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Tag: coronavirus

Calling the shots

When the COVID-19 crisis began in early 2020, Dr. Danny Avula was the joint director of the Henrico County and Richmond health departments, a big job placing him in charge of public health for more than 560,000 residents. However, in early January, the scope of Avula’s responsibilities widened considerably after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam tapped him to become the state’s vaccine coordinator — a position Avula says brought “a level of intensity that I’ve never experienced.”

Avula has dealt calmly with the pressure and achieved solid results. Initially, Virginia was one of the poorest-performing states for vaccine administration, at one point ranking worst in the nation. But, by early February, the commonwealth rose into the top 10 states for the percentage of available vaccine doses administered.   

The state launched an online vaccine registration system and phone hotline in February. Like other states, Virginia prioritized vaccinations of people at higher risk for serious illness or death from coronavirus, including health care workers, nursing home residents and older adults. But by late May, any Virginian who wants a vaccination should be able to receive one, Avula forecasts.

Speaking with Virginia Business in early March after a month and a half as state vaccine coordinator, the pressure was still on, but the doctor could see a light at the end of the tunnel.

A University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine alumnus, Avula has served as Richmond and Henrico health director since 2009. He and his wife, Mary Kay, a kindergarten teacher for Richmond Public Schools, have five children and live in the city. Avula says he will be happy to return to his regular job after laboring in the media spotlight — noting that working with his colleagues and in the communities he serves “is a huge part of what drives my work-life satisfaction.” 

Virginia Business: When did you first think COVID was going to really affect people’s lives in Virginia?

A University of Virginia and VCU School of Medicine alum, Avula is married to a Richmond Public Schools kindergarten teacher. The couple have five children, ages 9 to 20. Photo by Caroline Martin

Dr. Danny Avula: The turning point was watching the speed of spread in Italy and Iran [in February 2020]. We started to see the headlines out of Italy, the severe numbers of hospitalization, just the rapid spread. I think that was the moment where this felt like a different kind of emerging global threat. We’ve lived through a bunch in the last decade: Zika and Ebola in 2014 and H1N1 in 2009, and even mutations or variants of COVID. We’ve seen these things emerge, but because of the different characteristics, the viruses have largely been either quickly identified or quickly contained — whereas this one was totally different. It felt like, “OK, this is going to be a real threat for the United States.”

VB: Have you had any personal encounters with COVID? Has anyone close to you had it?

Avula: Yes. For sure. My uncle died of COVID in India, and then one of my best friends’ fathers who I grew up around the dinner table with, he passed away early on. I think back in April, we all joined for my first Zoom funeral. Then my dad actually had COVID, although he recovered pretty well without much significant impact at all.

VB: You have several children at home. How have they adjusted to remote schooling?

Avula: I would say the kids have actually been great for the most part. My 20-year-old, it’s been a harder hit just because they had to limit social connection. We’ve got five [kids], who are 9, 11, 12, 14 and 20. We, from the beginning of this, had two families that were our quarantine bubble, and they live right in our neighborhood. They’re our best friends. The men in those families were my roommates in college.

If you asked any of my kids, they’re like, “Yes, virtual school is great,” because they don’t have to do as much work, it feels easier, it’s less time, and then they just have the afternoon to go hang out with their best friends.

I would say they’re clearly not getting a great education. I don’t think the virtual format translates well for younger kids, and then I’ll say my wife has had the hardest time. She’s a kindergarten teacher in the city, and so trying to engage kindergartners through the virtual platform has just been extraordinarily difficult.

VB: You were named state vaccine coordinator more than three weeks after the first Virginian was vaccinated for COVID. What do you think would have happened if the governor had decided to create that position a couple of months ahead of the vaccinations?

Avula: It’s impossible to know. I just think that at every step of this response, there had to be a combination of looking back and asking, “What are we learning from what we’ve done?”

[It’s] about being in the present and constantly having to generate new responses. At each turn, there [was] a new, unexpected unknown, and then trying to be able to pull yourself out of that and look forward and say, “OK, what do we need to be anticipating and planning for down the road?” I will say more than half the time, we had no idea. Nobody could have predicted the degree to which our understanding of COVID would change — the degree to which we went from thinking this was highly spread through contact to the fact that contact’s really not that big a deal. It’s really about respiratory spread.

