Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, and it’s gonna be freaking hot today. You should expect highs in the mid 90s, but it’s going to feel 10 degrees hotter. We may get a bit of rain this evening to cool things off, though.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 823↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 21↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 169↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 27, Henrico: 69, and Richmond: 73). Since this pandemic began, 311 people have died in the Richmond region. VCU reported 17 new cases, that’s 91 total, and now has 150 people in isolation or quarantine. It’s been a while, so here’s an updated version of the stacked statewide new positive cases, new deaths, and new hospitalizations graphs. It looks like Virginia has successfully re-flattened the curve of new cases—but at a much higher level than earlier this summer. From June 8th to July 8th, Virginia reported an average of 538 new cases each day. From July 26th to August 26th, the sate has reported an average of 995 new cases each day. Also, you can see that hospitalizations have increased steadily over that same time frame. Locally, the graph of the seven-day average of new reported cases in Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond is also pretty interesting. Henrico, too, has flattened their new-cases curve but at a level almost double that of Richmond. As for VCU, I’ll put together some graphs next in a couple days after we have at least a week’s worth of data.

I wanted to make sure and note that the CDC has changed their guidance for whether or not you should get coronatested if you’ve spent some time in close contact with someone else who tested positive. The previous CDC guidance read, “Testing is recommended for all close contacts of persons with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Because of the potential for asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission, it is important that contacts of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection be quickly identified and tested.” The current CDC guidance reads, “If you have been in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but do not have symptoms: You do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.” This is a concerning guidance change, since, as the original guidance notes, lots of folks are asymptomatic and can spread the virus around unknowingly. Also, there’s this: CNN reports that Dr. Fauci was under general anesthesia when the decision was made and that health officials say the change came “from the top down.” Not great! I hate this kind of thing because it erodes trust in the public health guidance, and then we end up with coronaparties and elected officials holding pieces of plastic in front of their faces instead of wearing masks.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 74 °F, and the hot, hot weather is back. Expect highs in the 90s with Feels Likes™ around 100 °F. Time to get sweaty.

Water cooler

This is awful, and I’m just going to quote straight from the Richmond Police Department release: “At approximately 8:35 p.m. [yesterday], officers responded to the 2300 block of Bethel Street for several reports of random gunfire. Once on scene, they found three adult males suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. One male was pronounced at the scene, one was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries and one was transported with non-life threatening injuries. Two other individuals with apparent gunshot wounds were self-transported to a local hospital—an adult female with non-life threatening injuries and a juvenile in his teens with life-threatening injuries.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 74 °F, and the hot, hot weather is back. Expect highs in the 90s with Feels Likes™ around 100 °F. Time to get sweaty.

Water cooler

This is awful, and I’m just going to quote straight from the Richmond Police Department release: “At approximately 8:35 p.m. [yesterday], officers responded to the 2300 block of Bethel Street for several reports of random gunfire. Once on scene, they found three adult males suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. One male was pronounced at the scene, one was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries and one was transported with non-life threatening injuries. Two other individuals with apparent gunshot wounds were self-transported to a local hospital—an adult female with non-life threatening injuries and a juvenile in his teens with life-threatening injuries.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, and our respite from blazing hot temperatures is over. Today, you can expect highs near 90 °F and plenty of humidity to go along with the heat.

Water cooler

Richmond Police are reporting two murders from last week.

On August 20th, Damon L. Teach, a man in his 40s, was found dead on the 5400 block of Blue Ridge Avenue. The Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, and our respite from blazing hot temperatures is over. Today, you can expect highs near 90 °F and plenty of humidity to go along with the heat.

Water cooler

Richmond Police are reporting two murders from last week.

On August 20th, Damon L. Teach, a man in his 40s, was found dead on the 5400 block of Blue Ridge Avenue. The Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 69 °F, and temperatures will remain in the 80s. We’ve got a chance for rain today and tomorrow, but Sunday looks like a wonderful day to spend some time outside. Enjoy the weekend, y’all!

