As Virginia prepares to enter “Phase 1” of “reopening” from its COVID-19 shutdown, you’d hope that we’d have shown significant improvement on a bunch of metrics. For instance, you’d definitely want hospitals to not be overwhelmed – and they’re not. You’d like us to have sufficient PPE, and that mostly seems to be the case. You’d also want an adequate supply of ventilators (we’re in good shape there), hospital beds (ditto), etc. So that’s all (relatively) good news.
On the other hand – and you just knew there’d be another hand, right? – you’d also want to see new cases, hospitalizations and deaths stable or declining by this point. But, sad to say…nope, clearly they’re not. You’d also hope that we’d be at recommended/required testing levels in order to “reopen” safely and to keep the disease under control. Again…nope, we’re not even close – according to Harvard’s Global Health Institute estimates. Finally, you’d hope that we’d have gotten this whole “social distancing” thang down to a science by now, but…nope, most definitely not, according to the latest from Unacast’s Social Distancing Scorecard.
Here’s the dismal trendline:
- Back on April 3, Unacast gave Virginia a “D” grade, ranking it 8th-worst in the country.
- By April 26, Virginia had actually sunk to a “D-” grade, 9th-worst in the country…and definitely not moving in the right direction.
- How about now? See below for the not-so-pretty details, but the bottom line is that Virginia has now sunk to an “F” grade, tied with 23 other states for that ignominious dishonor.
- Overall, the U.S. has sunk to “D-” social distancing grade, with the worst states mostly in the South and Midwest. Yay, America?
As for how different jurisdictions within Virginia are doing, as you can see below, the vast majority get “C”s “D”s and “F”s, with none getting “A”s and just a few – Cumberland County, Arlington County, Falls Church, Buchanan County, etc. – getting “B”s or “B-“s. How are other major jurisdictions doing? Fairfax County, the largest in Virginia, gets a “C-“; Charlottesville gets a “C-“; Loudoun County gets a “D-“; Prince William County gets a “D-“; Albemarle County gets a “D-“; Richmond City gets “D”; Norfolk gets an “F”; Roanoke gets an “F”; Henrico County gets an “F”; Chesterfield County gets an “F”; Virginia Beach gets an “F”; Newport News gets an “F”…and so on. Great, huh?
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