COVID-19 pandemic in Virginia
The COVID-19 pandemic in Virginia is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The first confirmed case was reported on March 7, 2020. As of July 21, 2020, there have been 79,371 cases and 2,048 deaths reported in the U.S. state of Virginia. On July 1, 2020, Virginia has moved to phase three of the reopening plan "Forward Virginia" presented by the Governor's office.
Timeline
March
March 7–12
On March 7, Virginia confirmed its first case, a US Marine assigned to Fort Belvoir. He had recently traveled abroad. On March 8, the state reported its second presumptive positive case, an 80-year-old man from Fairfax who had recently returned from a cruise on the Nile River.On March 9, the state reported 3 more presumptive positive cases: a man in his mid 60s from Arlington County who had recently travelled internationally, a woman from Fairfax City who is the spouse of the patient reported the day before, and a Spotsylvania County resident. This brings the total number of cases in the state to 5. On March 10, health officials in Loudoun County announced that a county resident tested presumptive positive for coronavirus. During the same day, a Virginia Beach couple who traveled on a Nile River cruise was tested presumed positive, becoming the first two cases for Hampton Roads, bringing the state's total to eight.
On March 10, Fairfax County Public Schools announced that they would close on March 13 and March 16 to begin the transition to online classes if the school system would need to shut down. On March 15, it was announced that all schools and school administration buildings in Fairfax County would close until April 10.
On March 11, the University of Virginia in Charlottesville announced that classes will be moved online beginning on March 19 "for the foreseeable future, quite possibly through the end of the semester." Furthermore, administrators issued a blanket prohibition on "events with more than 100 people," saying that such events "should be postponed, cancelled, or offered virtually." The closure followed closely on the heels of the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Central Virginia in a teenager from Hanover County near Richmond who returned from international travel "to a country... a Level 3 alert" on March 8. The teenager was reported to be "doing well" in isolation at home, and Hanover County Public Schools confirmed that the teenager is not a current student attending a public school in that county.
On March 12, Governor Ralph S. Northam declared a state of emergency and cancelled out-of-state travel for public employees, after the state's total cases doubled since the last update. The declaration activated the Virginia Emergency Operations Center, banned price gouging, activated the Virginia National Guard to State Active duty, and authorized $10,000,000 to be used for any recovery and/or response efforts in the state due to the coronavirus. Northam stated that local school districts were allowed to make their own decisions about closing schools. Several public school districts, including Loudoun County, Prince William County, Stafford County, and Fairfax County suspended classes.
March 13–16
Several jurisdictions declared local states of emergency throughout March. The Code of Virginia permits officials of local jurisdictions that have issued declarations of local emergencies to, among other things, "control, restrict, allocate or regulate the use, sale, production and distribution of food, fuel, clothing and other commodities, materials, goods, services and resource systems which fall only within the boundaries of that jurisdiction and which do not impact systems affecting adjoining or other political subdivisions" without being under the supervision and control of the Governor. Local emergencies were declared in Arlington County and Madison County on March 13; Alexandria and Stephens City on March 14; Prince William County, Loudoun County, Fauquier County, Stafford County, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, and Purcellville on March 16.On March 13, the state's total cases increased by 13, raising the total sum of confirmed cases to 30. Governor Ralph Northam suspended all K–12 schools in the state for a minimum of two weeks.
On the evening of March 14, the Virginia Department of Health announced the number of positive cases had increased to 41. They also announced the state's first death from the coronavirus: a man in his 70s who died of respiratory failure. The county where the man died was not released, but it was announced he was from the Peninsula Health District. The same day, the College of William & Mary announced that a member of staff had tested positive for the disease.
On March 15, Virginia Department of Health announced the number of positive cases had increased to 45, Fairfax County has the most cases among Virginia's counties with 10 confirmed cases.
On March 16, the University of Virginia confirmed its first case, a member of staff in her late 50s. The Virginia Department of Health announced an additional six positive cases of coronavirus in the state, as well as the state's second death. The man who died was in his 70s from the Peninsula region and died of respiratory failure.
