Home Care In Fairfax, VA

Daily Covid-19 admissions in the Fairfax County area

About the data

Data is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospitalization data is a daily average of Covid-19 patients in hospital service areas that intersect with Fairfax County, an area which may be larger than Fairfax County itself.

The number of daily hospital admissions shows how many patients tested positive for Covid in hospitals and is one of the most reliably reported indicators of Covid’s impact on a community.

Total population

Ages 65 and up

Total population

Ages 65 and up

An updated vaccine is recommended for adults and most children. Statewide, 22% of vaccinations did not specify a home county.

Nearby hospitals

Share of I.C.U. beds occupied

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Notes: The hospitals map shows the average I.C.U. occupancy at nearby hospitals in the most recent week with data reported. The data is self-reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by individual hospitals. It excludes counts from hospitals operated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Service. Numbers for hospitalized patients are based on inpatient beds and include I.C.U. beds. Hospitalized Covid-19 patients include both confirmed and suspected Covid-19 patients. The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on cases in May 2023.

How trends have changed in Fairfax County

About this data Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Notes: Weekly county death data prior to Jan. 2021 was not reported by the C.D.C. and is sourced from reporting by The New York Times. Hospitalization data is a weekly average of Covid-19 patients in hospital service areas that intersect with Fairfax County. Hospitalization numbers early in the pandemic are undercounts due to incomplete reporting by hospitals to the federal government.

Historical trends in Fairfax County

The data in these charts has been archived and they are no longer being updated.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data in these charts has been archived and they are no longer being updated. Weekly county case data prior to Jan. 2021 was not reported by the C.D.C. and is sourced from reporting by The New York Times. The C.D.C. stopped reporting data on cases in May 2023. Test positivity data is based only on test results reported to the federal government and is a seven-day average.

The proposal includes not just the casino, but also a convention center, concert hall or entertainment district, hotel, and other amenities.

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — Are the sounds of slot machines in Fairfax County's future?

A Virginia Senate committee will vote on Wednesday on a bill that would allow the county to put a casino referendum on a ballot.

State Sen. David Marsden (D-Fairfax) re-introduced legislation, SB-675, after he previously introduced it in 2022 without it going anywhere. The difference – since then there have been casinos popping up on Virginia's southern border.

His proposal includes not just the casino, but also a convention center, concert hall or entertainment district, hotel, and other amenities.

Marsden's preferred location is near the Spring Hill Metro stop in Tysons Corner, but the legislation would allow the county to pick an area anywhere near one of the Silver Line Metro stations – this includes Reston.

As part of his push, Marsden said in a subcommittee meeting on Tuesday that Fairfax County needs the economic growth after the pandemic stalled the commercial real estate revenue and increased the office vacancy rate in Tysons Corner.

He believes it would increase Metro ridership and pull in about 4,400 jobs.

"We're losing $150 million to MGM, 30% of the money earned by that facility comes from Virginia," Marsden told WUSA9. "This is the future. Either you compete or you die. Right now everyone in Fairfax thinks everything is ducky because they haven't noticed anything. Well, the federal money is drying up."

"Do I think casinos are a great thing? No, I don't," he added. "It's the reality that we have to do."

The Reston Citizens Association weighed in on the topic on Tuesday – opposing it.

"Reston Citizens Association in the strongest possible terms opposes the potential action by the Virginia Senate authorizing a Fairfax County referendum for the consideration of any casinos and related 'public entertainment' developments in Fairfax County."

In a report from their meeting, they continued by stating that no issue has generated such wide-spread and passionate opposition by citizens from all across Fairfax County.

The General Laws and Technology Committee voted to refer the bill to the Finance Committee with substitutes. If this passes the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, residents in Fairfax County would still get to vote on a referendum ballot.

However, Chairman Jeff McKay said he's concerned by the lack of details and communication before this was introduced.

"We did not request this and one of the reasons we didn't request it is because we didn't have those kinds of conversations and analysis and understand the implications for residents," McKay told WUSA9. "We're troubled by the process here that we weren't brought in earlier."

McKay also questioned how much the county should be benefiting since the parcel of land in mind is lucrative.

"The local share revenue is about a quarter of the revenue that comes in," he added. "The state is the biggest winner in these casinos and localities are left dealing with the challenges."

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Legislation to bring casinos to Petersburg, Northern Virginia clears initial tests

As Virginia lawmakers continue to discuss the addition of new casinos in the state, Richmond appears to be out, Petersburg seems to be in and Northern Virginia looks like a question mark.

