Governor orders nightly curfew to start Monday

Amid rising COVID-19 rates in the state, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday he is ordering a midnight to 5 a.m. curfew, as well as limiting gatherings to 10 people, starting at 12:01 a.m. Monday.

The governor ordered that masks be worn at all times indoors around other people and at workplaces, as well as outdoors if you cannot maintain a six-foot distance from others. The restrictions will remain in place through Jan. 30, he said.

“It’s called ‘common sense,'” Northam said of the curfew, noting that his parents told him when he was young that “nothing good happens after midnight.”

Thursday’s announcement comes days after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued a stay-at-home order starting Friday, requiring a curfew of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for all North Carolina residents and businesses. Northam said Virginia chose a midnight curfew because the state already requires restaurants to close then.

Virginia’s governor said about 90% of Virginia businesses are complying with current rules, but others are not, primarily violating masking orders. So far, about 180 workplaces, including restaurants, have been cited for employees not wearing masks and for allowing gatherings at bars. “I can’t understand why anyone wants to flaunt these rules,” Northam said. “A handful of people still need to get the message.” He said enforcement would be “stepped up” but didn’t give specifics.

The new restrictions will not impact schools’ in-person learning, he said. As for houses of worship, Northam asked religious leaders to consider “setting an example” for their congregations by moving worship services online and by wearing masks but did not place further restrictions. He noted that a lot of community spread in Virginia is stemming from churches that don’t observe COVID precautions but that the state would not place restrictions on houses of worship after the U.S. Supreme Court’s temporary ruling that New York’s limits on attendance at places of worship could not be enforced.

Virginia remains on the lower end of the nation’s COVID infection rates, but it nonetheless has seen a significant increase in cases since Thanksgiving.

As of Dec. 6, the most recent date available on the Virginia Department of Health’s dashboard, the state’s seven-day positivity rate is 11%, matching the rate in late May, when testing was less available. The number of new daily cases in Virginia hit 4,395 Tuesday, a one-day record for the state, and Wednesday’s daily total was 3,915, the second-highest one-day tally. Currently, the state’s seven-day average of new daily cases is 3,791, or 44.5 new cases per 100,000 people.

Also, there are 2,051 people in Virginia hospitalized with confirmed cases of COVID-19 or with test results pending, according to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association. ICU occupancy is at 78% for both virus and non-virus patients, and 30% of all ventilators are currently in use, the VHHA reported.

The number of deaths also has risen, with an average of 27 deaths per day in Virginia during the past seven days. As of Dec. 10, the state has reported 271,043 total cases and 4,335 total deaths.

State Senate Republicans said in a statement that a statewide curfew “smacks of martial law. Contrary to the governor’s assertion, the curfew is neither common nor sensible. It also is wholly unnecessary.” Republicans argued that the new restrictions come as the state’s Parole Board is “liberally granting ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ cards to convicted murderers,” a reference to the state’s release of several hundred inmates during the pandemic. According to the state Department of Corrections, convicted murderers can be released, but notes that “by legislative mandate, early release does not apply to inmates convicted of a Class 1 felony or a sexually violent offense.”

Northam issued an order before Thanksgiving requiring gatherings to be limited to 25 people and that everyone ages 5 and older wear a mask in public, indoor spaces. He also ordered restaurants and bars to stop serving alcohol after 10 p.m. However, COVID cases continued to spike in the commonwealth, with most cases occurring as family members and small groups continued to socialize indoors while unmasked, state officials said.

Nationwide, the number of cases has exceeded 15.4 million, with 218,667 new cases reported Wednesday and 3,055 deaths recorded that day. More than 106,000 people were hospitalized Wednesday. Virginia is in the bottom five of the 48 contiguous states in terms of COVID infections, with only Washington, Oregon, Maine and Vermont showing better results. However, as Northam has noted in recent weeks, the Southwestern region of the state has seen surges as neighbors Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia have reported COVID spikes.

Northam said hospital staffing is the largest problem in Virginia, rather than number of beds, and health care workers are “exhausted,” he said. The governor introduced Emily, a nurse from Ballad Health, during the news conference, who spoke on video about the patients she sees in the ICU, many of whom are dying, she said. “I can’t tell you how many patients we’ve had who contracted it during a ball game or a family affair.” She concluded by asking people to wear masks to save lives. Northam did not disclose the nurse’s last name.

Ballad Health, based in eastern Tennessee and serving many communities in Southwest Virginia, has suspended all elective surgeries indefinitely as its system is stressed by the increasing number of COVID patients. Hospitals in eastern Tennessee are now using two refrigerated morgue trucks due to the rise in COVID-related deaths, Ballad reported recently.

Northam also read from a Facebook post by Hillsville Mayor Greg Crowder, who is ill with the virus and said he is experiencing muscle and joint pain, high fever and low oxygen levels. Crowder said the experience is “awful” and asked his constituents to take the coronavirus seriously.

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