B4 eZ M2 the washington post.monday, april 6 , 2020
615 calls for violations of the
stay-at-home order and other
directives from the governor
since march 24, the governor’s
office said. The Loudoun County
Sheriff ’s office has handled 68
calls for overcrowding during the
same period. fairfax County po-
lice handled about eight a day
related to the stay-at-home order
last week.
“We have been getting volun-
tary compliance,” fairfax County
Police Chief Edwin C. roessler Jr.
said.
Still, there have been some
issues.
In Prince George’s County on
Tuesday, police officers told a
group of people who were pan-
handling and asking people if
they wanted carwashes at a gas
station in Landover to go home
because of the stay-at-home or-
der, according to a news release.
one of the people refused to
comply, became combative and
was pepper-sprayed, police said.
The man was charged with fail-
ure to comply with a state emer-
gency and other counts.
maryland State Police report
there have been seven arrests for
violating orders issued by Hogan
since march 24. on march 29,
before the current stay-at-home
order in maryland, state police
charged a man with hosting a
party for teens at a hotel in
Carroll County in violation of the
governor’s order banning the as-
sembly of more than 10 people,
police said. Two days earlier, a
Charles County man was arrest-
ed and accused of refusing to
shut down a bonfire party of
about 60 people at his home. The
latter story generated national
headlines.
As of Thursday in Virginia, the
state police and several local
departments in the Washington
region had not reported any
arrests related to the stay-at-
home order or other restrictions
by Gov. ralph Northam (D).
American Civil Liberties
Union chapters in the District,
maryland and Virginia have not
received complaints related to
the enforcement of the orders,
spokespeople said. They were
concerned about police resorting
to arrests, given the threat of the
coronavirus in some local jails.
“A rrest should be the very last
resort, especially because we
should instead be focused on
reducing the number of people in
detention,” meredith Brooks, an
ACLU of maryland spokeswom-
an, wrote in an email.
But while police report most
citizens are complying with the
stay-at-home orders, some offi-
cials worry residents may be
tempted to congregate again as
the orders drag on and warm
spring weather arrives.
“I’m concerned if the weather
gets better people are not going
to adhere to social distancing
and neighbors are going to
spread it to neighbors,” roessler
said.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]rachel Weiner contributed to this
report.present documentation about
why they are out.
Instead, nearly every depart-
ment has told officers to urge
people to follow the new rules
and rely on arrests only as a final
option.
for instance, D.C. Police Chief
Peter Newsham has instructed
officers to make an arrest only if
the suspect does not “voluntarily
comply” with the order, and then
only after getting permission
from the watch commander.
And, according to the directive,
the watch commander “shall con-
sider all other options” before
making an arrest or issuing a
citation.
“recognizing there is confu-
sion and this is a difficult time for
everyone, the guidance given to
officers is to take an opportunity
to educate the public, gain volun-
tary compliance, and criminal
enforcement is a last resort,”
Arlington police spokeswoman
Ashley Savage said. “our goal
continues to be to gain voluntary
compliance through education.”
The gentler approach is play-
ing out in different ways across
the region, but it has mostly
resulted in officers issuing warn-
ings to nonessential businesses
and larger groups of people con-
gregating in parks, playgrounds
and ballfields, officials said.
In the District on Tuesday, a
police officer used the loudspeak-
er in his patrol car to urge a large
group of walkers and runners at
Capitol Hill’s Lincoln Park to
disperse. The scene played out
one day before mayor muriel E.
Bowser’s stay-at-home order offi-
cially went into effect, but after
she announced it.
“ Attention, everyone. Atten-
tion, everyone. We are currently
in a public health emergency,”
the officer told the crowd. “Your
gathering puts both you and
others at unnecessary risk. We
encourage you to use proper
social distancing and refrain
from gathering in large groups.”
In fairfax County, o fficials said
52 resource officers for the now-
closed schools have been rede-
ployed to handle complaints
about stay-at-home order viola-
tions and other minor issues by
working the phones. They only
escalate the issues to patrol offi-
cers if they can’t gain compliance
with a call.
In maryland, the state police
have proactively checked more
than 8,800 s hops and restaurants
to ensure they have remained
closed since Gov. Larry Hogan
(r) ordered a shutdown o f nones-
sential businesses on march 24, a
spokesman said.
Police officials said there had
been little resistance to the stay-
at-home orders, something they
attributed to the grim threat of a
pandemic and the fact that area
residents dealt with increasing
restrictions in the weeks leading
up to stay-at-home orders.
There have not been a flood of
complaints to police depart-
ments about people violating the
orders. As of Thursday, maryland
State Police and the state’s other
local departments had fielded
enforcement from B1
Many warnings and few
arrests in order violations stay-at-home order, requiring res-
idents to remain indoors except
for essential activities, such as
grocery shopping. Activities such
as dog-walking, running and hik-
ing are allowed but should be
pursued only with family mem-
bers.