A state Senate panel took action on an initial batch of gambling bills Wednesday, offering some early indicators of what policymakers might do on the topic this session.

A bill that sailed through the Senate General Laws and Technology Committee 15-0 would permanently remove Richmond from the list of cities eligible to host casinos after voters rejected casino referendums in 2021 and 2023.

“I’m voted in by the people of the city of Richmond. And they’ve said twice that they don’t want it,” Sen. Lamont Bagby, D-Richmond, told colleagues as he presented the bill.

Efforts to shift a prospective central Virginia casino to Petersburg also appear to be getting a favorable reception as the committee easily approved legislation adding the smaller, economically struggling city south of Richmond to the list of approved cities. Sen. Lashrecse Aird, D-Petersburg, said she feels her city meets all the criteria lawmakers had in mind when they passed a 2020 law allowing casinos in areas in need of revitalization like Bristol, Danville, Portsmouth and Norfolk.

“The city of Petersburg more than exhibits that same need,” Aird said this week.

Northern Virginia wasn’t a major part of the state’s initial casino conversation, but a bill to start the process of potentially bringing one, along with a conference center and event venue, to Tysons Corner in Fairfax County also cleared its first hurdle in the Senate.

Why some think going all in on a Fairfax County casino would be a bust

The dream of a Fairfax County casino may have gone bust before it even really got off the ground. Last month, two Virginia lawmakers introduced identical bills that would have amended state law to allow a casino to be built in any locality that has a population of more than 1 million and operates under … Continue reading Why some think going all in on a Fairfax County casino would be a bust

Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax, who’s leading the charge for a casino in his region, told lawmakers Northern Virginia isn’t the booming area it once was due to the pandemic-induced shift to remote work. That’s led to empty office space, he said, and weaker incentives for businesses to establish themselves in close proximity to Washington, D.C.

“Fairfax County is no longer quite the behemoth that it was,” Marsden said as he argued a casino could reinvigorate the region and keep more of Virginians’ gambling dollars from going across the border to the MGM National Harbor resort in Maryland.

The idea of a Northern Virginia casino was floated in last year’s session but was withdrawn before it could be put to a vote.

Some senators expressed concerns that the potential casino in Northern Virginia doesn’t have the same groundswell of local support that earlier projects did. A representative from Fairfax County told the Senate’s gambling subcommittee that the county didn’t have a position on the bill but wants to preserve its options.

“In all the other casinos that we’ve considered in the past, we’ve had the local government come forward and ask for the authority to put on a referendum,” said Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, who voted against the bill. “And we’ve had some demonstrated support from the community.”

The Northern Virginia casino bill cleared the General Laws committee 10-5-1, a sign it may face a tougher path than the legislation to make Petersburg the state’s fifth casino site.

“I’m not going to vote to go to six,” said Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico. “Five is what we voted on back in 2020. Five is an important number. We don’t want to create a precedent where we are just coming here and letting any old locality get another one.”

Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Prince William, said she’s supporting the Northern Virginia bill because it leaves the final decision in the hands of Fairfax residents if the county chooses to move forward with a casino referendum.

“If the people of the area do not want this casino, then they will vote in the negative,” Carroll Foy said.

With more cruise ships expected to be coming in and out of Norfolk, the Senate committee also gave initial approval to a bill allowing cruise ship casinos to operate off Virginia’s coast. Lawmakers say the bill only applies to cruise ships traveling from port to port and would not allow floating casinos that stay in one spot.

“This is for ticketed passengers as cruise ships come into the port and back out,” said Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William, the chairman of the General Laws subcommitee that deals with gambling. “Likewise in traversing up to Baltimore up the Chesapeake, when they’re within Virginia they can still have that entertainment available to passengers.”

Sports betting

The committee also approved a bill to allow sports betting on college games involving Virginia schools. When the General Assembly legalized sports betting in 2020, lawmakers included a carveout prohibiting wagers involving college sports teams from Virginia but allowed bets on college games in other states. That limitation was meant to shield student athletes from the gambling industry, but some lawmakers feel it’s complicated efforts to bring sports betting into the light and have it taxed and regulated.

“You see a lot of people who are still gambling on Virginia sports,” said VanValkenburg, who’s sponsoring the bill to lift the college sports restriction. “They’re doing it in D.C. They’re doing it in Tennessee. They’re doing it illegally. They’re doing it through a friend. All of our surrounding states can gamble on Virginia universities.”