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 863↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 17↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 117↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 27, Henrico: 65, and Richmond: 25). Since this pandemic began, 307 people have died in the Richmond region. Yesterday, VCU reported its first batch of coronavirus cases and released a very simple data dashboard to help quash some of the rumors flying around about the number of folks suspected to have COVID-19. One week into in-person instruction and the University has reported 25 cases among students, 11 among employees, and has put 43 students in on-campus housing into isolation or quarantine. In an alert email sent out last night, VCU would like to remind students that “students hosting parties or other personal gatherings on or off-campus with more than 10 people are subject to interim suspension. All participants are subject to disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct.” I still can’t get behind this clear desire to set up the framework to blame students if/when the virus takes hold on campus and the University is forced to move to fully virtual instruction. This headline in the Richmond Times-Dispatch really reflects the contradiction between the reality of virustimes and the (perhaps money-driven) ever-onward desire for colleges to return to how things were in the beforetimes: “VCU reports 25 confirmed student and 11 employee COVID-19 cases; planning weekend welcome carnival”.

I don’t fully understand what happened last night between folks at GWARbar—protestors? patrons? neighbors? lookie-loos?—and cops. What started with an aggressive and dubious internet flyer, ended with half a hundred cops, shouting, and some pushing and shoving. Jimmie Lee Jarvis has a long thread of pictures and videos if you want to try and make sense of it. However, here’s what I do underestand: I fully recognize the smug look on this officer’s face after cops push Jarvis to the ground. This kind of smug and condescending behavior is unacceptable and endemic to how Richmond’s police officers interact with the people they’re sworn to serve (and who happen to pay their salaries). Just a few days ago, the same exact attitude was on display down by the ICA as cops refused to wear masks, refused to socially distance, and mocked protestors by name. If literally any other city employee behaved in this way they’d be fired. If my 11-year-old gave me that gross smirk we’d be sure to have some words. Every video like this just further radicalizes everyday people against the police, and its just going to get worse until the basic, one-on-one interactions between cops and citizens improve. That’s gotta be a priority for the new chief, and, ultimately, the Mayor.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F, and, whoa, today looks a lot cooler than all of those recent sweltering summer days. Expect highs in the mid 80s and a possible chance of rain as the day progresses. Looking at the longer-term forecast, and hotter temperatures return next week so spend some time outside today!

Water cooler

First, an apology and a correction. Yesterday, while writing about how I forgot the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, I callously implied that I’d forgotten about the 15th Amendment, too. Here’s what I said: “Guess what, though? There are no pictures of men working to win the right to vote because we’ve always had it—since even before cameras existed. 100 years is not that long ago!” Of course, only white men have had the right to vote since forever, and I should have said so explicitly. Only since 1870 have Black men had the right to vote (Black women would have to wait another 50 years, and even then governments at all levels have worked hard to disenfranchise them). Here’s the full text of the 15th Amendment, another short and powerful one: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” Related to, and much more interesting than, my thoughtless camera comment, the New York Times has a great collection of photographs of women of color in the suffrage movement.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F, and, whoa, today looks a lot cooler than all of those recent sweltering summer days. Expect highs in the mid 80s and a possible chance of rain as the day progresses. Looking at the longer-term forecast, and hotter temperatures return next week so spend some time outside today!

