As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the nation’s capital, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is tightening restrictions, reducing capacities, recommending limiting activities and encouraging people to get tested if going against the stay-at-home orders. (Courtesy Photo)
By Micha Green
AFRO D.C. Editor
mgreen@afro.com
Coronavirus cases are increasing daily in the nation’s capital- with more than 21,685 total positives as of Nov. 30- and with the steady swell, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is tightening restrictions within Phase II in order to protect residents and slow the spread of COVID-19 in the District.
On Nov. 25, Bowser announced that the limit for outdoor gatherings would reduce from 50 to 25, indoor gatherings could not exceed 10 people, and that while restaurants could remain open until midnight, alcohol sales, service and consumption must end by 10 p.m. Further, as of Dec. 14, restaurants will have to reduce from 50 percent to 25 percent capacity, the number of people in houses of worship at one time will reduce from 100 to 50, with the maximum allowable capacity at 50 percent. With all of these restrictions, non-essential businesses are encouraged to allow teleworking, restaurants are being told to pivot more towards online ordering and virtual services are strongly suggested.
Further, the mayor warned that those who traveled and gathered against District recommendations, should quarantine for 14 days or get tested, particularly if exposed to the virus.
“So… limit your activity for 14 days or get a test 3-5 days after your exposure and continue to limit your activities until you get a negative test result.”
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Bowser has been lauded for her transparency regarding how the District is tracking and tackling the spread of the highly infectious disease. Anyone is able to visit www.coronavirus.dc.gov and can find social distancing and hand washing safety signs, COVID testing data with breakdowns that include Wards, gender, race and age as well as charts and metrics on coronavirus and phases of reopening.
“I know that the Council commissioned a study about DOH’s data, and that study found that we have one of the best four dashboards in the country,” Bowser explained. I think we have the best, but they said best four, so we’ll take it. Congratulations to Dr. Nesbitt and her team, who I know have spent a lot of time and I also want to acknowledge the members of the press, who have spent a lot of time getting to a dashboard that is reflective of our experience and useful for the work D.C. Health has to do.”
Other than wearing a mask, washing hands for 20 seconds in warm water and staying home to stop the spread, Bowser is still pushing testing as the key to help track cases and flatten the data curve.
“Going into the holidays, especially, and going into, what we see, as a national uptick in COVID cases, that we expect- we’re going to have more cases- we are also in a good position to do a lot of testing. We have a very robust testing program in the District of Columbia, which we feel strongly, will help us identify and isolate people who have been infected by COVID- that will help stop the spread. So the investment in our testing program has certainly been a good one. But we continue to monitor as we post everyday, what our public health system is doing and how it can accomodate people who have been infected by COVID, and you can see, today we report that we’re in a very good place there.”
