First Watch temporarily closed in Rockville due to coronavirus pandemic

First Watch at Rockville Town Square has temporarily closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. CEO Chris Tomasso said it was a "difficult decision," but that he decided to close all of the chain's locations to protect employees from contracting covid-19. He also announced that First Watch employees will receive medical coverage and additional health benefits related to coronavirus. First Watch is located at 100-D Gibbs Street.

Maryland State Police shut down Flagship Car Wash in Rockville

Longtime car cleaning business

asks for customers' help

WJLA ABC7 reporter Kevin Lewis witnessed Maryland State Police drive up and blockade the Flagship Car Wash on Chapman Avenue near the Rockville Target store early Sunday afternoon. The company confirmed to Lewis that MSP officers had shut down four Flagship locations across Montgomery County Sunday. Flagship also has locations in the District and Virginia.

Flagship's owner told Lewis that the services her business was providing were compliant with a written directive from the state regarding which "essential" auto maintenance services could be offered during the statewide coronavirus shutdown. I can confirm this is true, because Flagship had announced way back on March 25 that they were limiting services in Rockville to exterior cleaning only,  with machine-operated automatics, self-service and vacuums to be open 24 hours. Exterior cleaning by employees was not even listed for the other two upcounty, just the automatic and self-serve options.

Later Sunday, Flagship asked its customers on Facebook to share the ABC7 story to support their business. MSP told Lewis that car washes are not an essential service, and that the Flagship location in MoCo should remain closed.

Car stolen in Rockville Town Center

A car was stolen in Rockville Town Center on April 15. According to crime data, the car was parked on the street on Courthouse Square when it was reported stolen around 8:11 PM that evening.

Masks mandatory on Ride On buses starting today

The Montgomery County Department of Transportation has mandated that all Ride On bus passengers must wear masks or face coverings starting today. Riders not in compliance will be asked not to board, or to disembark if they remove their mask while aboard. A similar rule will take effect statewide on Saturday, April 18, 2020.

Sneak peek: Watkins Mill interchange highway signs (Photos)

Well, look what I found up the road in Gaithersburg. The interstate-standard highway signs for the Watkins Mill interchange at I-270. Aside from Watkins Mill Road, the signs direct drivers to Montgomery Village, Seneca Creek State Park, NIST and the MARC station. Not shown, thanks to the Montgomery County Council defiantly refusing to build the master plan M-83 Highway, are directions to Germantown, Clarksburg and Damascus.

Metered on-ramps advancing for I-270 congestion

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, contractors for the Maryland State Highway Administration are pressing forward with Gov. Larry Hogan's congestion relief plan for Interstate 270. In contrast to the loud political arguments over Hogan's Express Lanes plan, his earlier modest upgrades to the highway have proceeded quietly. Now the signals and necessary electronics for another phase of the project - metered on-ramps - have been installed at many interchanges.

MD SHA contractors install a signal box
for a metered on-ramp system

The signals will act just as traffic lights do, turning red and stopping traffic entering the highway's southbound lanes from on-ramps. Traffic engineers hope they will be able to smooth out the inflow of cars that must merge with oncoming traffic in the through or local lanes. Sensors will be used, and on-ramps will be widened to two lanes if the lines become too long with a single queue.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan

Drivers have already noticed other small changes with large impacts. Some on-ramps now allow you to stay in the lane you came in on (such as the on-ramp from Sam Eig Highway), rather than fighting to merge and slowing traffic, such as the on-ramp from Democracy Boulevard northbound. Surprisingly, Hogan has not trumpeted each completed phase with press conferences. Only vague "New Traffic Pattern" electronic highway signs give any indication when each part of the project is put into use.

The project is still only 48% complete. It is scheduled to be finished next summer, so we won't know the full impact - if any - before then.

Where is the coronavirus in Montgomery County? Here are confirmed cases by ZIP code

Here is a list of coronavirus cases confirmed by the Maryland Department of Health across Montgomery County, listed by ZIP code.

What this list tells us:

The list gives a rough snapshot of the number of patients who were sick enough to seek medical attention, and who were given a test for coronavirus that came back positive, in a particular ZIP code. Because of the 14-day incubation period for the Covid-19 coronavirus, we're likely looking at what the situation was about two weeks ago in each ZIP code.

What this list doesn't tell us:

These numbers obviously don't tell us how many infected people were asymptomatic, and/or did not qualify to be tested, in each ZIP code. They are also not necessarily an accurate estimate of the overall health or safety of a particular community.

For example, there are quite a few nursing homes and facilities for the elderly in eastern Montgomery County, in places like Wheaton and Fairland. Nursing homes have been the biggest hot spots for coronavirus across Maryland and many other states, so this makes the numbers look worse than they are for the general public in those areas. By contrast, there are no nursing homes in the 20816 ZIP code, which has one of the lowest non-rural confirmed case totals.

The public needs and deserves more information than Montgomery County and Maryland have provided so far, which may have caused the virus to spread since many were unable to know if they had been exposed and should isolate, thanks to a lack of contact tracing information being released publicly by the county and state (think about how many times you've heard a public announcement that someone with measles shopped in a particular store, or traveled through an airport on a particular date - that didn't happen here with coronavirus).

But the ZIP code information does represent some data and information we didn't have prior to this week. So let's make use of it.

ZIP CODE (Towns/Cities in that ZIP Code): Number of coronavirus cases

20818 (Cabin John): 0
20817 (Bethesda/North Bethesda/Potomac/Cabin John/Huntington Terrace): 50
20816 (Westbard/Sumner/Westmoreland Hills/Spring Hill/Brookmont/Somerset/Glen Echo): 20
20815 (Chevy Chase): 50
20814 (Downtown Bethesda): 53
20812 (Glen Echo/Brookmont): 0

20832 (Olney): 24
20833 (Brookville): 0
20838 (Barnesville): 0
20839 (Beallsville): 0

20841 (Boyds): 17
20842 (Dickerson): 0

20850 (Rockville/North Potomac/Travilah): 44
20851 (Rockville/North Bethesda): 17
20852 (North Bethesda/South Rockville): 66
20853 (Rockville/Aspen Hill/Norbeck/Olney): 54
20854 (Darnestown/Travilah/Potomac/Rockville): 68
20855 (Derwood/Redland): 18

20866 (Burtonsville/Fairland): 26

20871 (Clarksburg): 20
20872 (Damascus): 11
20874 (Germantown): 74
20876 (Germantown/Clarksburg/Wildcat Forest): 45
20877 (Gaithersburg/Montgomery Village/Redland/Washington Grove): 61
20878 (Gaithersburg/N. Potomac/Darnestown): 58
20879 (Gaithersburg/Montgomery Village/Germantown): 35

20882 (Montgomery Village/Damascus/Laytonsville): 18
20886 (Montgomery Village): 45
20889 (Bethesda): 0

20892 (Bethesda): 0
20895 (Kensington/Garrett Park/Chevy Chase View): 31
20899 (Gaithersburg): 0

20901 (Silver Spring/Kemp Mill/WhiteOak): 81
20902 (Wheaton/Kemp Mill/Glenmont/Glenview): 135
20903 (Parts of Silver Spring/White Oak/Hillandale): 56
20904 (White Oak/Fairland/Calverton): 137
20905 (Colesville/Ashton/Sandy Spring): 21
20906 (Aspen Hill/Leisure World/Layhill): 126
20910 (Silver Spring/Takoma Park/S. Kensington): 92
20912 (Takoma Park): 44