You remember the early messaging in March and April [2020]: “Don’t really worry about masks. Let’s keep the masks for health care personnel.” Then by the end of April, we were saying, “OK, actually, masks are going to be the most important thing we can do to stem the spread of this disease.” I think it’s really hard to know what we could have anticipated differently. Right now, I would say the work around [COVID] variants falls into that category.

VB: How did the state government determine that retail pharmacies were best positioned to focus on vaccinating people ages 65 and older?

Avula: Really, the data. When the Federal Retail Pharmacy [Program] came in, the entire state was in [Phase] 1b. [Editor’s note: Phase 1b includes frontline essential workers, people over 65, people under 65 with certain health conditions and correctional facility inmates.] [We had] gotten through the very high-risk 1a [group] — long-term care facilities, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and health care workers. No matter how you slice the data, age really is the risk factor that most skews towards hospitalization and death.

It became the intersection of what does the data say, and how do you practically operationalize this? When you think about people ages 16 to 64 with underlying conditions, that’s a big group of people with a wide range of risk. You have 30-year-olds with asthma and a 64-year-old with lymphoma that are in the same bucket.

Meanwhile, people who are 65 to 74 have a 90 times greater chance of dying if they were to contract COVID, and people who are 75 to 84 have a 220 times greater chance of dying.

VB: When do you think your job will shift from vaccinating as many people as fast as possible to convincing reluctant Virginians that it’s safe to get vaccinated?

Avula: I think that’ll start in May. Based on our anticipated supply, what we’ve mapped out over the next few weeks, I think we’ll be able to get through all of the [Phase] 1b population that wants to get vaccinated, by the second or third week of April. As we get into May, we’re going to open up to [Phase] 1c, and then to the general population. [Editor’s note: Phase 1c comprises essential workers in sectors such as construction, energy, finance and legal services.]

I see, towards the end of May, the supply and demand are going to flip, where we have gotten to 65% or so of the population, and we’re going to have to really work hard to get that last 10% [to reach herd immunity]. Even this far into our vaccination effort, there’s still a significant amount of vaccine hesitancy, particularly among younger Americans, and then among Black and Hispanic Americans.

VB: Do you think that businesses can legally enforce employees to get vaccinated?

Avula: Because these vaccines are under an emergency use authorization, there’s no way for there to be a governmental mandate that requires vaccination. What I don’t know are the legal pathways for private entities to require it. My guess is that if the government can’t require it, then probably private entities won’t be able to require it either. I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

VB: You’ve talked about herd immunity. When we reach that point, will we still need to take precautions?

Avula: I think it depends on what happens with these variants. The variants are real concerns. We’re increasingly seeing the U.K. variant pop up around the country and here in Virginia. What we’ve seen in other countries — the United Kingdom, Denmark, Israel [and] multiple countries across the world — is that really, within the course of two months, the new variant has become the dominant strain. Our CDC modelers, at least a couple of weeks ago, were saying likely by the end of March, the U.K. variant will be the dominant strain here in the United States. [Editor’s note: As of March 15, Virginia had identified 49 U.K. variant cases.]

I think what we’re doing right now is the right thing. It’s maintaining our commitment to mask wearing, [social] distancing and staying home when you’re sick, but also [getting] people vaccinated as quickly as possible. The hope is that the combination of adherence to mitigation and rapid vaccination will temper the degree to which the U.K. variant becomes a new issue and a new spike of disease in our community.

VB: Do you think that people are
sufficiently aware that we still need to
be careful and wear masks even after
getting vaccinated?

Avula: Yes. Certainly, in our communications from the Virginia Department of Health, that’s been really consistent. As I followed the national headlines and watch some of the international voices on this, that is really consistent. Like I said, I think that guidance could actually change over the next couple of months, just as we gather more data. I do think that’s pretty clearly and consistently the guidance. Now, how that actually is lived out, I imagine there are a lot of people who, once they get their vaccine feel like, “OK, this is my newfound life.”

VB: What takeaway lessons have you learned from this pandemic that could help for the next public health crisis?

Avula: I started my career in 2009 when H1N1 hit, and while local governments were very supportive, this was largely public health-led. Federal funding allowed us to expand our teams and set up vaccination all over the place. The scope of the response was able to be managed within the agency of public health. I think with COVID, it’s a completely different story.

