations;
• Clarke County, 16 cases, 0 deaths, 2 hospitalizations.

On May 5, the LFHD had reported 545 cases; 9 deaths; and 44 hospitalizations.