John A. Wilson Building

1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004

Phone: (202) 727-2643
Email: muriel.bowser@dc.gov

Chief of Staff:
John Falcicchio

City Administrator:
Rashad Young

Director of the Mayor's Office of Legal Counsel:
Ronald R. Ross

Senior Advisor:
Beverly Perry

Director of Mayor's Office of Community Affairs:
Lamont Akins

Director of Mayor's Office of Community Relations and Services:
Julia Irving

Scheduling Requests:
mayor.dc.gov/page/invite-mayor

May 1, 2020

Dear Washingtonians,

It's official: residents interested in joining DC's Contact Trace Force can now apply at careers.dc.gov.

Part of beating this virus is knowing who has it and who has been exposed to it. So, as Washingtonians continue to save lives by staying home, we continue to expand access to testing as well as our ability to contact residents who may have been exposed to COVID-19.

As a reminder, free COVID-19 testing is available to Washingtonians and the testing hotline can be reached at 1-855-363-0333. Also, last week, the CDC expanded the list of COVID-19 symptoms. If you notice you don't feel right, even if your symptom isn't on the list, we need you to reach out to your doctor or call the testing hotline.

This week, we expanded our testing priority groups to include asymptomatic essential workers with a history of exposure to a person who has tested positive for COVID-19. This includes our grocery store workers, our essential government employees, and other workers who are still reporting to jobs in the community. We are very grateful for all that these workers are doing to keep our essential businesses and services open and accessible during this public health emergency, and taking this step is one more way we can help keep workers safe.

I was also proud this week to announce two monumental agreements to build two new state-of-the-art hospitals that will help us build a healthier and more equitable DC:

a 136-bed hospital at St. Elizabeths East in Ward 8; and
a 225-bed Howard University Hospital in Ward 1.

Together, we will meet the needs of all residents, attack health disparities, and become more resilient for the challenges that lie ahead.

Finally, we want your thoughts and ideas on how to reopen DC when our public health leaders tell us it is safe to do so. Please go to coronavirus.dc.gov/reopendc and take our ReOpenDC survey. You can also share your ideas by calling 202-442-4755.

Let's keep working together to save lives and beat this virus. By everyone doing their part, we will get through this together.

Sincerely,