COVID-19 testing clinics in Annandale and Bailey’s Crossroads deemed a failure
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| People stay in their cars as they check in for a COVID-19 test at Annandale High School May 23. |
The Fairfax County Health Department acknowledges the COVID-19 testing clinics at Annandale High School and Bailey’s Elementary School in Bailey’s Crossroads during the Memorial Day weekend could have been planned better.
The events were aimed at testing people in two communities considered coronavirus hotspots. However, due to widespread publicity from the governor’s office, 70 percent of those who were tested live outside those neighborhoods and 25 percent were from outside Fairfax County, health officials reported at a meeting of the Board of Supervisors’ Health and Human Services Committee June 2.
Mason Supervisor Penny Gross called the testing clinics “a major failure.” People waited for hours for tests, and some people showed up as early as 3 a.m. at Bailey’s Elementary School.
There weren’t enough police officers at Annandale High School on May 23, and “traffic was backed up on the beltway for what was supposed to be a local event,” Gross said. On May 24, lines of cars waiting for tests at Bailey’s Elementary School were backed up all the way to Sleepy Hollow Road.
Related story: People wait for hours for COVID tests in Annandale
Gross also said she wasn’t consulted and had trouble getting information about the testing events in advance.
More than 2,920 people were tested on both days. Thirteen percent of people tested were positive for COVID-19, with slightly more positive cases in Annandale, said Dr. Bernard Schwartz, director of immunology in the Health Department.
The largest group of positive tests were among people age 25-64, Schwartz said. Among those who tested positive, 92 percent were Hispanic, 81 percent said Spanish is their preferred language, 49 percent had no healthcare provider, and 90 percent had no health insurance.
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| Addo-Avensu |
Based on the experience at the clinics in Annandale and Bailey’s Crossroads, Schwartz told the supervisors the next testing clinics – at hotspots in Mount Vernon, Springfield, and Herndon – will provide just 200 to 400 tests per site and the events will be publicized only in those communities.
And instead of using the state lab, the Health Department will use a mobile lab from the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department.
“Social and physical distancing over last couple of months has been successful in slowing the spread of the virus and reducing the strain on the health system,” Dr. Gloria Addo-Avensu, director of the Health Department, told the supervisors. But “the virus has not gone away,” and there will be additional cases.
As of June 2, there was a total of 11,548 cases of COVID-19 in Fairfax County and 405 deaths. There were 207 new cases in the previous 24 hours. Fairfax County has more cases than any other jurisdiction in Virginia.
The actual number of cases could be as high as 70,000, affecting more than 6 percent of the county’s population, Schwartz said. That’s because many people who are infected are not tested, are asymptomatic, or have mild symptoms.
Fairfax County is seeing a “significant flattening of the curve” except for Hispanics, where COVID-19 cases are increasing, he said.
Hispanics make up about 17 percent of the county’s population and 66 percent of COVID cases.
That has nothing to do with biology and everything to do with the groups’ niche in society, Schwartz said. Hispanics are more likely to have jobs that require them to be present; less able to practice social distancing at work; more likely to use public transportation and live in crowded households where they can’t self-isolate; and less likely to have sick leave and insurance,
Non-Hispanic whites, however, are most at risk of dying from the virus. That’s probably because more whites are in long-term care facilities, where there is an increased risk of death, Schwartz said.
The Health Department has done “point prevalence testing” at 13 facilities, where every resident and staff member is tested, and nine facilities have done that on their own, he noted. The Virginia Health Department is developing recommendations to require weekly point prevalence testing at all skilled nursing facilities.
Related story: Fairfax County will hire hundreds of contact tracers
Addo-Avensu’s plan for preventing a resurgence of the virus involves testing strategically and widely, isolating all infected people, meticulous contact tracing, and quarantining all contacts for 14 days. That will create a loop, “so the virus will be boxed in.”
The Health Department has redeployed 400 staff from other areas to focus on contact tracing, serve on emergency response and rapid response teams, and work in the COVID call center.
The county has contracted with the Institute for Public Health Innovation to hire and train 400 additional contact tracers plus 70 community health providers who can work with diverse communities. The first hires will start the week of June 15, and onboarding will continue through August.
