In a new executive order, Gov. Ralph Northam allows localities in Northern Virginia to delay reopening nonessential businesses until Friday, May 29, two weeks after the rest of the state enters Phase One of the governor‘s “Forward Virginia” plan.
The counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William, as well as the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park, and the towns of Dumfries, Herndon, Leesburg and Vienna will remain in what the governor has dubbed “Phase Zero” after elected officials and health department directors said the region wasn’t ready in a letter sent to Northam on Sunday. Northern Virginia has significantly more positive COVID-19 cases, deaths and hospitalizations than the rest of Virginia — up to 70% of the state’s positive cases on any given day are in the region, according to the governor’s news release.
“While the data show Virginia as a whole is ready to slowly and deliberately ease some restrictions, it is too soon for Northern Virginia,” Northam said in a statement announcing Executive Order 62 and Order of Public Health Emergency No. 4, which allow the delays in the region.
At Monday’s coronavirus news conference, Northam said he asked the region’s elected officials to send him a letter signed by leaders in the four counties and the city of Alexandria to demonstrate that they were unified in calling for a delay in reopening hair salons, restaurant dining rooms, bowling alleys and other nonessential businesses.
Not all elected officials in Northern Virginia were happy with the news, however. During the May 12 Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Pat Herrity, who represents the Springfield District, said, “I think the best way we can help small businesses is to move very carefully toward the new, or the next normal. The rest of Virginia is going to get a chance to step toward that on May 15, and I’m disappointed that Fairfax businesses and residents aren’t going to get that very small step.”
When Executive Order 61 takes effect midnight Thursday, businesses closed in March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus will be allowed to reopen on a limited basis. The state has issued guidelines to keep patrons and employees safe, including requiring social distancing, keeping gatherings no larger than 10 people and workers wearing masks and other protective gear.
Update, May 12: In a new executive order, Northern Virginia localities will delay Phase One by two weeks, allowing businesses to reopen on a limited basis May 29, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Tuesday. The rest of the state will enter Phase One on Friday as planned, the governor said in a statement.
Earlier:
Northern Virginia will not enter Phase One of the state’s reopening blueprint on Friday, Gov. Ralph Northam said at Monday’s coronavirus news conference, after local officials from Alexandria and Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties sent a letter Sunday saying that the region is not ready to reopen businesses due to continued high rates of COVID-19 cases.
Northam said he asked the localities’ elected officials to send him a letter showing that the region is unified in asking for a delay, which could be between one week to several weeks from now, depending on how the pandemic trends within the region. There will not be a ban on residents from Northern Virginia traveling to other regions to patronize businesses, the governor said, adding, however, “We would certainly encourage them not to.”
Although the governor said last week that he had rejected a regional reopening approach because he didn’t want people from hot spots traveling and bringing the virus with them, there’s less concern about Northern Virginia residents traveling because many restrictions will still be in place under the Phase One reopening plan Friday, including the 10-person gathering rule.
The percentage of positive cases is about 25% in Northern Virginia’s five localities, Northam said, compared with about 10% in the rest of the state. Also, the number of hospitalized patients in Northern Virginia is considerably higher than the remainder of the state. Directors of the five localities’ health districts and departments wrote in a memo to State Health Commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver that they did not have enough data to assess whether the number of cases is declining in their region.
The state will continue working closely with officials in the region, Northam added, and will hire more contact tracers specifically for Northern Virginia over coming weeks. Currently the state has about 600 tracers who are documenting exposure to the virus, and the state government plans to hire 400 more contact tracers over the next two to four weeks, Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Dr. Daniel Carey said. The state also expects to execute a contract with a third-party vendor this week to help hire tracers, added Clark Mercer, Northam’s chief of staff.
Northam said he expects Phase One to take effect as planned Friday in the rest of the state as long as the state’s metrics remain consistently good, noting that he’ll make a final decision Wednesday on whether to move forward.
Also in Monday’s conference, the governor said that 9,801 tests were conducted Sunday, close to the state’s 10,000 tests per day goal, which health officials said is enough to reliably assess the progress of the virus and prepare for reopening the state’s economy, although it is unclear whether the state will consistently test at that rate daily.