Water cooler

First, an apology and a correction. Yesterday, while writing about how I forgot the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, I callously implied that I’d forgotten about the 15th Amendment, too. Here’s what I said: “Guess what, though? There are no pictures of men working to win the right to vote because we’ve always had it—since even before cameras existed. 100 years is not that long ago!” Of course, only white men have had the right to vote since forever, and I should have said so explicitly. Only since 1870 have Black men had the right to vote (Black women would have to wait another 50 years, and even then governments at all levels have worked hard to disenfranchise them). Here’s the full text of the 15th Amendment, another short and powerful one: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” Related to, and much more interesting than, my thoughtless camera comment, the New York Times has a great collection of photographs of women of color in the suffrage movement.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 68 °F, and today’s weather looks pretty OK. Expect highs in the 80s and a chance of rain—particularly later this afternoon.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 861↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 11↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 164↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 61, Henrico: 82, and Richmond: 21). Since this pandemic began, 310 people have died in the Richmond region. Sabrina Moreno at the Richmond Times-Dispatch looks at the extreme racial disparity in those local coronanumbers, saying “The impact has become painfully apparent in Richmond, where more than 80% of coronavirus cases are Black or Latino, and Latinos have nearly three times the number of cases than white Richmonders despite being only 7% of the city’s population. Black Richmonders account for more than 60% of the city’s deaths.” Checking in on higher education, yesterday, Notre Dame and Michigan State joined UNC in hastily abandoning their in-person instruction plans. The former plans on going remote for just two weeks while the latter sounds like they plan to stay virtual for the entire fall semester. This spring, UVA led the state in early plans to send students home, so maybe keep an eye on Charlottesville for similar plans this fall. At this point, though, the Commonwealth’s major public universities are full-speed ahead and have yet to report any major COVID-19 outbreaks.

The RTD’s Michael Martz has a story about gas taxes, which, I know, is about as interesting as it sounds. As you can imagine, and despite the apparent shock and disbelief from the Virginia Petroleum & Convenience Marketers Association, the time that all of Virginia shut down for months and did not leave their homes has resulted in lower than expected gas tax revenues. Wild, right? I link to this story mostly to remind you that the General Assembly created the Central Virginia Transportation Authority this past winter, and that it is, in part, funded through a wholesale fuels tax. Richmond and Henrico both halved their local contribution to GRTC with the expectation that the CVTA would use its new revenues to backfill those cuts. With CVTA revenues uncertain due to the impact of the coronavirus, I’m extremely nervous about what that means for public transportation funding in the Richmond region. Will the localities restore some of GRTC’s funding? Will they move to cut bus service and force me to write tens of thousands of angry words? I have no idea, but this coming budget season will be intense.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 67 °F, and today looks like a stunner. Expect highs in the mid 80s, lots of sunshine, and maybe even no downpours. Enjoy!

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 734↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 4↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 134↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 2, Henrico: 82, and Richmond: 50). Since this pandemic began, 309 people have died in the Richmond region. First, an apology: Yesterday, I linked to UNC’s pretty extensive coronavirus dashboard and made the bad assumption that just because VCU doesn’t have one that the University of Richmond doesn’t have one either. That is clearly not the case, and it was lazy to not even look! Speaking of UNC, though, yesterday the University decided to switch all undergraduate classes to remote learning despite already calling students back to campus. In just the past week, UNC reported 135 positive cases which shot their percent positivity up from 2.8% to 13.6% and sent 177 students in to isolation and 349 in to quarantine (here’s a good explainer on the difference between isolation and quarantine, btw). It’s terrifying how we’re just waiting to learn how this plays out on our region’s campuses. Will better public health policies and increased vigilance keep the coronavirus from burning through college students and spilling out into the surrounding communities? We’ll start to find out next week.

The night before the General Assembly special session, Portsmouth police charged State Senator Louise Lucas with “felony injury to a monument.” From Sara Gregory and Margaret Matray in the Virginian-Pilot: “Portsmouth police announced criminal charges Monday against a bevy of public officials and activists — including state Sen. Louise Lucas, leaders of the NAACP, the city’s top public defender and a School Board member — stemming from a June protest and vandalism at the city’s Confederate monument that left a man seriously injured and much of the statue toppled.” Lucas is a Black woman, the first Black woman to serve as the President pro tempore, and will preside over the special session as the Senate considers bills to reform police across the state. Graham Moomaw from the Virginia Mercury pointed out some additional context on Twitter: Back in June, Senator Lucas called for the firing in of the Portsmouth police chief. And here’s the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus’s statement. I have no idea what is going on here, but it’s almost impossible not to read this charge as retaliatory and an intimidation tactic from the Portsmouth Police Department. Like, what do police departments think we’re trying to reform, here?

