The Washington Post - 27.03.2020

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FRIDAy, MARCH 27 , 2020. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/REGIONAL eZ sU B

THE REGION

the UsdA is waiving its

policy requiring students

to come in-person to pick

up their free meals. B5

THE DISTRICT

d.C. jail officials isolate

36 inmates after the jail’s

first inmate tests positive

for the coronavirus. B4

OBITUARIES

richard reeves, 83,

chronicled the nation’s

history and politics for

55 ° 64 ° 68 ° 64 ° over half a century. B7

8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.

High today at

approx. 5 p.m.

71

°

Precip: 40%

Wind: NNW

6-12 mph

BY ANTONIO OLIVO,

FENIT NIRAPPIL

AND LAURA VOZZELLA

At least 102,000 D.C.-area resi-

dents have lost their jobs amid

the coronavirus-related shut-

downs, a worrisome glimpse of

the economic damage being

wrought as the area’s caseload

continues to surge.

nearly 42,000 people in Mary-

land filed unemployment claims

last week, an 11-fold increase

from the previous week, Labor

Department figures released

Thursday showed. In Virginia,

nearly 47,000 were newly unem-

ployed last week, 17 times more

than the week before. The Dis-

trict, which had more recent fig-

ures available, said its claims

have gone up 18-fold during the

past two weeks, to nearly 25,000.

The data mirrors a spike in

jobless claims nationwide as res-

taurants, movie theaters and oth-

er businesses are closed by gov-

ernment officials desperate to

contain the virus.

“ This battle is going to be

much harder, take much longer,

and be much worse than almost

anyone comprehends,” Maryland

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said on

social media after his state re-

ported 157 new cases of infection

— another record single-day tally

that more than doubled Mary-

land’s previous record on

Wednesday.

The region had 1,313 known

cases of infection, with 22 deaths,

as of Thursday evening. Mary-

land’s total was 581. Virginia re-

ported 69 new cases of covid-19,

the disease caused by the virus,

for a total of 461. The District

reported 36 new cases, for a total

of 271.

see regIon on b2

Jobless

claims

spike in

region

MORE thaN 100,000

PEOPLE LOSt wORK

Data mirrors economic

fallout nationwide

BY JENNA PORTNOY

AND FENIT NIRAPPIL

sen. Chris Van Hollen said
Thursday that the coronavirus re-
lief package expected to pass the
House of Representatives on Fri-
day deliberately classified the Dis-
trict as a territory instead of a
state, which m eans t he city will get
less than half of the funding i t was
expecting.

Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he

doesn’t know how the District got

lumped in w ith five U.s. t erritories

— t he city is almost a lways treated

like a full-fledged state by the fed-

eral government when it comes to

grants, highway funding, educa-

tion dollars and food assistance.

He s aid h e would try to ensure the

District receives the money it be-

lieves it was due retroactively, as

well as in a future relief package.

“I was enraged by the fact that

the D istrict of Columbia was going

to be shortchanged,” Van Hollen

said in an interview. “ I immediate-

ly talked to senator [Charles e.]

schumer about it and was told

that the Republicans had insisted

on the formula the way it was in

the b ill.”

Asked why the District is not

treated like a state in the bill, a

spokesman for sen. Charles e.

Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of

the senate Finance Committee,

said: “Because Washington, D.C.,

is not a state. one can debate

whether or not it should be, but

that’s a separate discussion.”

The spokesman, Michael Zona,

noted that although some Demo-

cratic senators objected t o the D.C.

funding formula, the 6 00-page re-

lief bill passed the senate unani-

mously.

“no one was trying to ‘short-

change’ any particular jurisdic-

tion,” he said in a statement. “It’s

unfortunate that some voices are

attempting to inject partisanship

into a bipartisan desire to provide

broad relief during a pandemic.”

But D .C. officials and advocates,

who are accustomed to Republi-

cans targeting the city over social

issues such as guns, marijuana

and abortion, said denying the

District money to fight a public

health crisis t akes political games-

manship to a new level.

see bIll on b6

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

D.C. was intentionally classified as territory in virus-aid bill, lawmakers say

Package is set to give t he

city less than half of the

funding it w as expecting

across t he park, his h air twists

barely k eeping pace with his

moves.

now, h is new coronavirus

world has c losed in on h im, and

he’s b een reduced t o a hotel room

that measures a bout 323 square

feet. He’s bored. And he feels

more homeless than ever, his

mom told me.