Bowser has also banned gath-
erings of more than 10 people,
and has instructed those who do
venture outdoors to remain at
least six feet apart. Violators
could be subject to a fine of up to
$5,000 and three months in jail,
though the mayor said criminal
penalties would be a last resort.
The ranks of the city’s law en-
forcement and fire and rescue
personnel also continue to be hit
by the virus. four more members
of the D.C. fire and Emergency
medical Services Department
have tested positive for the coro-
navirus, officials said Sunday,
bringing to 32 the number of
firefighters, paramedics and
emergency medical technicians
who have fallen ill. An assistant
fire chief is included in that tally.
fire officials said seven mem-
bers have recovered and have
been cleared for work.
The fire department said 173 of
its members are in quarantine,
and 165 members who had been
quarantined have returned to
work. The department has more
than 2,000 members.
A total of 17 members of the
D.C. police department have test-
ed positive for the coronavirus,
and an additional 195 are in quar-
antine. Another 194 members
who had been in quarantine have
returned to work.
The D.C. police department,
which has more than 3,800 sworn
members, has said one officer is in
critical condition.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
peter hermann, ovetta Wiggins and
Laura Vozzella contributed to this
report.tor proclaimed the District could
be a new hot spot, the city experi-
enced an online uproar after so-
cial media posts on Saturday
showed crowds at the Wharf fish
market in Southwest Washing-
ton, defying the mandate that
people practice social distancing
and stay at least six feet apart. In
the aftermath, city regulators on
Sunday ordered the popular
open-air market, restaurant and
nightlife spot shuttered through
at least April 24.
In the interim, Bowser and city
officials are encouraging the mar-
ket’s vendors to develop a strategy
for serving customers — while
enforcing social-distancing rules
— and present it to the D.C. De-
partment of Consumer and regu-
latory Affairs.
“If the plan allows for safe
operations, the venue will be al-
lowed to reopen,” Bowser com-
munications director LaTo ya fos-
ter said in a statement. “DCrA
and D.C. Health would continue
to monitor compliance.”
The large volume of customers
at the market — where, in some
cases, people stood within inches
of one another — was all the more
outrageous to District residents
given Bowser’s projection friday
that about 1 in every 7 D.C. resi-
dents could contract the corona-
virus. Bowser also said that the
city probably would hit its largest
number of hospitalizations in
early summer. As of Sunday, how-
ever, a projection from a Universi-
ty of Washington health research
center said the District could
reach peak “hospital resource
use” as soon as April 15 and hit as
many as nine deaths per day start-
ing April 13.
one reason D.C. officials are
predicting a later and higher peak
in needed hospital beds is that
they suspect residents will not
adhere to social-distancing rules
as faithfully as the University of
Washington researchers antici-
pate.
Bowser recently joined mary-
land and Virginia in instituting acounties saw their largest increas-
es to date, with 132 and 99 new
confirmed infections, respective-
ly. In Virginia, Arlington County
also experienced its largest sin-
gle-day increase with 31 new cas-
es, bringing its total to 181.
As the number of confirmed
cases increased, the region re-
ported 16 new fatalities Sunday,
short of the 21 deaths reported
Saturday, which marked the larg-
est single-day increase in deaths.
The District reported 96 new cas-
es and the death of a 76-year-old
woman. Virginia added 230 cases
and three f atalities but lowered
its overall death toll while three
previously reported deaths are
reexamined for a link to covid-19,
the disease caused by the corona-
virus. In maryland, authorities
reported 14 new covid-19 deaths
Sunday.
Virginia is also grappling with
outbreaks in nursing homes. As o f
friday, 17 residents at the Canter-
bury rehabilitation and Health-
care Center in Henrico County
had died of the disease. five died
in a 24-hour period. officials at
the 190-bed facility said it had
tested all residents and most of
the staff a nd found that 108 resi-
dents and 25 employees have
been infected.
Danny Avula, director of the
richmond and Henrico health
districts, said at a Thursday news
conference that Canterbury con-
tinues to suffer from a lack of
personal protective equipment.
Experts and public health au-
thorities caution that the official
tallies of coronavirus cases do not
provide a complete picture of the
virus’s toll. New test results may
reflect week-old samples, and
people carrying the virus now
may take as long as 14 days to
develop symptoms. Additionally,
many guidelines limit coronavi-
rus tests to people exhibiting
symptoms, meaning that more
people are infected than labs can
confirm.
on the same day that the White
House virus task force coordina-81 nursing homes and long-term
care facilities. At Pleasant View
Nursing Home in mount Airy, the
site of the state’s largest outbreak,
at least 99 residents and staff had
tested positive and 10 residents
had died. Hogan’s emergency or-
der, issued Sunday, r equires nurs-
ing homes and similar elder-care
facilities to create isolation areas
for residents infected with or sus-
pected of having the virus; desig-
nate teams of workers to tend to
the patients; and send coronavi-
rus test kits to a state lab for
expedited testing.