Good morning, RVA! It’s 67 °F, and today looks like a stunner. Expect highs in the mid 80s, lots of sunshine, and maybe even no downpours. Enjoy!

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 734↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 4↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 134↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 2, Henrico: 82, and Richmond: 50). Since this pandemic began, 309 people have died in the Richmond region. First, an apology: Yesterday, I linked to UNC’s pretty extensive coronavirus dashboard and made the bad assumption that just because VCU doesn’t have one that the University of Richmond doesn’t have one either. That is clearly not the case, and it was lazy to not even look! Speaking of UNC, though, yesterday the University decided to switch all undergraduate classes to remote learning despite already calling students back to campus. In just the past week, UNC reported 135 positive cases which shot their percent positivity up from 2.8% to 13.6% and sent 177 students in to isolation and 349 in to quarantine (here’s a good explainer on the difference between isolation and quarantine, btw). It’s terrifying how we’re just waiting to learn how this plays out on our region’s campuses. Will better public health policies and increased vigilance keep the coronavirus from burning through college students and spilling out into the surrounding communities? We’ll start to find out next week.

The night before the General Assembly special session, Portsmouth police charged State Senator Louise Lucas with “felony injury to a monument.” From Sara Gregory and Margaret Matray in the Virginian-Pilot: “Portsmouth police announced criminal charges Monday against a bevy of public officials and activists — including state Sen. Louise Lucas, leaders of the NAACP, the city’s top public defender and a School Board member — stemming from a June protest and vandalism at the city’s Confederate monument that left a man seriously injured and much of the statue toppled.” Lucas is a Black woman, the first Black woman to serve as the President pro tempore, and will preside over the special session as the Senate considers bills to reform police across the state. Graham Moomaw from the Virginia Mercury pointed out some additional context on Twitter: Back in June, Senator Lucas called for the firing in of the Portsmouth police chief. And here’s the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus’s statement. I have no idea what is going on here, but it’s almost impossible not to read this charge as retaliatory and an intimidation tactic from the Portsmouth Police Department. Like, what do police departments think we’re trying to reform, here?

Good morning, RVA! It’s 65 °F, and highs today will stay in the mid 80s—a relief from the past month or so. I think we’ll also avoid torrential, continual downpours at least for most of the day. NBC12’s Jim Duncan has a post up about the incredible amount of rain Richmond has seen this summer. This August—which still has 15 days left—is the now the 2nd wettest August ever and the 4th wettest month ever! Also: “It’s notable that since June 1st Richmond has received nearly 23 inches of rain, even with the near drought conditions in early summer. That amount is more than half our typical rain total for an ENTIRE year!” So, yeah, it’s not just you, it has rained a lot.

Also, Chesterfieldians, take note: The County has declared emergency water restrictions for residents as “significant flooding caused the temporary shutdown of Chesterfield’s water treatment plant and emergency repairs are needed at the City of Richmond’s Jahnke Road pump station, which supplies water to Chesterfield and portions of Powhatan County. Customers are asked to conserve water for essential use only and immediately stop all irrigation. While emergency restrictions are in place to help reduce demand on the water system, the water is safe to drink.”

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 937↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 0↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 123↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 25, Henrico: 83, and Richmond: 15). Since this pandemic began, 309 people have died in the Richmond region. Today, VCU students head off to their first day of class, and, normally, the first day of fall classes at VCU is one of my favorite days of the year. The Fan and Downtown feels so empty without all of those students hurrying to class and hanging out in pocket parks. Now, though, I just worry about them all and hope they stay safe and virus-free for as long as our institutions of higher learning are open for in-person instruction. That’s not going great for our neighboring states, by the way. UNC has already announced four “clusters” of COVID-19 on campus, which is defined as “five or more cases in close proximity,” and class hasn’t even started yet. They have, however, put together this very informative and public COVID-19 tracking dashboard. I haven’t seen anything like that yet locally, and I think it’d be useful for folks. If you’re interested in the procedures and protocols VCU has put together for their students, you can read through the full list here.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 74 °F, and today looks a little cooler with highs in 80s. Just like yesterday, keep an eye out of rain throughout the day but especially this evening.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 776↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 8↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 116↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 36, Henrico: 61, and Richmond: 19). Since this pandemic began, 307 people have died in the Richmond region. I think yesterday’s COVID Tracking Project thread is worth reading just to get a feel for the weirdness and increasing unreliability of the public data around the coronavirus. The shift to reporting hospitalizations to the Department of Health and Human Services instead of the CDC a couple weeks back continues to result in “unexplained phenomena,” which is not the most reassuring thing to hear from professional spreadsheetidemiologists: “We compared current hospitalization data reported by the federal government and state health departments since the switch, and found contradictions that suggest the federal data continue to be unreliable, while the state datasets face their own challenges.”

