The Washignton Post - 04.04.2020

B4 eZ sU the washington post.saturday, april 4 , 2020

added 104 new cases, its largest single-day increase so far. maryland added 427 cases and reported seven new deaths. Hogan said that 43 percent of the 416 people who are hospitalized with the virus in maryland are in intensive care. Based on the increases, it is clear that maryland “is on the beginning of a curve,” Phillips said. “The curve is going up, and we are accelerating the percent- age of new cases.” In Virginia, health officials reported five new deaths — including one at the Canterbury rehabilitation & Healthcare Center outside richmond — and 306 new infections for a total caseload o f 2,015. As the region scrambles to expand testing capacity, George Washington University Hospital said it will begin drive-through testing for people with doctor’s orders monday in foggy Bottom. The hospital launched a website — http://www.GWCovid19Testing.com — to help patients and doctors access the testing. Hogan took another step to- ward addressing the economic suffering caused by the outbreak, signing an executive or- der that prohibits mortgage lenders from initiating foreclo- sures and banning the reposses- sions of vehicles and mobile homes. Hogan s aid 70 banks a nd financial institutions have agreed to provide a 90-day grace period on mortgages. Homeowners must contact t heir banks to participate. All state agencies will also sus- pend debt collection activities. With the region’s r esidents un- der stay-at-home orders, metro will cut back its operating hours beginning monday, ending service on metrorail at 9 p.m. and on metrobus at 1 1 p.m. This weekend, metro will run the same schedule it ran last weekend, with metrorail running from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. and waits of between 10 and 30 min- utes for trains on all lines. metrobus will runs until 11 p.m., operating just 27 of its most used routes. [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

kyle swenson, rebecca tan, ovetta Wiggins, Justin george and Darran simon contributed to this report.

Convention Center, which could hold 360 acute or 580 non-acute beds; and the richmond Conven- tion Center, which could house 432 acute or 758 non-acute beds. The state is stepping back from a plan to use a former Exxonmobil campus in fairfax County, Northam said, because the Dulles Expo site can be prepared more quickly. He also said officials are still searching for places that could be used for patients in the western and southwestern corners of the state, if necessary. Working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Northam said, the next step is to complete contracts, design and construc- tion, a process that he said could take six weeks. “These will be to free up capacity in the existing hospital system,” he said. “our models look at may as the time when the surge is most likely to occur.” Nearly three dozen caregivers for the elderly in maryland wrote to Hogan asking him to mandate that coronavirus testing take place inside nursing homes and assisted-living centers and that they be given more masks and other protective gear. Nursing homes in montgomery County, maryland’s most popu- lous, have 10 reported cases of the coronavirus and only a two-week supply of protective equipment, officials said. Hospitals are also feeling the strain. The county has put out an urgent call for more gloves, masks and surgical gowns for health-care providers. Twice in recent days, ventilators have had to be trans- ported between hospitals or from the county’s emergency manage- ment service to a hospital because of a surge of patients with breath- ing problems, officials said. In Virginia, staffers at a richmond-area rehabilitation facility that reported its 17 th coronavirus death this week are having to reuse masks and other protective gear because of persistent shortages. “We’ve had to adapt what we call crisis-time use of PPE,” s aid Danny Avula, director of the richmond and Henrico County health dis- tricts, referring to personal protective equipment. “It’s an extreme challenge.” Confirmed cases of the coronavirus continued to grow at a rapid rate friday, with the death toll reaching 105. The District

