As the governors of Maryland and Virginia announce their intentions to reopen their states within the next two weeks, an increasing number of local counties say they’re not ready to make a move quite yet.

D.C.-area leaders have attempted to coordinate their responses to the coronavirus pandemic with the states, but their plans diverged late last week with each governor proposing timelines that were viewed as out of step with the D.C.-area region.

“It is far more relevant to us with what’s happening in Bethesda, Northwest D.C., Southwest D.C., and Prince George’s County than what’s happening in Danville, Virginia Beach, or Roanoke,” says Alexandria City Mayor Justin Wilson.

In the last few days, officials from Montgomery and Prince George’s counties have been stating publicly that they are not on the same timeline as the rest of Maryland, despite Governor Larry Hogan’s reported plans to go to a Phase One reopening this week.

Montgomery County executive Marc Elrich told reporters that, until the entire region is ready to reopen, “it is not prudent for any one of us to open.”

And, on Sunday, Northern Virginia leaders sent a letter urging Governor Ralph Northam to allow them to delay reopening regionally from the scheduled date of May 15. (May 15 begins what the governor deemed the “Forward Virginia” plan. It allows for retail establishments to operate at 50 percent occupancy, restaurant and beverage establishments to outdoor seating at 50 percent occupancy, fitness centers providing exercise services, and personal grooming services to service one patron at a time.)

“While it is certainly useful to examine statewide metrics as we gauge the success of current public health policies, we feel strongly that any changes to current policies be guided by what is occurring in our region,” the leaders of Arlington County, City of Alexandria, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County wrote in the letter.

Arlington County Board Chair Libby Garvey, who signed the letter, told DCist/WAMU that “we absolutely agree” with Northam’s metrics and plan for Phase One, but thinks her county isn’t in the same place as the rest of Virginia.

Jurisdictions in Northern Virginia have been some of the hardest hit by the coronavirus. Of the 20 ZIP codes in the commonwealth with the most infections, the majority are in Northern Virginia, new data show.

One of the metrics Northam cited in his decision to begin reopening the economy was a declining rate of positive test results as a percentage of the total tests conducted. That rate has declined from an average of 22% in late April to around 16%. But according to an analysis from Northern Virginia’s public health officials, that figure was still 27% in Northern Virginia, as of May 4.

On the whole, Virginia has not achieved all the metrics the governor set to guide reopening, which include sustained declines in positive cases and adequate testing. Virginia continues to fall short of Northam’s goal to test 10,000 people every day.

Elrich expressed similar concerns about reopening too soon in a Zoom call with reporters, per WTOP. (In Maryland, beaches and golf courses are now open and elective surgeries are now allowed. According to April 24th’s Road to Recovery plan, phase one calls for a transition to a voluntary “Safer-At-Home” order, some small businesses to reopen, allowing religious gatherings to happen outdoors with limited attendance, and car washes to open.)

“We’re not the western part of the state or parts of the Eastern Shore,” said Elrich, “We have a caseload which is still growing. We’re looking forward to what the governor has to say next week, but I can assure you that, until our health officer thinks that it’s safe to open, we will not be opening some of these things.”

Montgomery County’s case count — 6,909 — is second only to Prince George’s County, where county executive Angela Alsobrooks also announced on Friday that she does not plan to reopen on Hogan’s timeline. Her county had 9,687 coronavirus cases as of Monday. They are the two most populous counties in the state.

“We’re going to do what’s best for Prince Georgians,” Alsobrooks said on Friday, adding that “the governor assured me that he would work with us.”

Meanwhile, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has held firm that her city is also not ready to reopen. Her stay-at-home order is set to expire this Friday, but Bowser administration officials have indicated D.C. may not reopen until at the earliest June, if not later in the summer.

While Maryland and Virginia both have exurban and rural portions, D.C. does not. Each governor’s office has shown they agree, at least in part, that the D.C.-area is distinct from other parts of their state and may be under a different timeline.

After Alsobrooks’ comments late last week, Hogan spokesperson Mike Ricci said in a statement that Hogan’s office would work with county governments to up testing capacity and that his reopening plan encourages local leaders to do what’s best for their residents “especially in areas with high concentrations of cases.”

Northam noted this last week, as well. “We realize that the Greater Washington area is an area that we need to pay particular attention to,” he said. “We’ve also been talking to local leaders in places like Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax County. As we get closer, if they have concerns and want to raise that floor for another week or whatever they think is necessary, we’ll work with them on that.” At Monday’s press conference, he repeated this pledge and said he would share a separate plan for Northern Virginia’s reopening later in the week.

Wilson also said that Northam actually requested the letter from the Northern Virginia leaders once they had data from their own public health officials.

As for timelines regionally, both Wilson and Garvey said that they plan to coordinate with other local jurisdictions to make sure they are all roughly on the same path forward.

Wilson says that they are still perhaps several weeks from hitting the metrics that Governor Northam laid out. “We are probably another two weeks [from May 15] from meeting those milestones and would be comfortable moving into Phase One. So, probably the end of the month.”

While Garvey declined to give a timeline, she did say that it would be the parks and outdoor space that would be the first to reopen in the county. “Gradually, at first,” says Garvey. “We are all moving as fast as we safely can.”

This story has been updated with information from Northam’s Monday press briefing and more up-to-date information on Virginia’s positive test rate.