I think y’all probably know how I feel about colleges and universities reopening with in-person classes—not great! What I’m really not looking forward to, though, is hearing higher-ed administrators admonish and blame students if/when coronavirus outbreaks start to pop up on campus. The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Andrew Cain has a piece that sets the stage for just such a thing: “UR warns returning students of severe penalties for breaking COVID rules.” Yes students should follow the rules, but also the adults in charge should make (and should have made!) good decisions to keep students safe and healthy.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, and highs will top out near 90 °F with plenty of humidity thrown in for good measure. Keep an eye on the sky this afternoon and evening for possible storms.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 996↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 17↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 193↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 69, Henrico: 85, and Richmond: 39). Since this pandemic began, 307 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases in Henrico (78) is more than double the same seven-day average Richmond (31). The graph of that stat in Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond over time is kind of startling, but keep in mind we’re running way more tests now than we were back in June (but fewer than we were in July). Still, though, I’m startled!

Protestors hit the streets of downtown Richmond last night and the CT’s Hannah Eason tagged along and put together this Twitter thread and this interactive map of the protest’s route through the city. Protestors smashed windows at the John Marshall Courts Building again, tagged the Dominion building, and broke some more windows downtown. From what I can tell both protestors and police stayed out of each other’s hair, and we, thankfully, avoided another night of tear-gas filled neighborhood streets. Since no one offered to listen to the two hours worth of audio from the recent Task Force to Reimagine Public Safety meeting, I guess I’ll need to make time for it. Will the Task Force act boldly enough to address the concerns of protestors? What even are the concerns, which I do feel stretch deeper and broader than this list? It’s a good list, but I want a far-reaching plan to make systemic change in how we do public safety in Richmond—or at least I want this Task Force to say as much out loud.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 72 °F, and the day ahead of us looks hot and sunny. Make sure you water your outside plants! We could see some rain later this week, but also it could zoom right by us entirely.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 663↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 1↘️ new death as a result of the virus. VDH reports 107↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 8, Henrico: 74, and Richmond: 25). Since this pandemic began, 306 people have died in the Richmond region. About a month and a half ago, Virginia’s percent positivity hit a low-point (which is good!) at 5.8%. Since then, PP as they call it (I’ve never heard anyone call it that) has crept steadily upward and now sits at 7.4%. The Governor’s threshold for this metric is 10%, but that should not be our goal. New York’s PP is 1%, Michigan’s is 2.5%, and even California—which reported 7,751 new cases yesterday—has a PP of 5.7%. According to Johns Hopkins, and they cite the World Health Organization, “before reopening, rates of positivity in testing…should remain at 5% or lower for at least 14 days.” As of today, the list of states that meet that threshold: Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Alaska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, D.C., New Mexico, and Massachusetts. To localize it further, Chesterfield’s PP sits at 8.0%, Henrico’s at 7.2%, and Richmond’s at 7.1%.