back to life in our beautiful, thriving city.” She said the city based its projections on a computer m odel that is more pessimistic than others, with assumptions that social distancing will be less ef- fective than hoped at reducing new infections, in part because some people won’t c omply. The model is different from one used by White House officials, who said this week that the outbreak would peak later this month. Private consultants, universi- ties and others have offered com- peting m odels projecting the tra- jectory of the coronavirus outbreak. Two, in particular, appear to be shaping government policy. The University of Washing- ton’s Institute for Health metrics and Evaluation, or IHmE, was cited by the White House and is the source of many graphs and projections that made their way around the Internet this week. That scenario says that the peak will come April 15 — and that the District will have enough hospital beds and ventilators at that time. The D.C. government instead used the CoVID-19 Hospital Im- pact model for Epidemics, or CHImE, developed by Penn medi- cine. D.C. officials say they have scoped out 39 facilities including hotels and arenas that could be used to care for patients, cau- tioning t hat they would not open large-scale facilities until closer to the medical surge. The city’s model also s hows t hat D.C. hospitals would need more than 1,000 additional ventilators at t he end of June, while the I HmE model says the District would not need any more than it has. The mayor said she has not made a final decision on whether to extend the public h ealth emergency and the associated restric- tions that are in place through April 24. But she said that based on current modeling, D.C. Public Schools will not reopen as planned A pril 2 7. Northam announced friday that he has chosen three c onven- tion centers around the state to expand hospital capacity for an expected surge in coronavirus patients. They are the Dulles Expo Center, which can accom- modate 315 acute or 510 non- acute beds; the Hampton roads

Virginia Gov. ralph Northam (D) appeared to be citing a more optimistic scenario this week when he said the state expects a peak of infections between late April and late may. Northam did not release projected numbers of patients or fatalities. “The point that I would make to Virginians is, if you don’t abide by our guidelines... you’re going to get it,” Northam, a physi- cian, said friday. “I’ve been in this business for over 30 years. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a pathogen... that is as conta- gious as this is.” maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (r) has not released formal projections, and the state’s deputy public health secretary, fran Phillips, said friday that authorities are still studying models to determine when maryland is likely to hit its peak. “It is not something that we have clarity [on] at this point,” Phillips said. “We are trying to understand if these models somehow converge and what their meaning is for us here in maryland.” Hogan said officials “simply don’t know just how bad things are going to get or exactly how long this is going to last.” Bowser said estimates predict that hundreds of people will die of the virus in the District, which so far has 761 confirmed cases and 15 fatalities. “We expect that we could expe- rience a range of loss o f life in our city,” B owser said. “The mild estimate is that 220 people would succumb to the disease. A moder- ate would be 440, and the severe estimate would be more than 1,000 people.” City officials said they need more than 2,700 new intensive- care-unit beds for the summer. The District had 116 available as of friday afternoon. officials said they are pushing hospitals to make plans to exclusively serve people with severe coronavirus cases while patients with more mild symptoms and other illnesses are treated at alternate facilities. “This is certainly a global pandemic of proportions that none of us could have predicted, but we will get through this,” Bowser said. “A nd we will get on the other side of this, and we will get