Under the sports betting bill, prop bets on college sports would still be prohibited, meaning bettors could only wager on the outcome of a game rather than the performance of individual student athletes.

Skill games

The Senate’s gambling committees haven’t provided much clarity on how the chamber will handle skill games, the slots-like machines that spread throughout Virginia gas stations and restaurants. Those machines are now banned, but the industry is pushing to have them taxed and regulated.

On Wednesday, the General Laws committee briefly discussed an electronic gaming bill filed by McPike that would legalize similar machines seen as competition for skill games but add tougher regulations, such as a higher tax rate, player cards that could be used to exclude minors and people suffering from gambling addiction and stricter rules on how much money the machines can keep versus paying back out to players.

The industry-preferred bill was routed around the Senate’s gambling committees entirely. At Wednesday’s meeting, a key backer of the industry’s bill, Sen. Aaron Rouse, D-Virginia Beach, raised objections to McPike’s bill on the grounds that it hadn’t been put to a vote in the committee’s gambling-specific subcommittee.

After a brief, private huddle involving Rouse and McPike, the committee agreed to delay action on McPike’s bill for the week.

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TYSONS, VA — Despite claims that building a casino in Tysons would provide a boon in revenue for Northern Virginia, Fairfax County would be short-changed, according to Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay (D-At-Large).

As the law now stands, 70 percent of the gaming tax revenue generated by the proposed Tysons casino would go to the Commonwealth of Virginia, McKay told his colleagues during the board's legislative committee meeting on Friday.

“I want to emphasize this point, because the justification that was given from the very start was that the county needs money, 70 percent of the money goes to the state,” McKay said, sharing a letter he planned to send to the leaders of the Virginia General Assembly.

The reason for this is that the current formula was designed for communities like Bristol and Danville, where the economy was very different.

Read McKay's letter to the leaders of the Virginia General Assembly.

Find out what's happening in Tysons Cornerwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“While we understand the Commonwealth's desire to collect additional state tax revenue from the residents of Virginia, we do not believe our residents would accept the revenue share prescribed in the current statute and legislation,” McKay said.

Most of the discussion regarding the casino at Friday's meeting focused on the letter and how the county was left out of the process of formulating the bill.

As evidence of the county's lack involvement in the bill, Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Burke) and Comstock Holding Companies, the developer behind the project, did not discuss their plans with McKay or the two supervisors whose districts would most directly be impacted by a casino in Tysons — Supervisors Dalia Palchik (D-Providence) and Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill).

"Since a community engagement process was not conducted prior to the bill being introduced as it was in other jurisdictions, we believe the bill in its current form is likely to result in strong community opposition to the future referendum," McKay said in his letter.

Supervisor James Walkinshaw (D-Braddock), who chairs the legislative committee, told his colleagues that even if the general assembly passed the bill, he was skeptical Fairfax County voters would approve the referendum. Of course, for that to happen, the board would have to vote to put the referendum on a future ballot, which seemed unlikely given the current language in the bill.

Supervisors are limited in what they are able to do in a committee meeting. They can't vote on anything or take any actions. McKay wrote his letter to help share his concerns and to inform board members so they could make decisions about the process moving forward.

McLean, Great Falls, Herndon, Vienna and Reston residents plan to travel to Richmond on Monday to speak in opposition to legislation being considered by the Virginia Senate to make it possible for a casino to be built in Tysons.

Reston Citizens Association launched its Citizens Opposed to Reston Casino initiative back in October to organize the Reston and Tysons communities against the proposed legislation.

Senate Bill 675, which was introduced by Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Burke) on Jan. 17, seeks to give the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors the authority to put a casino referendum on an upcoming ballot.

On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on General Laws & Technology voted 10 to 4, with one abstention, to refer SB 675 to the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee.

A group of seven Reston and McLean residents who traveled to Richmond were prevented from speaking at Wednesday's meeting, when the committee's chairman, Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), announced that no additional testimony would be taken.

The day before, Marsden presented his bill to the gaming subcommittee, when Julie Coons, the president of the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, endorsed the legislation along with two other speakers.

A finance committee staff member told Patch that while committee and subcommittee meetings are public hearings, public comment is only taken during one hearing, either at the committee or the subcommittee meeting. Since public comment was taken during Tuesday's subcommittee meeting, no more public comment would've been taken at the committee level.

Also, the chairperson of a committee can opt to vote on a piece of legislation without first sending it to a subcommittee, according to the finance staff member. In that case, public testimony would be taken at the committee level.