These cases increased the number of positive cases to 51.
March 17–22
Local emergencies were declared in Fairfax County, Rappahannock County, Spotsylvania County, Clarke County, Culpeper County, Warren County, Page County, Shenandoah County, the City of Fairfax, Manassas City, and Winchester on March 17; Leesburg on March 18; and Frederick County on March 19.During the afternoon of March 17, Governor Northam issued an order allowing law enforcement to enforce a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people in public spaces; earlier in the day, he had appeared unwilling to take such measures. Some restaurant owners had previously expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of direction provided by the government.
On March 19, Virginia officials asked law enforcement to avoid arrests where possible. The administration also asked magistrates and judges to consider alternatives to incarceration. On March 19, Virginia reported its first coronavirus case in a minor, a child under the age of 10 in Gloucester County.
On March 20, Governor Northam activated the Virginia National Guard and elements of the Virginia Defense Force. The state announced they have 114 cases of COVID-19, with 20 hospitalizations.
March 23
On March 23, Northam issued an order that banned within Virginia all gatherings of more than 10 people. The order required all public schools to be closed for the remainder of the current school year. The order also closed all public access to recreational and entertainment businesses, such as bowling alleys, gyms, and theaters.The March 23 order closed "dining and congregation areas" in restaurants, dining establishments, food courts, farmers markets, breweries, microbreweries, distilleries, wineries and tasting rooms, but left open all other areas in those types of businesses. The order also left open certain specified "essential retail businesses" including pharmacies, grocery stores, and banks. On March 26, an Alexandria pub — that a COVID-19 positive person had visited on March 10, March 14, and March 15 — reportedly said on its Facebook page that it was closed only through March 28 for cleaning and sanitizing.
The March 23 order stated that all "essential" retail establishments must, to the extent possible, adhere to social distancing recommendations, enhanced sanitizing practices on common surfaces, and other appropriate workplace guidance from state and federal authorities. The order also stated that any brick-and-mortar retail business not listed in the order as "essential" must limit all in-person shopping to no more than 10 patrons per establishment, adhere to social distancing recommendations, sanitize common surfaces, and apply relevant workplace guidance from state and federal authorities. The order stated that if any such business cannot adhere to the 10-patron limit with proper social distancing requirements, it must close.
Northam's March 23 order did not define construction activity as being "essential". However, the Washington Post reported on March 28 that the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia had designated construction as well as several other types of businesses as essential. The Post reported that construction projects were still underway in those jurisdictions and that a spokesperson for Northam had claimed that the federal government had determined that construction is essential. The Post also reported that the State of Washington's transportation department had suspended work on nearly all of its projects and that Washington's governor had clarified his stay-at-home order to state that construction was not considered an essential activity.
On March 23, Governor Northam closed all public and private schools until the end of the academic year. Jerry Falwell, Jr. announced that Liberty University was reopening its dorms to students who wished to return to campus from spring break even though classes were being taught online. University staff and faculty have also been told to report to work. Both decisions remain controversial.
A local emergenciy was declared in Front Royal on March 23.
March 24–31
On March 25, Northam and the State Health Commissioner issued a public health emergency order that prohibited inpatient and outpatient surgical hospitals, free-standing endoscopy centers, physicians' offices, and dental, orthodontic, and endodontic offices from providing procedures and surgeries that require personal protective equipment, which if delayed, are not anticipated to cause harm to the patient by negatively affecting the patient's health outcomes, or leading to disability or death. The prohibition did not include outpatient visits delivered in hospital-based clinics.The United States Department of Homeland Security's March 28 guidance on essential critical infrastructure lists as "essential" the construction of residential/shelter facilities and services, energy-related facilities, communications and information technology, public works including the construction of critical or strategic infrastructure and infrastructure that is temporarily required to support COVID-19 response, is for certain other types of community- or government-based operations, or is otherwise critical, strategic, or essential. The guidance does not contain any such listings for other types of construction.