virus from B1

D.C. projects that 1 in 7 may be infected

child of manley’s had passed away. for 15 years, manley also played a big part in putting to- gether the annual mickey Steele Celebrity Golf and Poker To urna- ment — named for a deceased friend. The event benefited Spe- cial olympics maryland, Chil- dren’s National Hospital and a pediatric cancer foundation cre- ated by former Washington red- skins quarterback mark rypien, another manley pal. maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (r) knew him, too. “I lost a good friend, fellow marylander, and all-around great guy,” t he governor tweeted. manley’s specialty was wrangling autographed sports memorabilia — balls, photos, jerseys — for charity auctions. He did this for the George- town Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and other such orga- nizations. And, almost daily, there were his innumerable smaller acts of kindness, as with Buck. “I’ll tell you, the only thing in life he wasn’t nice to was Bud Light,” h is friend Danny moltz, 5 2, said with a chuckle, “because Jer- ry just punished Bud Light.” Billy manley said, “oh, yeah, Jerry could put it away.” Since his younger brother’s death, he said, he has been thumb- ing through photos from february’s Norwegian Escape cruise. “Wherever we went, damn, all the chairs are facing Jerry! Jerry was making the drinks; Jerry was telling the jokes; Jerry was lead- ing the dancing. Jerry was the guy, by the first day, five bartenders knew Jerry’s name. It w as so crazy, the bartenders would come over to us and say, ‘Jerry, what kind of shots do you want to do next?’ ” When their 86-year-old mother, Delores manley, fell ill with pneumonia in late January, there hadn’t been a coronavirus case reported outside China, so her family doubts she was infected. Still, they wonder. on feb. 29, the six siblings gathered with scores of people for the funeral. The next day, “ my s ister’s h usband came up sick,” Billy manley said. “Three or four others came up sick. I came up sick,” t hough Jerry didn’t, yet. Their relatively minor flu-like symptoms lasted less than a week, he said. Then came the ocean City gathering, beginning friday night, march 13, hours after President Trump declared a national emergency. Among the partygoers were several friends of Jerry manley’s from his Huntingtown, md., neighborhood, 50 miles southeast of the District, and afterward, some of them became ill. “We went there before things were shut down,” said Brogan. “I mean, people were at work that day before we all went to the beach — there were no quaran- tines, no social distancing, no nothing.” If it was covid-19 afflicting those neighbors, it was fairly mild, as most cases are, and they felt well again in a couple of days. But by the following weekend, march 21-22, Jerry manley was sick, addled by fatigue and what seemed to be a worsening cold. on march 26, after he began struggling to breathe, he was taken by ambulance to a hospital. That was a Thursday. “They placed him in a medical- ly induced coma friday,” s aid Nate Garland, an executive with Spe- cial olympics maryland. “Sunday, we got word that they brought him out of the coma, and we actually thought he was improv- ing, But apparently monday, he spiked a high fever. And then Tuesday morning, he passed.” He is survived by two daugh- ters and two sons, all grown, and his wife, Valerie manley, who was too broken up to be interviewed, Billy manley said. on friday, though, she sent a text. She said, “There is such an outpouring of love from so many it has helped give myself and our kids so much comfort.” She said, “He was our rock, we never had to worry because he took such great care in making sure we were loved and cared for.” She said, “He kept us laughing and was the most generous man we ever knew.” [email protected]

He loved his music, and he’d have
his ’70s station on. Te ddy Pender-
grass. He’d sing to lighten the mood.

