Friday afternoon, May 8, Gov. Ralph Northam provided additional details about the first phase of Virginia's reopening plan. Read that story here.
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The Virginia Dept. of Health released ZIP code data for coronavirus transmission in the City of Alexandria and in Fairfax County.
According to a City of Alexandria press release:
“Although viruses do not discriminate, the COVID-19 virus disproportionately impacts vulnerable populations just as other diseases and health conditions do. The ZIP codes with the highest rates of known COVID-19 cases in Alexandria are also the ZIP codes with higher concentrations of poverty, lower education levels, and crowded housing conditions. The populations living in some ZIP codes have historically experienced discriminatory policies and systems, resulting in inequitable access to healthcare, economic opportunities and affordable housing.”
Alexandria has also had outbreaks of COVID-19 at eight of its nine long-term care facilities, and the location of those facilities may skew the data more heavily in certain areas of the city. (Read more about that here.)
Other caveats on the data: The population of each ZIP code is not equal, nor are the number of tests completed per ZIP code equal.
City of Alexandria Data
City of Alexandria
* The positivity rate is the number of confirmed cases divided by the number of tests.
** ZIP code 22206 is mostly in Arlington County; the Alexandria portion of data for 22206 is not provided, therefore the numbers and calculations would not be reliable for reporting for Alexandria.
*** ZIP codes 22311 and 22312 are shared between Alexandria and Fairfax County. The number of cases and number of people tested presented in this table, and accompanying calculations, are for the entire ZIP code. Cases per 1,000 Alexandrians cannot be reliably calculated.
Below is a ZIP code map for the City of Alexandria for reference:
FAIRFAX COUNTY
Fairfax County has released ZIP code data only by ZIP code groups (the first three digits) to continue to protect patient privacy.
Fairfax County officials noted, “We understand your confusion because other places, including our neighbors in Maryland, are presenting ZIP code level data. It is important to know that jurisdictions may be subject to different confidentiality requirements or may have reached different conclusion about the level of detail to be provided.”
In Fairfax County’s 223 __ ZIP code, which is essentially Southeast Fairfax County (see map below), there are 1,069 diagnosed with COVID-19, a case rate of 371 per 100,000.
This is lower than Fairfax County’s rate as a whole, which is above 400 people per 100,000 residents. As with Fairfax County, outbreaks at long-term care facilities and the location of those, the population per ZIP code and testing inequality may skew the data.
Fairfax County