During the afternoon of March 30, Governor Northam issued a stay-at-home order, to be effective until June 10 unless amended or rescinded by a further executive order. The order required everyone to remain at their place of residence, with certain specified exceptions. Maryland's Governor Larry Hogan and the District of Columbia's Mayor Muriel Bowser issued similar orders on the same day.
April
On Friday April 3, Governor Northam announced that the Dulles Expo Center will be the interim site of the first field hospital in Northern Virginia. A total of three field hospitals are expected to open throughout the Commonwealth. The Dulles Expo site is expected to be operational by mid-May.On April 10, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle reported that Virginia had not implemented a closure of non-essential services. The Institute further reported that Maryland and the District of Columbia had implemented these closures on March 23 and March 25, respectively.
On Monday April 13, Reuters reported that 42 of the 154 COVID-19 deaths in Virginia occurred at the Canterbury Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center in Henrico County, a nursing home located near Richmond. The outbreak is one of the worst coronavirus disease clusters in the United States.
On April 15, the March 13 order, which would initially expire on April 23, was extended to end on May 8. The order for all residents to stay-at-home until June 10 was still in place.
On April 16, demonstrators gathered in Richmond's Capitol Square in front of the Executive Mansion to protest Northam's closure and stay at home orders. On April 24, Northam presented a four-staged "Forward Virginia" blueprint informed by "diverse health and business stakeholders" to "safely" ease public health restrictions related to the spread of COVID-19.
May–July
Phase I of Virginia's reopening began on May 15 for most of the state. Phase I was delayed until May 29 in Northern Virginia, as well as Richmond and Accomack County.All of Virginia entered Phase II on June 12, and Phase III on July 1.
On July 15, the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry adopted binding safety regulations on COVID-19, the first such regulations in the United States. The regulations include mandates about control measures and prohibits retaliation against workers for expressing concern about infection risk, and provides for fines of up to US$130,000 for companies found in violation.
On July 28, additional restrictions were imposed on restaurants and bars in the Hampton Roads area of southeastern Virginia. The restrictions were expected to be in force for 2–3 weeks before being reevaluated.
Projections
A number of organizations have produced models that project the trajectory of the coronavirus outbreak. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle has constructed one of these. Penn Medicine, a consortium of the Perelman School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia, has constructed another, the COVID-19 Hospital Impact Model for Epidemics. Among other things, the two models differ in the methods by which they calculate the effectiveness of social distancing in reducing the number of new COVID-19 infections.As of April 6, the CHIME was projecting that the peak hospital impact of the COVID-19 outbreak would occur in Northern Virginia at the end of June. On April 24, the IHME projected that Virginia's hospital resource use and numbers of deaths per day due to COVID-19 had reached their peaks.
Criticism
On May 22, the Washington Post published an article that Mark J. Rozell, the dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government of Virginia's George Mason University, had authored. Rozell wrote that Governor Northam had "shambled" through Virginia's response to the pandemic. Rozell noted that Northam appeared to be ignoring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines for re-opening the economy, thus acting in accordance with President Donald Trump's positions on the subject.On May 30, the Washington Post reported that many Republicans, business leaders, and some progressive Democrats were complaining that Northam was moving too slowly to reopen Virginia, while moderate Democrats and minority groups were complaining that he was moving too quickly. The Post noted that national media were pointing out that Virginia's coronavirus testing program had fallen behind those of most other states. Further, despite that well-publicized failure, Northam was permitting all nonessential retail businesses in Virginia to remain open if they could maintain social distancing, while Maryland's Governor Larry Hogan had closed all such businesses. The Post additionally reported that a Republican state senator, William M. Stanley Jr., had categorized Northam's response to the pandemic as being “utter mismanagement.”
Impact on sports
In college sports, the National Collegiate Athletic Association cancelled all winter and spring tournaments, most notably the Division I men's and women's basketball tournaments, affecting colleges and universities statewide. On March 16, the National Junior College Athletic Association also canceled the remainder of the winter seasons as well as the spring seasons.On March 17, it was announced that the Virginia Gold Cup, scheduled for May 2, would be postponed to June 20.