It happened on a scale like nothing anybody has ever experienced. I think the localities that moved to this whole-of-government mentality — that this is not something that the health department by itself can solve or address, but really requires the full weight and planning and integration of all of our sectors — I think that’s the learning I would apply. We would move to that mindset much quicker than we did. I think the same is true in state government.

The move from [Phase] 1a to 1b, which was largely initiated by the federal government, happened in a context where we were thinking and being told we would get a ton more vaccine [doses] to be able to support that increased demand, and it didn’t happen. We went from a very manageable Phase 1a to a very difficult to manage Phase 1b, where you had 50% of Virginians who were eligible yet still only getting … about 100,000 or 105,000 new doses a week.

It would have been clearer for the people of Virginia … to have more narrowly defined who was eligible at that point, based on incoming supply. Instead, a lot of people were frustrated. I think that’s what drove so much anxiety and fear and concern. I think if we had the ability to do that over again, it would be really keeping our demand in more manageable buckets.

VB: How is the state vaccination registry working out?

Avula: I think for the most part, it definitely has worked. More than half a million people have registered since that went live. I also think having a centralized call center has made a huge difference, because when we went from [Phase] 1a to 1b and totally opened up the eligibility, that led to a scenario where local health departments just couldn’t manage the [call] volume.

VB: Have you gotten the vaccine?

Avula: I have not yet. I am still in group 1b. I’m in that tier, what do we call it? Continuity of government.

VB: When do you think you will?

Avula: I think by the end of March. When I look at how quickly we’re moving through the tiers, and especially when I look at how much vaccine is coming in, by the end of March we should get to that continuity of government tier.

VB: Has your wife gotten vaccinated, as a teacher?

Avula: She has been offered it. We talked about it, [but] we can do social distancing in our lives. We can do most of our work from home. I’m doing a lot more in the office these days, but she’s home all the time. From that standpoint, she just said, “Why don’t I wait so that we can make sure our 65-and-ups get their vaccine?”

VB: Do you think that this whole
experience is going to interest more people in public health careers?

Avula: That’s an interesting question. I think it will. … On a really practical level, it actually [already] has brought a lot more people into public health. All this federal funding, when I was at the local health department, we went from an organization of about 250 to an organization of over 400. There’s many, many people who now know what the health department does who didn’t before. Yes, I think it will lead a lot of people to the field, which is good, because the reality is that COVID has also led to a lot of burnout, right? We’ve lost a lot of folks; we had a lot of people move to other careers. We’ve had a lot of people who just need a break because the public health infrastructure has been under incredible strain.

VB: After the vaccinations are over,
will you resume your position as health
director for Richmond and Henrico?

Avula: Absolutely. I can’t wait to get back. Part of it is just that this [state job] is just … a level of intensity that I’ve never experienced. But those are my people, our local health department — we have an incredible team. So much of the joy and satisfaction of the work for me is in the team, but it’s also the integration into our local communities. Really feeling that deep connection to the work on the ground is a huge part of what drives my work-life satisfaction. ν

Richmond supports restaurants with ‘Picnic in a Parklet’

Two Richmond restaurants will see their on-street parking lanes become outdoor dining areas this week to serve customers, spark business and encourage safer and socially distanced spaces.

The dining areas are part Richmond city government’s “Picnic in a Parklet” pilot program, a partnership between the city and downtown booster Venture Richmond, according to a March 30 announcement. Three other locations are in the works.

The program, which helps businesses with design and permitting, uses prefabricated parklets from Archatrak Inc. The company, which has offices in Chevy Chase, MD, describes its StreetDeck parklets as a self-contained, modular way to create street seating. The parklets include railings and planters and require minimal installation, the company says.

“Public space is a valuable community asset that we have the responsibility to use intentionally and equitably,” Mayor Levar Stoney said in the announcement. “These five new parklets outside small businesses certainly meet that mission.”

The first two parklets will be installed on North 29th Street, adjacent to the Nile Ethiopian Café, and North Shields Avenue, adjacent to Joe’s Inn.

The city says two other parklets are going through the permitting process in addition to the program’s five planned parklets, designed by HKS Architects and Walter Parks Architects.