“We’re all i n each o ther’s s pace,

all the t ime,” 3 3-year-old

Te mpestt s ullivan said. s he tells

him t he h otel is a “vacation.” A n

eight-month v acation.

“The schools, t he people here

did a really good j ob giving us

supplies a nd a ctivities for t hem,”

sullivan said. “ But there’s j ust

see dVoraK on b3

The moment he
stepped o ut o f that
tiny confining
space e very
morning used to
be the moment
that changed
everything.
once he g ot
outside, he w asn’t a 7-year-old kid
experiencing homelessness, a kid
crammed into a hotel with more
than 100 other families with no
place t o call h ome.
once he l eft that place, Joaquin
was j ust another D.C. first-grader
with chubby cheeks who is good
at a ddition and subtraction. He
was Iron Man on the playground,
leaping a nd jumping and flying

Homeless child’s world

is reduced to a hotel room

Petula
Dvorak

BY FREDRICK KUNKLE

I

t was a Friday when Chris

McCormick halted produc-

tion at his Maryland compa-

ny a nd furloughed its 23 em-

ployees as the novel corona-

virus spread across the country,

sickening thousands of people

and shuttering businesses of all

kinds.

McCormick had hoped Hatch

exhibits — which makes colorful

displays and pop-up exhibition

booths for clients such as You-

Tube, Under Armour and Google

— could ride out the crisis with

the income expected to come in

with one or two big jobs on the

books. But the outbreak killed

those projects, contributing to

losses that had run into the mil-

lions of dollars.

By Monday, however, McCor-

mick and some of his people were

back at work. They had effected a

dramatic turnaround, designing

and producing medical gowns

and masks with the same type of

materials and techniques he had

used to make banners and graph-

ic displays. now the elkridge-

based firm can hardly keep up

with the nation’s frantic demand.

“Hope and purpose — that’s

what we’ve got,” McCormick, of

Pasadena, said. “We have some-

thing do — we’re not sitting here

waiting for other people to act. We

get to act. But it’s tough, man.”

McCormick, 47, who studied

watercolor painting and sculp-

ture in college before he and his

see repurpose on b5

Firm closed by virus reopens to fight it

Hatch Exhibits made displays for events. Now it’s making face shields and gowns for health workers.

PHotos by toni L. sAndys/tHe WAsHington Post

tracy McCormick, co-owner of Hatch exhibits in elkridge, helps employee Morgan Frailey test a prototype of a face shield tuesday.

Morgan Frailey works on sewing a protective gown. “Hope and

purpose — that’s what we’ve got,” co-owner Chris McCormick said.

BY PATRICIA SULLIVAN

Getting tested for the corona-

virus is not like getting a flu shot.

People who are seeking a corona-

virus test have to have a doctor’s

referral and then have to pass the

screening put in place by the

hospital or clinic that’s doing the

testing.

showing up without a note

from a physician or the local or

state health department will not

only result in disappointment, it

may also delay or prevent testing

for first responders, health work-

ers and people at a high risk for

death from the virus, medical

authorities warn.

People being tested should

also be aware that it takes from

three to seven days to get results,

which come from state- or pri-

vately run laboratories. Thus,

new cases announced on a

Wednesday, for example, proba-

bly came from tests taken a week

earlier.

If you do have such a note, here

is the latest list of known s ites in

the region where coronavirus

sample collection or testing is

underway:

the district

l Children’s national Hospital

has testing for children only in a

drive-up and walk-up facility on

the campus of Trinity Washing-

ton University.

A referral from a pediatrician

is required, and tests are done

three days per week, depending

on the weather. Joelle simpson,

medical director of emergency

preparedness at Children’s, said

that’s to avoid contamination of

the samples in case of rain.

l A drive-through test site on

the campus of United Medical

Center, the city’s only public hos-

pital, will open by late next week

and will be able to test up to 300

patients per day, the District’s

health department said.

l Kaiser Permanente’s D.C.

clinic, which is located near the

Kaiser Permanente Capitol Hill

Medical Center, offers drive-up

and walk-up testing. The sites are

open for testing from 9 a.m. to

5 p.m., seven days a week.

The site — as well as Kaiser

sites i n the suburbs (see b elow) —

requires a doctor’s order and

appointment for the test.

l George Washington Univer-

sity Hospital in the District’s

Foggy Bottom neighborhood

erected a tent to test coronavirus

see testIng on b3

Coronavirus tests still not easily available in area

More sites are operating,

but most require doctor’s

referral and appointment

KAtHerine Frey/tHe WAsHington Post

a virus test kit at a Kaiser

permanente drive-through site.