Although SB 675 hasn't been added to the docket yet, Ebbin told Patch on Friday that it was his understanding that the bill was going to be referred to the Senate Economic Development & Natural Resources Subcommittee, which is scheduled to meet at 4:30 p.m., on Monday. Marsden chairs that subcommittee.

On Thursday, RCA announced that it would be traveling to Richmond on Monday for a lobbying day. Anyone who wishes to join the group can do so by visiting the No Reston Casino website. A meet-up time has not yet been schedule.

During session, the finance committee meets at 9 a.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, and 4:30 p.m., on Thursday upon the call of state Sen. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth), who is the committee chair. That means if the bill is referred out of Marsden's subcommittee on Monday, the finance committee could vote on it first thing Tuesday morning.

As of 6:30 p.m. on Friday, the bill had not been referred to the subcommittee.

Related:

Read all of Patch's reporting on Comstock Companies' plan to build a casino on Metro's Silver Line in Fairfax County at Silver Line Casino.

Some of Virginia’s school boards have begun banning or restricting the use of cellphones in schools. Now, the Virginia Senate is backing a proposal to explicitly empower local boards to institute such prohibitions on cellphones and other “handheld communication devices” during regular school hours.

The legislation cleared the Senate on a 36-3 vote Tuesday and will need to get the approval of the House of Delegates and Gov. Glenn Youngkin to go into effect.

“I’m not telling them to ban cellphones,” said Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin, the bill’s patron, during a hearing earlier this month on the proposal. “I think we should send a clear message to our school systems that if they find it’s in their best interest to do so during the school hours, they should have every right to do so.”

In Virginia, several school divisions including those in Carroll County and the city of Richmond have restricted cellphone use during school hours.

Richmond City Schools launched a pouch pilot program that allows students to keep their cellphones in a locked pouch that is unlocked at the end of the school day.

Nationally, 76.9% of schools prohibit cellphone use during school hours, according to recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Pro and con

Over the past several weeks, Virginia lawmakers spent more time debating whether they needed to create legislation than supporting a ban on the use of devices during school hours.

Supporters say the bill, which states that “each school board may develop and implement a policy to prohibit the possession or use of cell phones and other handheld communication devices during regular school hours,” could help schools reduce classroom disruptions and deter harmful behaviors like students recording school fights for online publication.

“I think we need to alert ourselves in this commonwealth on a statewide basis that this is an issue, and that we trust our school boards and we trust our schools to implement a policy that, one, makes sure that learning is paramount as what everyone wants it to be, and two, that our children are protected,” Stanley said.

However, opponents argue the law is unnecessary because boards already have the power to limit cellphone use.

Sens. Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax, Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, and Saddam Azlan Salim, D-Fairfax, voted against the bill on Tuesday.

Pekarsky has said that while cellphone use in schools is an important issue, “I just see this as a redundant law. It’s not needed in my opinion. It’s not a mandate. It’s just permissive.”

Supporters admit some districts have already adopted such bans but say the Dillon Rule may be confusing others. Under the Dillon Rule, a legal doctrine that governs local-state relations in Virginia, local governments are only allowed to exercise those powers explicitly granted to them by the state government.

“The reason why they didn’t think that they could do what this bill proposes to do is because of the old Dillon Rule that says that localities don’t do something unless we empower them to do so,” Stanley said. “But this bill makes it clear that we here in the commonwealth of Virginia … encourage all of our school systems to develop their own policy when it comes to regulating or prohibiting use of cell phones and handheld devices.”

Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Richmond, who also works as a teacher, said, “I don’t have a problem throwing some redundancy in the code if it’s going to help facilitate that conversation, because it needs to be had.”

“We know our friends at the local level sometimes like to dither around,” he said. “If this helps encourage some of those conversations, I think that’s to the good.”

Federal interest

Congress is also considering whether cellphones should be restricted during school hours.

Last November, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, introduced a bill along with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, to study the effects of cellphones on students in K-12 classrooms.

The legislation would also create a $25 million, five-year pilot program that would provide schools with secure containers for students to store phones during school hours.

“We’ve made a lot of progress in our recovery from the depths of the pandemic. But there’s much more work to be done to help students overcome learning loss and excel in the classroom,” Kaine said in a statement. “That includes looking into how cellphone use in schools is impacting students’ mental health and their ability to learn. This bill would help us do that, by gathering information and providing it to schools as they grapple with students’ use of cellphones in class and how to best set them up for success.”

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