 

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COVID roundup: 28% of Va. population vaccinated

As of Monday, March 29, 28.1% of Virginians have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, and 15% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

So far, 3.5 million vaccine doses have been administered statewide, and 2.3 million people have been vaccinated with at least one dose. The state is averaging 59,538 administered doses daily, VDH reported. New infections increased last week by 10,542 cases, a small climb from the previous week. The current seven-day positivity rate statewide is 5.8%, up .2% from the previous week. VDH also recorded 92 more COVID-related deaths last week. As of Monday, the state has 616,509 total cases and 10,219 deaths.

Dr. Danny Avula, the state’s vaccine coordinator, said Friday that the Richmond region and Northern Virginia will be receiving a significant increase in vaccine doses beginning this week. This move comes after higher risk residents from around the state have received their shots, addressing greater demand that has led some people to drive several hours seeking the vaccine. Avula said he expects Northern Virginia to receive 20% to 30% more doses this week than last week. Meanwhile, more regions of Virginia have moved to phase 1c, including Southwest, Southern and northwestern Virginia, as well as the Eastern Shore and the Fredericksburg area.

Group 1c includes people working in energy, higher education, finance, legal and housing and construction sectors, as well as water, waste removal, food service, transportation and logistics, information technology and communication, media and public safety, and public health workers not included in earlier vaccination phases.

Gov. Ralph Northam will lift some restrictions starting April 1, he announced last week, increasing attendance caps at entertainment venues and sporting events, and allowing gatherings of 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors at private events, which include weddings. On Friday, a federal judge denied an injunction that would have allowed more people to attend weddings, in a suit brought against the governor by a Franklin County wedding venue.

Northam said last week he hopes to loosen more restrictions by May 1, if the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline in the state.

All adult residents of Virginia can now register to get vaccinated at vaccinate.virginia.gov or call (877) VAX-IN-VA, or (877) 829-4682. Depending on locality, people in groups 1b and 1c are now eligible for vaccination, and pharmacies now have started vaccinating people under the age of 65, including people with high-risk medical conditions and essential workers in group 1b.

The state now ranks 12th in the nation for its percentage of vaccine doses administered, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed by Becker’s Hospital Review.

With race and ethnicity information available for only 63.3% of people who have received shots in the state, the majority of shots have been received by white, non-Hispanic people — 68% as of Monday, according to VDH. Black Virginians have received 14.1% of shots, although they make up 19.9% of the state’s population, according to 2019 estimates by the U.S. Census; 7.1% of vaccines were given to Latino residents, who comprise about 9.8% of Virginians.

State health officials have focused attention on equitable administration of vaccinations, especially as Latino and Black residents are heavily represented among people who have been infected, hospitalized and died from the coronavirus. Among Virginia’s COVID deaths for which ethnicity and race were recorded, 24.5% were Black, and 6.5% were Latino.

As of March 25, the following health districts have positivity rates of 10% or higher:

  • Hampton — 12.6%, down from 13.9% on March 18
  • Portsmouth — 10.1%, down from 11.1%

Globally, there are 127.3 million reported COVID-19 cases and 2,785,838 confirmed deaths, as of March 29. The United States, which has the most confirmed cases and deaths worldwide, has seen 30.2 million confirmed cases so far, with 549,364 deaths attributed to the coronavirus since February 2020.

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More vaccine going to Richmond and NoVa, as demand increases

More COVID-19 vaccine doses are going to be allocated to Northern Virginia and Richmond regions soon, the state’s vaccine coordinator said Friday, addressing higher demand in those areas of the state. Avula said he expects Northern Virginia to get 20% to 30% more doses next week.

A large influx of Virginians driving several hours to Danville to get shots in recent days illustrated the point of high demand in certain areas, Dr. Danny Avula said during his press call Friday. Danville was one of the first health districts in the state to enter phase 1c and was the first Virginia locality to open a Federal Emergency Management Agency-funded community vaccination center offering about 3,000 appointments per day.

On Reddit and other social media sites, people learned that Danville had lower than expected demand for those shots after the clinic was open for a few days. In came hundreds of shot seekers from Richmond, Harrisonburg, Roanoke and Charlottesville, which are still in phase 1b, according to news reports. Many were responding to rumors that doses were going to waste in Danville — but that was not the case, Avula said.