Yesterday, Mayor Stoney introduced an “ordinance to prohibit firearms adjacent to events requiring a permit.” Further: “The newly introduced ordinance would also prohibit the possession, carrying or transportation of any firearms in any public street, road, alley, sidewalk, public right-of-way or any open public space when it is being used by, or is adjacent to, an event that requires a city permit…This ordinance does not broadly ban firearms in these public spaces. Rather, it bans firearms when a permitted event, or an event that should be permitted, is taking place.” This sounds great. When folks show up at protests with huge guns slung across their chests they want look intimidating, act intimidating, and intimidate other people who may disagree with them. I know there are gunpeople on both sides of the political spectrum—although clearly the right is home to most of the Rob Liefeld Longarm Pouch Patrol. Unequivocally, I feel intimidated by anyone with a massive rifle walking through a neighborhood, whatever they believe. So yes, I support this ordinance (which I will link to as soon as it shows up on legistar).

Good morning, RVA! It’s 74 °F, and, listen, I don’t know what you want me to tell you, but we are stuck in the dead center of the summer doldrums. You can expect temperatures near 90 °F but a Feels Like closer to 100 °F. You can expect to sweat. You can expect me to nag you about drinking more water.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 897↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 4↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 118↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 12, Henrico: 73, and Richmond: 33). Since this pandemic began, 306 people have died in the Richmond region. As per always, the COVID Tracking Project has a good thread analyzing last night’s national coronavirus data. Important context that applies locally, too: “We’ve seen for months that the Saturday-Monday numbers tend to be lower than Tuesday-Friday.” Also: “The 7-day average for cases seems likely to rise. There were storm-related drops in testing and cases, which showed up in the numbers from the 3rd-6th.” It’s hard, at least for me, to remember that all of this data ultimately comes from folks out in the world running tests and filing reports. Those folks are definitely impacted by things like “the weekend” and “tropical storms.”

Hey, this seems like a big and important update from last week: On Friday, the Governor announced that the Virginia Supreme Court granted a temporary, statewide eviction moratorium beginning today and ending Monday, September 7th.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 73 °F, and we’ve got another day ahead of us with highs in the 80s and a decent opportunity for rain. The weekend ahead of us looks pretty hot and pretty dry. Get after it, and remember to hydrate.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 818↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 25↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 148↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 46, Henrico: 69, and Richmond: 33). Since this pandemic began, 300 people have died in the Richmond region. Yesterday’s trend of sub-1,000 new reported cases in Virginia continues as does a similar national trend of declining new reported cases. However, given some of the recent inconsistencies in states posting accurate data in a timely way, the COVID Tracking Project has some nice graphs looking at weekly numbers instead of daily numbers. Whatever the national, state, and local trends, we’ve now passed 300 deaths in Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond. That’s a lot of people.

Have you put the COVIDWISE app on your phone yet? You should. It takes three total minutes! The Virginia Department of Health has a pretty exhaustive FAQ if you have any questions about the details of how this exposure notification app works.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 72 °F, and, while humid, today’s highs will stick around in the 80s. Speaking of sticking around, how about that random storm last night? I’d love to see an East End rain total comparison with this week’s tropical storm. As for today, keep an eye out for possibly more storms passing through this evening.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 798↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 30↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 111↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 29, Henrico: 63, and Richmond: 19). Since this pandemic began, 296 people have died in the Richmond region. I wonder if the tropical storm, which closed offices and testing sites had anything to do with yesterday’s low number of new reported cases—low compared to the seven-day average which stands at 1008. We’ll see if the numbers shift up today or if this is part of a larger downward trend.