While Fairfax County was unable to conduct enough tests early on – due to a lack of testing kits and limited lab capacity – “testing has increased substantially” in recent weeks, Schwartz said. The goal is 2,000 tests a day.
There is now excess capacity at county testing sites, so the Health Department is urging everyone with symptoms to have a test.
The Health Department has issued a list of testing sites in the county, including these sites in the Annandale/Mason District area:
- Inova Cares Clinic for Families, 7617 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, 571-665-6620 – Accepts new patients without insurance. Provides no-cost COVID-19 screening but refers to INOVA respiratory clinic for testing. Open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.
- Neighborhood Health @ Merrifield Center, 8221 Willow Oaks Corporate Drive, Suite 450, Fairfax, 703-535-6913 – Conducts COVID screening and testing. People without insurance pay according to a sliding scale based on income. Patients with insurance might be charged a co-pay. Open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
- Culmore Clinic, 6165 Leesburg Pike, Seven Corners, 703-260-8413 – Conducts COVID screening and testing. Scheduled drive-through appointments only. New patients without insurance accepted. No out-of-pocket costs. Open Monday and Wednesday, 9-11 a.m.
- Progressive Urgent & Primary Care, 7306 Maple Place, Annandale, 703-333-5001 – Curbside COVID screening and testing by appointment only. There’s a $90 charge for people without insurance. Open seven days a week, 8 a.m.-7 p.m., weather permitting.
- CVS Pharmacy, 7205 Little River Turnpike, Annandale, 703-256-4030 – Drive-through appointments only. Self-administered COVID tests with nasal swab. Insurance not needed. No out-of-pocket cost for the uninsured. Open seven days a week.
- CVS Pharmacy, 3401 Charles St., Bailey’s Crossroads, 703-933-3444 – Drive-through appointments only. Self-administered COVID tests with nasal swab. Insurance not needed. No out-of-pocket cost for the uninsured. Open seven days a week.
9 responses to “COVID-19 testing clinics in Annandale and Bailey’s Crossroads deemed a failure”
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LOL
Why am i not surprised by that?
When was the last time any of the our elected official accomplished anything other than a failure?
Very sad. A couple of months ago I noticed day laborers still congregating in large groups without masks in Annandale. I notified Penny Gross's office and I do believe they made efforts – working with police and local charity groups – to get the message across. But the fact that this population lives in crowded conditions is certainly a factor. Such a shame.
Thank you for the information about the outreach, I didn't know they worked on that. However, I wouldn't attribute the number of COVID cases to some day laborers trying to make it in the world; throughout the crisis I have seen innumerable folks walking around without masks, taking hikes, going about their business, all as if they somehow have exclusive immunity. It is our complacency and belief that others – like those day laborers – get these diseases, not us, that leads to its spread.
"Very sad. A couple of months ago I noticed day laborers still congregating in large groups without masks in Annandale. I notified Penny Gross's office and I do believe they made efforts"….Karen strikes again! Trying to force poor people to put on a mask that does absolutely nothing to help stop the spread of the plandemic…shame on you covid 19 zombies
Zip code 22041 has the highest COVID cases in Fairfax….such a paradise! Thank you Penny Gross.
The high cases are all attributed to blocks within the zip codes. Usually apartment buildings with large numbers of people within those apartments. We have the affordable housing in the county, or section 8 housing so in tighter areas the numbers will be higher. In addition this is a population that cannot telework so they are more likely to catch it.
This doesn't bother me, but I do have some very well to do neighbors wringing their hands that they live in covid clusters and boo hooing this to anyone who will listen (manufactured drama). It just shows extreme ignorance.
"This doesn't bother me, but I do have some very well to do neighbors wringing their hands that they live in covid clusters and boo hooing this to anyone who will listen (manufactured drama). It just shows extreme ignorance."—alright, we have sum functioning adults in Axum-dale(22003)
You know if Penny Gross calls something a failure it must have been a real disaster!
I live near annandale high school and I had no idea this was happening. We never got anything in the mail to let us know it was happening. I learned about it on the news that evening after it happened.