Out-of-towners have now been told by VDH officials they will not get shots without a vaccination appointment at Danville’s clinic, but Avula says that the state is now responding to demand by allocating more doses to communities that have higher populations and, critically, more interest in being vaccinated than other communities.

The reasons behind lower demand in Danville are multiple, Avula noted. Although some people can’t travel to a vaccination clinic or have some other access issue, there also are a considerable number of politically conservative Virginians statewide who are hesitant to get shots, he added. As more people get vaccinated, the state will see more unvaccinated people who are nervous or don’t want a shot, especially going into the summer.

The state is still focused on vaccinating people at higher risk — Black and Latino residents, people with existing medical conditions and people older than 65 — but as those high-priority people receive vaccination, the Virginia Department of Health is looking to send more doses to areas that have more people pre-registered.

The state is expecting to get more doses of the three vaccines — Pfizer Inc., Moderna and the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine — next week. This week, Virginia got 49,000 J&J doses, and that’s expected to double next week to 100,000, and reaching 150,000 doses per week going into April. Pfizer sent more than 250,000 doses this week, and Moderna delivered close to 200,000 doses.

The state also is adapting how it distributes doses.

In Danville, Avula said, the health district is transitioning to a “hub and spoke model,” in which there will be a brick-and-mortar location for vaccination as well as mobile units traveling to Pittsylvania County. Also, as pharmacies receive more doses from the federal government — the number reached 208,000 doses this week — workplaces are hosting on-site vaccination, such as at poultry plants, Avula said.

More regions have entered phase 1c — in addition to Southern Virginia and Eastern Shore, the region around Lynchburg and parts of Northern and northwest Virginia — although not the most populated localities of Alexandria and Fairfax, Loudoun, Arlington and Prince William counties.

Next week, Norfolk will open the state’s fifth FEMA-funded clinic, joining Danville, Petersburg, Portsmouth and Prince William County, Avula said.

Workers from sectors including energy, higher education, finance, legal and housing and construction are included in group 1c, as well as water, waste removal, food service, transportation and logistics, information technology and communication, media and public safety, and public health workers not included in earlier vaccination phases.

Vaccines are still given only through appointment, VDH officials emphasize, and they advise everyone who has already registered at vaccinate.virginia.gov to check and update your information so call center employees or health district workers can contact you for an appointment.

 

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Va. wedding venue loses suit against governor

On Friday, a federal judge ruled against Franklin County wedding venue Belle Garden Estate and its owner Charles Russell, who sued Gov. Ralph Northam in an attempt to expand the number of people who could attend a wedding under the state’s COVID-19 restrictions.

Under current executive orders, businesses can host only 25 people outdoors if it’s a private booking, or 10 people indoors. Northam announced this week that the restrictions on weddings would be loosened April 1 to allow 100 people outdoors and 50 indoors, but Belle Garden Estate and Russell still pursued the suit, which sought to allow wedding venues to operate at 30% capacity, up to 1,000 people outdoors or 250 indoors, as allowed at baseball stadiums and other entertainment venues. With the April 1 policy changes, those caps will rise to up to 5,000 attendance in outdoor venues and 1,000 indoors.

Northam has said that weddings are riskier than other kinds of gatherings because of family members and friends hugging and dancing. On Tuesday, the governor said he will revisit lifting other restrictions on a monthly basis, as long as COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline. He re-emphasized that outdoor wedding venues will continue to be limited to 100 attendees for the time being.

Judge Thomas T. Cullen of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, ruled against a preliminary injunction, saying in his order that the governor is likely immune from a civil suit and that the wedding venue has not demonstrated a viable First Amendment claim or equal protection claim. Cullen also said that Belle Garden did not show “irreparable injury” to the business due to monetary losses. In terms of public health impact, the judge wrote, “If the court issues a preliminary injunction in this case, there is a reasonable likelihood that more people will become infected and/or die than if it does not.”

Tim Anderson, a Virginia Beach attorney who has represented other clients seeking injunctions against the governor’s executive orders, said in a statement that although the ruling was disappointing for his client, “Belle Garden Estate believes this suit helped move the needle in how wedding venues are being unfairly treated by the governor of Virginia.” He added that Russell will take the weekend to review the order and decide whether he wants to appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Belle Garden fervently believes that allowing a concert venue to be capped at 30% occupancy and outdoor graduations to have as many as 5,000 attendees but restricting an outdoor wedding venue to 100 is a violation of the equal protection clause,” Anderson added. “Such restrictions serve no legitimate public interest and only prejudices the $8 billion wedding industry in Virginia, which has suffered tremendously with the COVID lockdowns.”