The big coronanews, however, is the launch of COVIDWISE, Virginia’s exposure notification app. You should download this app and install it on your phone right now. It’s an easy way to participate in the public part of public health. COVIDWISE runs on your phone and exchanges anonymous tokens with other phones you’ve spent time near. That process is safe, secure, does not track or log your location or identity, and is built on the privacy-preserving contact tracing framework put together by Apple and Google. Virginia is the first state to roll out an app built on this protocol! If you get tested for COVID-19 and the results are positive, the Virginia Department of Health will give you a code to enter into COVIDWISE which will then trigger a notification to any phone you’ve spent time near over the last 14 days using those anonymized tokens. Then those folks can take the proper precautions to quarantine or get tested if they’re experiencing some early, slightly-troubling coronasymptoms. Here’s a more detailed comic involving rabbits that’ll gently, but thoroughly, explain how this all can work while maintaining everyone involved’s privacy. Like I said, you should just put this on your phone immediately. I am not a lawyer, but if I were in charge of app deployment at a large company, I’d put it on my employees’ phones immediately, too. I’d call my parents and tell them to put it on their phones. I’d tweet about it daily. I’d ruthlessly and publicly mock friends that refuse to put it on their phones. This is one of the smallest and easiest ways that you can directly contribute to making the pandemic less bad while also making the lives of our local case investigators and contact tracers a little better. They are working very hard and very much deserve your help! Honestly, I’m astounded by the number of folks who have Big Privacy Concerns™ about an app like this yet have no problems pouring personal data into Facebook each and every day. I know our public trust in technology has been broken (by companies like Facebook!), but this is a small, safe step to rebuilding that trust in the name of public health. Ned Oliver at the Virginia Mercury has some more details, including a quote from the state’s director of health informatics that says the data suggests “for every 1.5 users of Virginia’s app, they expect to see one less infection,” and here is the Governor’s COVIDWISE press release.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, and highs today are back up in the 90s. As of right now, the region is under a Tropical Storm Warning. This means a tropical storm is headed our way and you should take some precautions to stay safe, batten down the hatches, and charge up your devices in case we lose power. The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s John Boyer has put together a bunch of great maps, and NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says we should expect the biggest impacts between 7:00 AM–2:00 PM on Tuesday morning. Take some time today to prepare!

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 981↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 3↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 109↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 52, Henrico: 47, and Richmond: 10). Since this pandemic began, 296 people have died in the Richmond region. 🚨Emoji indicator methodology update!🚨 Moving forward the emoji arrows now compare the average of the past seven days to the average of the seven days before that. For example, over the last seven days the Richmond region reported an average of 137 COVID-19 cases each day. The seven days before that, the region reported 98 per day. So that means you see an up arrow. I’m hoping this will make for less wobbly and more useful arrows.

Today at 5:00 PM, City Council will hold the State-required public hearing on removing the Confederate monuments which have, of course, already been removed (ORD. 2020–154). You can email the City Clerk (CityClerksOffice@richmondgov.com) before 10:00 AM with any comments you may have or if you’d like to sign up to speak virtually. Because the State doth require it, you can also go speak for this paper in-person with a bunch of other people down at City Hall. I’m looking forward to seeing how the technology to blend virtual and in-person meetings works, because I think that’s something we’ll need to do for a good, long while. Immediately following the closure of today’s hearing, Council can vote to remove the monuments and start the process of figuring out where to permanently put all the bronze bits. Right now they’re chilling at the water treatment plant!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 76 °F, and blah, blah, blah, hot and humid today. We may see some rain late tonight and into early tomorrow morning, which would be nice. This headline from the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s John Boyer catches the mood: “Richmond hasn’t seen 20 straight days of highs in the 90s since ‘Waterworld’ was in theaters.”

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 999↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 30↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 100↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 33, Henrico: 30, and Richmond: 37). Since this pandemic began, 285 people have died in the Richmond region. I’ve seen some folks talking about the recent federal change in hospitalization reporting requirements—requirements that bypass the CDC and have hospitals sending data straight to the Department of Health and Human Services. This post on the COVID Tracking Project’s blog is the best explanation of what’s happened, how that’s impacted the public availability of coronavirus data, and what that means for how we understand what’s going on with everything. Let me quote the important part: “it is not possible that any change in federal reporting requirements for hospitals has a causative role in the change in the direction of COVID-19 case counts at the state or national level.” So that’s reassuring! But it’s not all good news as the change in requirements has destabilized some of processes used to report hospitalization data and the underlying data itself. Again, to quote from the post: “These problems mean that our hospitalization data—a crucial metric of the COVID-19 pandemic—is, for now, unreliable, and likely an undercount.” Yikes.