Virginia continues to rank near the bottom of the country in the number of tests administered per 100,000 residents, according to Johns Hopkins University, but Dr. Karen Remley, the former state health commissioner who is in charge of an effort to bring up the number of tests in the state, said JHU is comparing cumulative tests by state.
Given that Virginia lagged early on when there were concerns about personal protective equipment running out and creating a testing backlog at the state lab, “we will never catch up [with other states],” Remley said, “unless we inappropriately test everyone in the state.”
Questions also have arisen from the Virginia Department of Health’s adjustment in reporting the number of tests earlier in May, when it began reporting the total number of molecular and serological tests given in the state, without distinguishing the number of each type of test.
Serological tests — also known as antibody tests — are supposed to show whether a person has had the COVID-19 virus, but there have been concerns nationwide that some have shown false negatives after being performed incorrectly. On Monday, Abbott Laboratories announced that the Food and Drug Administration has granted its antibody tests emergency use authorization.
Mercer said that officials in Virginia have talked with “the Johns Hopkins and Harvards of the world” to make sure that Virginia was reporting testing numbers the same as other states, and “it became clear that other states are including serological testing.”
Commenting on a Sunday report in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the state had still not hit its 10,000 test per day goal and that commercial antibody tests still were not considered reliable by Virginia health officials, Mercer said, “if you’re going to compare us to other states and be critical of the volume of tests that we’re doing, and you are not comparing apples to apples, I think that’s grossly unfair. You can’t win either way. We want to be consistent with other states.”
Carey said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had not provided guidelines to states on how or whether to include antibody tests in their reported totals, and Virginia had started by not including the antibody tests until the change in reporting, which now includes the total number of tests conducted, in addition to the number of individuals tested.
“In retrospect, we may have chosen a different path,” Carey said of the decision to combine the numbers of antibody tests and molecular tests. “Going forward, we’ll look into how to untangle those.”
Northern Virginia elected officials — as well as local health department directors — have asked Gov. Ralph Northam to wait on allowing local businesses to reopen until the hard-hit region’s COVID-19 cases have shown a continuous decline, along with meeting other metrics.
“Based on our assessment, we do not believe that the Northern Virginia region has met the criteria for moving into Phase One,” directors of health districts and departments in the region wrote in a Saturday memo to local officials and the state health commissioner. The memo was included in the officials’ letter to the governor sent Sunday.
Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties and the city of Alexandria account for about half of the state’s COVID-19 cases and deaths, according to Virginia Department of Health statistics. On Monday, 25,070 people statewide have confirmed or probable cases and 850 have died from complications connected with the coronavirus. The five Northern Virginia localities reported 12,309 cases and 416 deaths as of Monday’s VDH update.
Phase One of the governor‘s Forward Virginia blueprint is expected to start statewide Friday, allowing some nonessential businesses to reopen on a limited basis, continuing to restrict most gathering to no more than 10 people in a confined space and, in some cases, requiring employees to wear masks and other protective gear. Northam said last week that localities will be allowed to add further restrictions to the state’s rules as deemed necessary.
The chairs of the county boards in Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William, as well as the mayor of Alexandria, asked Northam to wait to reopen Northern Virginia businesses until the following metrics are met:
• Downward trend of positive tests over a period of 14 days
• Downward trend of hospitalizations over a period of 14 days
• Enough hospital beds and intensive care capacity
• Increasing and sustainable supply of personal protective equipment (PPE)
• Increased testing and tracing
“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 letter says.
The health directors wrote in the memo that they are “unable to assess” the percentage of positive tests, available beds and increased testing, and growth in the amount of PPE supplies and a decrease in hospitalized patients are “unmet,” as is increased contract tracing in the region.
According to the memo, health directors have asked and not received information from VDH about Northern Virginia’s percentage of positive cases compared with total number of tests, including past data, to assess whether the percentage of positive tests is decreasing in their region. “As of May 4, the data shows that Northern Virginia is higher than the rest of Virginia,” the directors wrote, “27% for NOVA and 18% for all of Virginia. Without additional information, we cannot assess whether it has gone down over the past 14 days.”