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Va. community clinics receive $79M in federal funding

U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine announced Friday that 26 community clinics in Virginia will receive $79 million in funding through the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan federal stimulus package. Warner also introduced legislation this week to support other community clinics — most run by health systems in the state’s rural areas — by closing a Medicare payment loophole.

Warner and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, are co-sponsoring Senate legislation that would fix a “sudden and unexpected Medicare payment rate change” included by mistake in the December 2020 COVID-19 relief bill, which excluded any clinics established after December 2019 in a freeze on Medicare payment rates. Nearly 30 clinics in Virginia are impacted, including 18 owned by Carilion Clinic.

“The language in question would have significantly reduced payments to rural health clinics across the country, potentially causing many to face financial uncertainty,” said Carilion Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Don Halliwill in a statement. “This technical fix will allow us to better sustain, and even increase, access to health care in the rural communities we serve. For us and hundreds of other rural health providers, this change will make it easier for us to continue to invest in communities where access to care has been identified as a need.”

Sentara Healthcare and Valley Health also own impacted clinics and have given their support to the measure. The legislation, known as the Strengthening Rural Health Clinics Act of 2021, would amend existing law to grandfather clinics at their current Medicare payment rates if the clinics were in existence or in “mid-build” by Dec. 31, 2020, or if an organization had submitted an application or binding agreement for establishing a rural clinic by the end of 2020. 

Sen. Mark Warner. AP Photo/Steve Helber

“In the past year, rural health clinics have played an essential role in bringing urgent and lifesaving care to some of our most vulnerable communities. Unfortunately, this crisis has served to further throw these facilities into financial distress,” Warner said in a statement. “By fixing a legislative error, our bill will help avoid further financial volatility and allow rural health clinics in Virginia and across the country to continue serving the communities that need it the most.”

Under the American Rescue Plan, the following nonprofit community clinics and health services organizations will receive $79 million in federal funding for expanding COVID-19 vaccination and testing, as well as providing preventive and primary care for people at higher risk of becoming seriously ill. Health centers also can use the funds to expand operational capacity, such as improving infrastructure or adding mobile units.

  • Central Virginia Health Services Inc. (Buckingham County), $8.8 million
  • Neighborhood Health (Alexandria), $7.8 million
  • Eastern Shore Rural Health System Inc., $5.7 million
  • Greater Prince William Area Community Health Center Inc., $4.6 million
  • Peninsula Institute for Community Health Inc., $4.6 million
  • Johnson Health Center (Lynchburg), $4.3 million
  • Loudoun Community Health Center, $3.9 million
  • Piedmont Access to Health Services Inc. (Danville), $3.6 million
  • Healthy Community Health Centers (formerly Harrisonburg Community Health Center), $3.4 million
  • Southwest Virginia Community Health Systems Inc. (Smyth and Washington counties), $3 million
  • St. Charles Health Council Inc. (Lee County), $3 million
  • Portsmouth Community Health Center Inc., $2.7 million
  • Kuumba Community Health & Wellness Center Inc. (Roanoke), $2.4 million
  • Southern Dominion Health Systems Inc. (Lunenburg County), $2.3 million
  • Daily Planet Inc. (Richmond), $2.2 million
  • Tri-Area Community Health (Carroll County), $1.9 million
  • Blue Ridge Medical Center Inc., $1.8 million
  • Rockbridge Area Free Clinic, $1.6 million
  • Bland County Medical Center Inc., $1.5 million
  • Free Clinic of the New River Valley Inc., $1.4 million
  • Martinsville Henry County Coalition for Health and Wellness, $1.4 million
  • Horizon Health Services Inc. (Sussex County), $1.1 million
  • Clinch River Health Services Inc., $950,375
  • Stony Creek Community Health Center (Sussex County), $889,500
  • Highland Medical Center (Highland County), $822,750

The city of Richmond also received $2.9 million.

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Va. unemployment dropped slightly in Feb., continuing slow decline

Virginia’s unemployment rate continued to edge lower in February, dropping from 5.3% in January to 5.2% last month, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Friday. However, the state saw a decrease of 3,700 nonfarm payroll jobs and a decline in employed people during February.

