Coronavirus: Bowser Extends DC Stay-At-Home Order

Michael O'Connell
Updated ·4 min read

WASHINGTON, DC — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser extended her stay-at-home order for District residents due to the coronavirus by three weeks. The original order was due to expire on Friday.

"Today, we will extend the District's stay-at-home order through Monday, June 8," Bowser said, during a Wednesday morning press briefing. "I should note that based on the data, I can revise this order at any time to reflect a phased reopening, if the data suggests that we can do that."

In order to monitor the spread of COVID-19, the illness associated with the new coronavirus, the D.C. Department of Health is tracking the number of news cases in the city and the rate of community transmission, which tells how many new infections come from each case of COVID-19.

Bowser based her decision to extend the stay-at-home order on three criteria:

  • 14-day decrease in community spread

  • Transmission rate under one for a period of three days

  • Testing capacity

The transmission rate is based not only on the number of new cases, but it takes into account the symptom-onset date and where those cases are located, for example, if they are in a congregant setting, such as an assisted living center.

As of Wednesday, the District is in a four-day decrease in community spread. In addition, the rate of transmission has been below one for two days, according to Bowser.

The District is currently able to test the four following areas that are important to a phased reopening:

  • Symptomatic individuals

  • At-risk health-care workers

  • Essential workers

  • Close-contacts of new positive cases.

"We still, however, don't think we're testing all of the people who need to be tested in those four groups," Bowser said. "We continue to reach out to people, making everybody aware of the testing locations and that those tests are free and that we'll continue to do that."

Another important factor in a phased reopening is whether the health-care system is able to treat the increased number of cases that would be expected to occur in a phased reopening.

To help increase the District's surge capacity, an Alternative Care Site opened its doors Monday at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, which added 437 beds to District's surge capacity.

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Without a surge, the District needs to have its health-care capacity at less than 80 percent over seven days. The District's current health-care occupancy is at 76 percent and it has been under 80 percent for 14 days.

"We have been very confident about the number of beds at area hospitals that are part of our surge capacity," Bowser said.

The last piece of the reopening puzzle is the District's ability to trace every new infection.

"This is the piece that will help us ensure that we won't have widespread community transmissions when we see those new infections," Bowser said.

The District's goal is to be able to contact trace any new case within one day and their close contacts within two days. Currently, D.C. Health can contact trace for its priority populations — essential workers, at-risk health-care personnel, etc. — and their close contacts, so it still needs to build out its testing capacity in order to handle the surge of new cases.

On Monday, the mayor directed $2.3 million of the District's Contingency Cash Reserve Fund to pay for the initial staffing hires for the D.C Coronavirus Contact Trace Force. D.C. Health started onboarding 17 contact tracers to help identify individuals exposed to COVID-19, with at least 200 more tracers and managers to come.

"The purpose of tracking all of these metrics, of course, is to ensure we are transitioning from community spread to more isolated clusters of the virus as we begin a phased reopening," Bowser said. "Obviously, we're not there yet and not quite ready to begin that phased reopening."

This article originally appeared on the Washington DC Patch