Supervisors Lower County Flag to Honor COVID-19 Victims

A lone Loudoun County flag in Lansdowne will sit at half-staff today to honor the five Loudouners who have died from COVID-19.

County Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large), alongside Supervisors Juli Briskman (D-Algonkian), Mike Turner (D-Ashburn) and Kristen Umstattd (D-Leesburg), gathered at the Lansdowne Public Safety Center on Tuesday to lower the county flag in honor of the county’s coronavirus victims. Turner, the supervisor with the most service in the military, having served in the U.S. Air Force for more than two decades, did the honors of hoisting the flag to full-mast and then lowering it halfway.

Randall said the point of the ceremony was to humanize the coronavirus statistics.

“These are human beings,” she said of the virus’ victims. “I don’t want to lose that humanity. … People right in Loudoun County have lost their lives.”

Randall noted that while first responders signed up to help others knowing they might be placed in life-threatening situations, other essential employees, like grocery store workers, did not sign up for that.

Briskman pointed out that most of the COVID-19 victims in Loudoun were from her Algonkian District, specifically three in the Falcons Landing retirement community.

Umstattd said the county’s first responders are an inspiration and that she wished county leaders could do more for them. Turner echoed those thoughts.

“We’re here to honor them,” he said.

In Virginia, 154 people have died of the virus since Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency on March 12. As of Tuesday, Loudoun was the fifth most coronavirus-stricken county in the commonwealth, with 344 cases reported.

Randall said that Loudoun flags outside of all county buildings will be lowered to half-staff every Monday moving forward.

pszabo@loudounnow.com