The nation’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.2% in February, and the state’s jobless rate last month was 2.7% higher than in February 2020, when it stood at 2.5%. The number of employed Virginians fell by 8,808 to 4 million in February.

According to Megan Healy, the state’s chief workforce development adviser, the last time the state saw an unemployment rate of 5.2% was in 2014, as Virginia’s economy was recovering from the 2008-09 Great Recession. “Looking ahead to our recovery in 2021, the Virginia Employment Commission will continue working to help people gain employment or enter training programs that match their skills and career goals, focusing resources to align with the emerging opportunities we are seeing in post-pandemic job market trends.”

“While our unemployment rate is moving in the right direction, the economic impacts of this pandemic continue to challenge workers and businesses in Virginia and across the country,” Northam said in a statement. “Our administration remains committed to providing additional relief to those most in need, helping Virginians return to the workforce, and making targeted investments to build back key sectors of our economy.”

From February 2020 to February 2021, the private sector lost 161,600 jobs, while the public sector lost 35,700 jobs.

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Va. new unemployment claims 60% lower than 1 year ago

The number of initial unemployment claims filed during the week ending March 20 were 60% lower than they were this week a year ago when the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact first began to be reflected in Virginia’s unemployment statistics.

The  Virginia Employment Commission reported Thursday that 17,560 people filed initial claims last week, an increase of 2,035 from the previous week. Continued claims totaled 58,233, a 2.9% decrease from the previous week but 36,605 higher than continued claims a year ago. People receiving unemployment benefits through the VEC must file weekly unemployment claims in order to continue receiving benefits.

U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner wrote a letter to Gov. Ralph Northam on Thursday, urging him to speed up benefits to Virginia unemployment claimants now that the federal $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan has been passed. The act includes compensation for long-term unemployed people, self-employed and gig workers, as well as a new category that targets people with mixed sources of income.

“It is my understanding that, following earlier passage of congressional legislation to extend these programs in December, constituents in Virginia faced many delays and communication problems with the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC),” Warner wrote. “With the knowledge that these benefit systems were originally set to expire on Dec. 26, I worked with a bipartisan and bicameral group of lawmakers in the U.S. Congress to pass a relief package shortly before Christmas because it was understood that loss of benefits at this time of the year would be particularly cruel. Now, several months later, I hope you can agree that for constituents still experiencing delays the lack of pandemic unemployment insurance is unconscionable.”

Citing constituents that have called his office with complaints, Warner asked in the letter for the VEC to report on its plans on how to disburse the new federal funding for unemployed Virginians, as well as how the commission plans to improve communication efforts with claimants and employers.

“From Newport News to Henrico to Alexandria, constituents are contacting my office from every corner of the commonwealth with desperate requests for relief,” Warner wrote. “Some of them have waited three months, others have waited 11 months, and many are struggling to feed their children and keep a roof over their heads.”

More than half of the claimants who filed for benefits last week (and the prior four weeks) reported being in the accommodation/food service, administrative and waste services, retail trade and health care and social assistance industries, according to the VEC.

The regions of the state that have been most impacted continue to be Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads. 

Below are the top 10 localities, listed by number of initial unemployment claims, for the week ending March 20:

  • Alexandria, 1,478
  • Norfolk, 1,169
  • Richmond, 900
  • Virginia Beach, 699
  • Fairfax County, 689
  • Prince William County, 466
  • Hampton, 403
  • Lynchburg, 383
  • Chesterfield County, 337
  • Petersburg, 332

Nationwide, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims last week was 684,000, a decrease of 97,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. There were 2,920,162 initial claims during the same week last year.

 

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U.Va.-Va. Tech researchers develop promising coronavirus vaccines

Athletic rivals Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia are working together on two new coronavirus vaccines, and their research has shown early promise in protecting people from existing and future variants of COVID-19, according to the universities.

Created by U.Va. Health Professor Steven L. Zeichner and Virginia Tech Distinguished Professor X.J. Meng, one vaccine targets a pig coronavirus that killed nearly 10% of U.S. pigs during a recent outbreak, and the other targets COVID-19. The pig vaccine prevented test pigs from becoming sick with the porcine coronavirus. The researchers found the inoculated pigs’ immune systems defended them from developing severe symptoms, and the scientists say it is reasonable to think that the COVID vaccine could do the same in humans, with further testing.

