COVID cases ‘plateau’
Dr. Wade Kartchner, director of the Rappahannock-Rapidan Health District of the Virginia Department of Health, told the Rappahannock News late Wednesday morning that while there are “blips up and down each day” identifying new cases of COVID-19 in the five-county health district that includes Rappahannock, the incidence rate of infections has “plateaued” for now.
The Warrenton doctor bases his conclusion on a “7-day trend,” saying new cases are “hovering, not going up. There’s a plateau.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Kartchner said he had yet to receive a reply from Rappahannock County Sheriff Connie Compton surrounding an email he sent to regional sheriffs and chiefs of police.
“As you know, the Governor's order # 61 was announced on Friday and we are looking to partner with the various law enforcement agencies in our health district to manage compliance with the order,” he wrote to the law enforcement officers. “VDH is tasked as the enforcement arm of the order, but we cannot do this without your assistance.
“I've discussed this briefly with [Fauquier] Sheriff Mosier and the initial idea is to have his staff handle calls and do the initial physical investigations (if needed), bringing our environmental health staff in if a summons is to be filed with the court. If this works elsewhere, that would be great from a uniformity perspective. If not, we would welcome your input as to how you would like to handle this aspect of reopening.”
Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins wasted no time replying: “My response to that request is that we will not trample the constitutional freedoms of our citizens to enforce an edict of the Governor. I do not speak for any of the other jurisdictions in the health district.”