... When we got there, he’d never go
in. He’d b ring his coffee and newspa-
per and wait in the car, and as soon
as he’d see me come out, he’d hop
out, run around the car, and he’d
look at me and say, ‘Are you okay?’
He’d say, ‘Let me give you a hug.’ ”
She paused on the phone, gath-
ering her composure.
“He’d give me a great, big hug,
you know? He’d say, ‘You got this,
girl,’ and he’d o pen the door for me
and help me in.”
manley, a married father of
four, was hospitalized last week
and died Tuesday at Calver-
tHealth medical Center. He was
one of more than 100 novel coro-
navirus fatalities in maryland,
Virginia and the District, a toll
that keeps rising.
Big Jerry’s network of friends,
now mourners, was vast and var-
ied, owing to his decades of chari-
ty w ork and to his outsize, boister-
ous personality, which was more
than occasionally r-rated.
“A gentle giant who’d give you
the shirt off his back and not
expect anything in return,” said
his neighbor Kelly Brogan, 49,
adding that manley’s personal
motto as t he l ife of every party was
“I like beer” — an understatement,
as friends laughingly tell it.
How did he catch this i nsidious
illness advancing exponentially in
all directions around the planet?
His loved ones and others who
were close to him are left to pon-
der and agonize, plumbing mem-
ories, retracing steps, searching
for nexuses.
There was the annual seven-day
family Caribbean cruise that he and
16 relatives embarked on in mid-
february, b y which time the disease
had spread beyond China to other
countries, though no cases had yet
been reported in the United States.
Then, o n feb. 2 3, t he day after he
got off the ship, he and his five
siblings stood at t heir mother’s h os-
pital bedside, clasping her frail
hands as she died of respiratory
failure, ending a weeks-long battle
with pneumonia. None wore gloves
or a mask. The first confirmed U.S.
death from covid-19, in the Seattle
area, was still five days away.
And there was the big party at
his brother Billy’s beach house in
ocean City, md., in mid-march, on
the weekend before St. Patrick’s
Day, w ith about two dozen r evelers
packed indoors before all went out
to a crowded Irish pub that Satur-
day night. Not until the following
day, march 15, would the Centers
for Disease Control and Preven-
tion officially advise against gath-
erings of 50 or more people.
“No one has any idea whether
the party had anything to do with
this, or whether some of those
people were already sick and
didn’t r ealize i t,” s aid Billy manley,
61. “oh, my G od, there would h ave
been no ocean City trip. But the
information wasn’t getting out to
us fast enough.”
The only underlying medical
issue manley was known to have
before he got sick was a blood
pressure problem, his brother
said.
Jerry manley, who retired after
33 years in law enforcement, with
the Prince George’s County Sher-
iff's office and later the police
department, was an advocate and
volunteer event staffer for Special
olympics maryland. Among other
charitable work, he helped orga-
nize and run the maryland State
Police Polar Bear Plunge into the
Chesapeake Bay every January
since 1997, when it began raising
money for Special olympics.
What g ot him into the olympics
was his loving relationship with a
former poster child, Jimmy myrick
Jr., born with Down syndrome.
myrick was a golfer, basketball
player and swimmer, and the son
of an old friend of manley’s.
“They’d never miss an opportu-
nity to rag on each other,” Jimmy
myrick Sr., 63, said. “But there was
an understanding, always, that
Jerry had Jimmy’s back and Jim-
my had Jerry’s.”
When Jimmy Jr. died of leuke-
mia in 2016, at a ge 3 3, it was as if a

manley from B1

Retired police sergeant

was the life of every party

“He stood and watched the reg- ister go u p, then he said, ‘Let i t go. We’re blessed,’ ” Lee recalled Wednesday. Some customers were initially confused or disbelieving. Some tried to pay until the clerks ex- plained what was going on. Some, who had selected only the items they thought they could afford, returned to the shelves for a few more at megonigal’s urging while 11-year-old marley ran for things and brought them back, according to Lee and megonigal. Nearly an hour passed — until the final tally came to $2,523.32, Lee said. Video that Lee shot shows his manager, mirian Cale- ro, and others cheering and ap- plauding as megonigal’s free-for- all wound down. At least 30 people received free groceries that day. “I’ll tell you what — you’ve never seen so many happy people. really happy, really grateful,” megonigal said. “They just said, ‘Thank you’ and ‘God bless you.’ most of them don’t even speak English, to be honest with you. It was a great feeling. It really felt good to help out.” Lee felt so moved by the display of generosity that he said he didn’t bother to check megonigal’s ID when he submitted a debit card for payment; he wondered whether the card would go through. It did, and that meant a lot in that neighborhood, Lee said. one in five people live in poverty in Bai- leys Crossroads, a neighborhood

groceries from B1

of about 24,000 people, according to census data. more than h alf are foreign-born, and about 36 percent are Hispanic. “We’re a blue-collar, s mall community,” Lee said, adding that he wonders how his customers can hang on while the government stay-at-home decrees remain in place and the economy remains almost at a standstill. many already worked two jobs to support their families, he said. “Their source of income has dried up,” Lee said. “It’s going to be devastating for everyone.” on Wednesday, hundreds of people waited on the other side of Leesburg Pike outside St. Antho- ny of Padua Catholic Church for free food. The line of waiting cars snaked through the parking lot and onto Leesburg Pike, while dozens of others stood on foot in the chilly spring air as volunteers prepared 40-pound bags of gro-