“A s we have been saying for
several weeks, older marylanders
and those with underlying health
conditions are more vulnerable
and at a significantly higher risk
of contracting, getting more se-
verely ill and dying from this
disease,” said Hogan, who, as
chair of the National Governors
Association, has represented
states’ top elected officials and
has also been one of the few
republicans to question Presi-
dent Trump’s statements about
the pandemic.
“ We will use every tool at our
disposal to protect the most vul-
nerable among us,” Hogan said.
Hogan’s order, elements of
which were mentioned by the
state’s deputy health secretary at
a friday news conference, re-
quires all staff in close contact
with residents to wear face
masks, gloves and gowns. The
facilities can request additional
equipment from the state. It also
mandates that the facilities send
coronavirus tests to the maryland
Public Health Laboratory, which
prioritizes evaluations for symp-
tomatic residents of such facili-
ties.
New data indicates the virus is
not slowing its march across the
region.
on Sunday, maryland an-
nounced its highest single-day in-
crease in confirmed cases at 484.
Prince George’s and Baltimorethe region from B1Hogan’s directive comes after severe outbreaks
BY HANNAH NATANSONLeilani margurite Jordan was
getting worried.
No one was showing up for the
early shift at the Giant supermar-
ket in Largo where she worked
part time. Because of the novel
coronavirus, the morning was
now set aside for the store’s elder-
ly customers: the women who
could barely walk on their own,
who never knew where things
were, whom she delighted in
guiding to the milk or the store
bathroom.
Jordan’s m other, Zenobia Shep-
herd, tried to explain the risks of
working. But she said Jordan,
who had a disability that caused
“cognitive delays,” impaired her
vision and left her reliant on a
service dog, probably did not fully
understand the potential dangers
of the coronavirus.
And her daughter’s desire to
help others, Shepherd said, wasoverpowering.
“She said, ‘mommy, I’m going
to work because no one else is
going to help the senior citizens
get their groceries,’ ” Shepherd
said. “She only stopped going to
work when she could no longer
breathe.”
After experiencing telltale
symptoms o f the coronavirus, Jor-
dan took a test and received posi-
tive results in late march. She was
admitted to the hospital and
placed on a ventilator a few days
later, her mother said. She died a
few hours after that, on Wednes-
day.She was 27.
Shepherd h eld Jordan — whom
she called “Butterfly,” for her
daughter’s love of butterflies — as
she died. As she watched the EKG
monitor flatline and overheard
the doctors pronounce Jordan
brain dead, Shepherd whispered
words into her daughter’s braids.
“I love you. mommy loves you.
Angel loves you,” Shepherd said,
referring to the service dog. “I will
miss you. Be strong.”
In t he days since, Shepherd has
lived on memories: How much
Jordan loved going to church.
How much Jordan loved singing.
How much Jordan loved her job
and helping customers, though
Shepherd hates to think of the
Giant now.
How much Jordan loved the
color purple and getting her hair
done — she preferred purple
braids — and looking pretty. And
feeling loved.
Shepherd keeps hearing the
sound of her daughter’s laughter,
she said.
But she’s busy, too — busy try-
ing to corral relatives, including
Jordan’s grandmother and five
siblings, and gather them at the
family home in Upper marlboro
for a funeral. Busy trying to find a
mortician. Busy trying to per-
suade a cemetery to accept Jor-
dan’s body.
Shepherd h as started an onlinefundraiser to help cover the ex-
penses, which she fears will be
substantial, but is determined to
pay.“my butterfly deserves to go
home like a warrior,” Shepherd
said, “a woman warrior that
fought for doing the right thing.”
Since Jordan’s d eath, Angel has
been acting oddly, Shepherd said.
The bond between Jordan and the
black-and-white Jack russell ter-
rier was strong; Jordan always
forged close relationships with
animals, which she loved to help.
Angel knows something is
wrong. She keeps running into
Jordan’s room, Shepherd said,
and leaping onto the bed.
She nestles among Jordan’s
blankets, all patterned with but-
terflies. She refuses to get down.
[email protected]MarylandMother mourns Giant worker, 27, killed by virus
Zenobia Shepherd
Leilani margurite Jordan, 2 7,
loved animals and had an
overpowering desire to help
others, her mother said.“She said, ‘Mommy, I’m
going to work because
no one else is going to
help the senior citizens
get their groceries.’ ”
Zenobia Shepherd,
on daughter Leilani Margurite JordanYo ur Best Option
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