State sees one COVID death every 39 minutes
Every 39 minutes, a person died from COVID-19 in Virginia last week, according to reports from the state health department Monday. The state’s COVID-19 numbers continued to climb, with 35,850 new cases over the past week and 261 deaths, according to the Virginia Department of Health’s Jan. 11 update. The current seven-day positivity rate is […]
COVID-19 vaccinations for Va. essential workers start Monday
On Monday, 11 Virginia health districts will begin COVID-19 vaccinations of “frontline essential workers,” including police, teachers and grocery store workers, the Virginia Department of Health announced Friday afternoon. Some regions will continue vaccinations of priority group 1a, which includes frontline health care providers and employees and residents of long-term care facilities[...]
General Assembly will see limited in-person gatherings, higher security for 2021 Lobby Day
A federal judge said Friday that a dispute over the scheduled closing of the Pocahontas Building, the temporary offices for delegates and state senators during the General Assembly session, has been settled. In December, Virginia state Sen. Bill DeSteph, R-Virginia Beach, sued Senate Rules Committee Chair Sen. Mamie E. Locke, D-Hampton, who announced that the […]
Initial jobless claims jumped 64.3% last week
The number of initial jobless claims filed last week jumped a staggering 64.3% to more than 19,000, according to Virginia Employment Commission data released Thursday. This is the highest number of initial claims reported since August 2020. For the week ending Jan. 2, 19,530 Virginians filed initial claims for unemployment, an increase of 7,640 claimants […]
Northam sets accelerated goals for vaccinations
In his first COVID-19 news conference of the year, Gov. Ralph Northam said the state is aiming to administer 25,000 COVID vaccine shots per day to Virginians, up from the current 14,000 shots per day. He hopes to get to 50,000 daily vaccinations as soon as possible, although the state is waiting for more doses […]
Herndon contractor names president, crisis response
Herndon-based federal contractor Constellis announced Monday it has promoted Rick Tye as president of the company’s crisis response business. Joining Constellis in 2017, Tye was most recently the company’s chief growth officer. Darryle Conway will succeed him in this role. Constellis’ crisis response business provides customers with response and planning services to reduce risk, [...]
Virginia sees record daily COVID-19 rises
Just after surpassing more than 5,000 coronavirus-related deaths, Virginia hit its highest daily average of new COVID-19 cases for the third day in a row. As of Monday, the state’s seven-day average of new cases stands at a record high of 4,480. On Saturday, Jan. 2, the average was 4,168; on Sunday, Jan. 3, the […]
Virginia has administered 50K+ COVID-19 vaccine doses so far
Having received 285,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from two manufacturers, Virginia has distributed more than 54,000 doses in the past two weeks. Nationally, there’s been frustration with the vaccine rollout, which has been slower than expected. The Trump administration had pledged that 20 million doses of the vaccine would be administered across the country by the […]
Representing the underdogs
Although it’s hard to think way back to January 2020, a time before a year of social unrest, pandemic and economic peril, that’s when Virginia’s legislature and executive branch became majority-Democrat for the first time since 1993. However, even if some Virginians forgot about this significant shift, Republican lawmakers have not. Just before Thanksgiving, Virginia […]
Barter Theatre hangs on with Moonlite shows
Abingdon’s Moonlite Theatre is on the National Register of Historic Places and in the lyrics of at least two country western songs, but the drive-in movie theater was closed for most of the last decade. When Katy Brown visited it last spring, “it was a wreck,” she recalls, “but I thought all we’d have to […]
The VirginiaBusiness.com Top Five
The top trending stories on VirginiaBusiness.com from Nov. 16 to Dec. 15 included the news that Gov. Ralph Northam was ordering new restrictions based on post-Thanksgiving surges in coronavirus cases. Wise County is first to receive Starlink internet in Va. The pilot program from Elon Musk’s SpaceX will provide broadband via low-orbit satellites. (Dec. 14) […]
2020 Political Roundtable: Trump vs. Biden
The pandemic brought record early voter turnout, stretching official election outcomes for days — but a panel of five statewide political experts resoundingly predicted the day after the election that now-President-elect Biden would be the 46th president of the United States. On Nov. 4, 2020, Virginia Business held its 14th annual Political Roundtable event. Editor […]