ceries, such as eggs, chicken, fruit, rice and cooking oil. Yareli Bonilla, a mother of two young children who lives in Vien- na, said she was grateful for the food because she’s been without work since the Burlington Coat factory let her go because of the pandemic. Her partner, marvin To rres, 27, still has a job at m cDon- ald’s but his hours were cut from 40 a week to about three. The crunch has also had repercus- sions as far away as El Salvador, where she used to send $150 from her biweekly paycheck to her father and grandparents. “I don’t k now what we’ll have to do, especially about the rent,” she said. With so many in need, the church has been trying to stretch its supplies to help as many people as possible, said Ubaldo Cisne- ros, coordinator of the church’s social ministry. “We’re getting short on food, so we’re reducing [each individual bag] little by little,” Cisneros said. He estimated that demand is now four times higher than normal. on monday, 573 people received free food; on Wednesday, he estimated it would be 600 or more. megonigal said his family struggled, too, when he was grow- ing up in Baileys Crossroads more than four decades ago after his father left his mother, his three brothers and him to fend for themselves. “It wasn’t that difficult because we didn’t know any better. And she worked really hard,” megonigal said of his mother.

Things eased a bit after they all moved in with his grandmother in Lincolnia. megonigal went to work on cars after graduation from J.E.B. Stuart High School. “We were luckier than a lot of other people,” megonigal said. over the years, megonigal has found other ways to help people in his old neighborhood — donating money and bicycles and the like. The idea of helping more directly came up while he was discussing the crisis with his daughter, marley, who lives with her mother in Sterling. “She came up with the idea of, ‘Hey, we need to do something to help other people out. We need to find a way to give back,’ ” megonigal said. on Saturday t he two drove around several neighborhoods in Northern Virginia and the Dis- trict considering ways they could offer assistance. Then he suggest- ed his old neighborhood, and marley liked the idea. “It’s kind of strange. We knew we were going to help somebody, but we just didn’t know really what we were going to do,” he said. The enormous pleasure he felt in laying down his debit card for others almost took him by sur- prise, as did the depth of people’s gratitude. “It was fun to watch the people, especially when they didn’t real- ize it, and they were explaining it to them, and they were looking around, going ‘What?’ ” megonigal recalled. “It was awesome. I can’t wait to do it again.” [email protected]

Grocery recipients were ‘really happy, really grateful’

evelyn hockstein For the Washington Post alex lee, owner of culmore supermarket, says michael megonigal’s altruism means a lot to his community.

BY MARTIN WEIL

April in the Washington area thus far has betrayed the month’s reputation as a time of showers, arriving instead as both dry and windy, creating a threat of outdoor fire. Two mulch fires and one brush fire broke out in montgomery County alone friday afternoon. They were not unlikely, given the day’s conditions. Humidity resided for most of the day in

what might seem foreign territo- ry for Washington. reagan Na- tional Airport mostly registered relative humidity readings of be- low 40 percent. The warmth of a 67-degree day, coupled with winds that gusted as high as 41 mph enhanced the potential for fire. “This weather is conducive to brush and other outside fires,” t he D.C. fire department said in a Twitter post. It urged caution in discarding smoking materials.

In r ecent days, Washington has not been particularly water- logged to begin with. So far this month, which has just begun, not a drop of rain has been officially reported in the city. Last month came up more than an inch short of its normal quota of rainfall. In montgomery, firefighters found one of the mulch fires in the 1500 block of Heather Hollow Circle, near Lockwood Drive in the White oak area, said Pete

Piringer, spokesman for the county fire and rescue service. They r esponded to a report of a building fire, but found the flames in the mulch, according to Piringer. Authorities also found a small mulch fire at rockville Pike and Church Street, near the metro station, he said. The brush fire broke out behind a house near Clopper and Longdraft roads, Piringer said. [email protected]

Maryland

3 outdoor fires reported in a dry Montgomery

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The Washignton Post - 04.04.2020

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