Zeichner has developed a new platform that targets specific DNA to instruct the immune system how to attack a virus, and he says this system could lead one day to a universal vaccine for coronaviruses, including some that could cause pandemics or that spread the common cold. It also would provide a way to produce lower-cost vaccines, Zeichner said. The scientists published their findings online, and they are now under peer review.

“Our new platform offers a new route to rapidly produce vaccines at very low cost that can be manufactured in existing facilities around the world, which should be particularly helpful for pandemic response,” Zeichner said in a statement.

According to the universities, additional testing — including human trials — would be necessary before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration could approve the COVID vaccine, but the scientists are pleased by the early results.

“Such a vaccine, if successful, would be of significant value against variant virus strains,” Meng said in a statement.

 

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Va. to loosen COVID restrictions April 1

Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday he is “slowly and safely” lifting some COVID-19 restrictions statewide beginning April 1, including raising limits of gatherings to 30% capacity at entertainment venues.

In most cases, outdoor gatherings will be limited to 100 people and indoor gatherings at 50 people, the governor said. Wedding venues, which have been under heavy restriction for months, will be allowed to have events following these limits. Large entertainment venues, such as The Diamond baseball stadium in Virginia, can have more attendance, he added, as long as they don’t exceed 30% of the venue capacity, and masks and physical distancing are enforced.

Last week, Northam released preliminary guidance for K-12 schools, colleges and universities to safely hold in-person graduation ceremonies and other commencement events this spring. Outdoor graduation events will be capped at 5,000 people or 30% of the venue capacity, whichever is less, and indoor events have a limit of 500 people or 30% of capacity.

“These are measured changes,” Northam said, noting that masking and physical distancing measures remain in place. Responding to a question, he said that he has not yet lifted restrictions on indoor businesses like bars because “this is where the virus tends to be spread. As soon as we can open or lift measures safely and responsibly, we will.”

The governor’s office sent further details regarding the changes going into effect April 1:

  • Social gatherings increase from a limit of 25 people outdoors and 10 people indoors currently to 50 people indoors and 100 people in outdoor settings after April 1.
  • Entertainment venues, including amusement parks, continue to operate at 30% capacity. Outdoor venues will have no specific cap on the number of attendees other than observing the 30% capacity limit. Indoor venues can have a maximum of 500 people, an increase from the current 250 cap.
  • Recreational sporting events will allow 100 spectators per field or 30% capacity in indoor settings, and 500 people per field or 30% capacity for outdoor events.

However, members of Virginia’s wedding industry are still concerned about their financial health. The owner of Belle Garden Estates, a Franklin County wedding venue, filed a lawsuit against Northam earlier in the month seeking an injunction against restrictions affecting gatherings at wedding sites.

Attorney Tim Anderson, who filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiff, said in a statement Tuesday that Northam’s expansion of attendance to 100 people “does not change the posture of the lawsuit. … Wedding venues are being treated differently [than] other outdoor venues. This is discriminatory. Why can a wedding venue not operate with up to 30% capacity?”

Northam, who has said that weddings are riskier than other kinds of gatherings, with family members and friends hugging and dancing, said Tuesday he will revisit lifting other restrictions on a monthly basis, as long as cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline. He re-emphasized that outdoor wedding venues will continue to be limited to 100 attendees for the time being.

The governor added that he met earlier in the day with other U.S. governors and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, to discuss reopening plans and vaccination rollout. “This isn’t about throwing a switch or opening up the floodgates,” Northam said, characterizing Fauci’s advice.

In vaccination news, Northam said that the state will receive about 48,000 more doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine beginning next week, about five times the amount received in the past week.

As of Tuesday, 24.5% of the state’s population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, and 13.4% are fully vaccinated. Several regions of the state have started vaccinating people in group 1c and the number of new cases and deaths have decreased in recent weeks. The current seven-day positivity rate is 5.6%, according to the Virginia Department of Health’s COVID dashboard. In January, the rate was at 17%, Northam noted Tuesday.

The governor said Virginia is on target to meet President Joe Biden’s May 1 deadline for all U.S. adults to have access to COVID vaccines.

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