'No Roadmap': Alexandria Reflects On COVID Response As Federal Emergency Ends

ALEXANDRIA, VA — With the COVID-19 emergency ending nationwide on May 11, Alexandria leaders took time Tuesday night to reflect on the city's response to the pandemic.

It's been over three years since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic in March 2020. With much unknown about the virus, the immediate response was a scramble to prevent the spread with closures of schools, indoor dining and other facilities. In cases of severe illness from COVID-19, hospitalizations and deaths were a particular concern before the first COVID-19 vaccines became available to the public in late 2020 and early 2021.

In Alexandria, there have been 45,884 COVID-19 cases since 2020, along with 233 total deaths associated with COVID-19, according to the Alexandria Health Department. Over 45,000 positive tests were recorded in the city, and over 397 outbreaks in congregate settings were addressed by the health department.

Today, more is known about the virus, and millions have received COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. The Biden administration chose to end the national public health emergency on May 11 as health officials believe the virus is not as disruptive thanks to vaccinations, treatments, and widespread availability of testing.

While leaders acknowledged the negative impact of COVID-19, their reflections on Tuesday night focused on the response of the Alexandria Health Department and other city staff and volunteers.

"There was no book there was no policy, there was no roadmap that we could kind of follow. We were making it up as we went along," said Mayor Justin Wilson at Tuesday's City Council meeting. "We were saying, we just kind of hope that we get most of the decisions right when people look back later on. And I think the reality is we did a whole bunch of them right."

The city's multi-year response to the beginning started as key city officials and the Office of Emergency Management led the city's emergency operations center, according to City Manager James Parajon, who joined city government in early 2022. Over time, that emergency operations center has coordinated things like testing, vaccination, procurement of essential supplies, government operations and business support.

The city manager credited city employees in various city departments with helping with the response.

"In addition to supporting the pandemic, employees in our fire and police departments and office of the sheriff continued to provide fundamental public safety functions," said Parajon. "The Department of Human Resources administered employee testing processes, and the Office of Management of Budget pivoted quickly in 2020 to provide budget 2.0 as the [fiscal year] 2021 budget process took a major turn. Employees across all departments helped distribute test kits, staff vaccination pods, work joint information systems, and pitch in wherever they were needed."

On the public health side, Parajon noted over 91,000 vaccines were administered in Alexandria between December 2020 and April 20, 2023, leading to an 80 percent vaccination rate among Alexandrians. Volunteers, notably from the Alexandria Medical Reserve Corps, contributed to that vaccination effort with collectively over 57,000 volunteer hours.

On the human services side, the city worked to address residents facing challenges like food insecurity or difficulty paying rent. For rental assistance, 70 city and school district staff worked to process 4,300 requests for emergency and rental assistance, and $5 million was distributed to 1,600 households. ACT for Alexandria's emergency assistance grant program provided help to over 13,000 residents. The city's Eviction Prevention Task Force and partners helped over 1,000 households.

On the food assistance side, nonprofit ALIVE and other local food pantries supported around 11,500 residents each month, and over 7,000 were supported through a grocery store gift card program. More than 3,500 people who were isolated or quarantined received food and other household necessities.

On the business side, Alexandria used federal CARES Act funds to support 648 businesses with Back2Business grants to alleviate financial hardships. Alexandria's businesses also took health and safety to heart, as over 600 worked with the health department in the ALX Promise program. Those businesses were certified for going above the minimum health and safety guidelines businesses had to follow.

CARES Act funding also supported various health and safety measures around the city, including over 1,000 automated fixtures like door pulls and faucets, seven temperature screening systems, hundreds of plexiglass installations and more personal protective equipment like masks, hand sanitizer, gloves and thermometers.

City Council members said they were proud of how the city responded to the pandemic.

"There are people alive today in Alexandria that would not be alive today if it wasn't for the efforts that y'all put into vaccination, to distributing [personal protective equipment], to help people get their their food, their medicines, to help people adjust to a very scary and difficult time," said Councilmember Kirk McPike.

"I always said I would put our response to the pandemic up against anyone in the region. I'm really, really proud, really, really appreciative," said Councilember Canek Aguirre. "I remember being out there at the testing sites, the vaccination pods and the food distributions, and just how much was going on, and how much of an effort it was for everyone to kind of come out and work together and for a lot of our community members to come out and support as well."

On the impact of city staff, Vice Mayor Amy Jackson added, "Our city staff has just exemplary when it comes to our safety and security and making sure everything is running on all cylinders all the time, even during the pandemic. I would put that up against any, any city any jurisdiction anywhere as well."

Councilmember John Taylor Chapman noted that city service came with a sacrifice.

"While helping the residents of this community, you still had to be careful of members of your own family if you were going out into the front lines," said Chapman. "I see some of our officers in the back as they were on the streets of the city. At the end of the night, they had to go home to their families and hope that they weren't taking that back with them."

Councilmember Sarah Bagley said the pandemic also brought lessons, such as the need to expand language access and have better engagement tools.

"We are taking all these great lessons from it, and I feel like so much of what was so great about language during the pandemic has now been reflected like in our budget and how we're funding language programs and paying attention to that," said Bagley. "When I think about our universal basic income program, I think there are lessons in that we're applying from the pandemic."

What's Next After the Public Health Emergency Ends

Even though the public health emergency will end on May 11, the Alexandria Health Department said resources will continue to be available.

Health officials recommend eligible residents stay up to date on COVID-19 boosters. Free COVID-19 vaccines continue to be available through health care providers, pharmacies, and clinics as long as supplies purchased by the federal government remain available. The health department continues to have a COVID-19 hotline at 703-746-4988 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays for vaccine scheduling.

For those who need treatments, they will still be available. However, costs may change with the public health emergency ending. Paxlovid, a common treatment, is available at no cost to residents while federal supplies last.

Recommendations on when to seek COVID-19 testing are not changing, but costs will change. Payment for COVID-19 tests will vary by the type of test and insurance. At-home rapid antigen tests continue to be free at Alexandria libraries, daycares, and other sites without insurance. At Alexandria pharmacies and stores, antigen tests will have a cost or be free with Medicaid. PCR tests are free for Medicaid recipients at testing sites, while those with insurance or Medicare may have to pay some or all costs.

Health organizations like the Alexandria Health Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue to monitor COVID-19 even as the emergency ends.

For more information, visit www.alexandriava.gov/Coronavirus.