The directors also say that they only have baseline data for the number of tests in the region and the number of critical care beds in the region “continue to decrease.” As for PPE availability, hospitals appear to have enough, the health directors write, but some medical care providers — including private practices, long-term care facilities and first responders — do not.
“It is only through our regional achievement of these milestones that we will be positioned to avoid a more damaging return to business closures later in the summer,” the elected officials write in their letter to the governor.
Researchers at VCU Health now are conducting trials on a third drug to help treat COVID-19, a medication that suppresses inflammation in people with a type of juvenile arthritis.
Canakinumab is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in arthritis patients, but a new study — launched April 29 at VCU — is taking place to see if the drug can help COVID-19 patients who are suffering from pneumonia and inflammation, which can prove deadly. Ultimately, 450 patients will be included in the study worldwide, including up to 20 people at VCU.
Physicians in China observed that a subgroup of COVID-19 patients were getting sicker 10 days into the disease, and many were dying from an inflammatory response to the disease, such as heart attacks or strokes. Patients taking part in the trial have virus-induced cytokine release syndrome, an inflammatory illness that can cause organ failure.
Most patients who are likely to suffer from inflammation connected with COVID-19 are older people or patients with underlying illnesses like hypertension or diabetes. Canakinumab blocks Interleukin-1β, a protein that causes inflammation, which can then increase to levels that cause organ failure.
This trial joins three other COVID-19 studies at VCU: two trials of remdesivir, a drug developed to treat the Ebola virus, and one study of sarilumab, a medication that treats rheumatoid arthritis.
Remdesivir was authorized by the FDA for emergency use on severe virus patients May 1, after 5-day and 10-day regimens proved successful at VCU and other hospitals. Between 55% and 65% of patients in the remdesivir trial were fully recovered within 28 days, and the mortality rate was between 8% and 11%.
Dr. Antonio Abbate, a VCU Health cardiologist and the canakinumab study’s principal investigator, explained that his study is double-blind, meaning that neither the patient nor the researcher knows if the patient is receiving the drug or a placebo. “That’s the gold standard for FDA,” he said, “eliminating bias on both sides. It does guarantee that level of certainty.”
He expects to have results within a few months.
He and his partner, pharmacy professor Benjamin Van Tassell, work closely with the other research teams at VCU Health, evaluating which patients are best suited for a certain trial. VCU typically has between 30 and 50 virus patients at a time, Abbate said.
For instance, a patient in the canakinumab trial cannot be on a ventilator, although they must show symptoms of pneumonia and may receive some oxygen support.
“They’re at risk for a ventilator,” Abbate said. Pneumonia, in addition to other virus symptoms, “puts patients at greatest risk.” He is looking for patients’ fever to reduce, respiratory improvement and less inflammation in response to the drug.
“A little bit of inflammation can trigger more inflammation, which triggers more and more,” Van Tassell said in a statement. “And that seems to be the most dangerous part of a COVID-19 infection: when you enter into this hyper-inflammatory state.”
“I am hopeful,” Abbate said. The drug already has been proven to work on inflammation in arthritis patients, “so it’s reasonable to expect it will work on inflammation also in coronavirus infections.”
An Ohio-based plastics company is planning to invest $34 million in a new plant in Pittsylvania County, a project expected to bring 200 manufacturing jobs to the region over the next four years, local officials announced Friday.
The 250,000-square-foot plant will be built on the former site of Burlington Industries in the Southern Virginia Multimodal Park in the town of Hurt. RAGE Plastics, a family-owned company headquartered in Hilliard, Ohio, also has a facility in Campbell County, which it expects to expand as part of its new investment. The company creates injection-molded plastic products for multiple industries: medical, automotive, industrial, electrical products, as well as bottles and other packaging.
Under the Staunton River Plastics LLC entity, the company will manufacture packaging for hygiene products at the facility, officials announced.
“We extend a warm Southern Virginia welcome to this company,” said Sherman M. Saunders, chairman of the Staunton River Regional Industrial Facility Authority, a group that includes representatives from Pittsylvania County, Danville and the town of Hurt. The authority, which promotes commercial and industrial development at the park, unanimously approved a local performance agreement Friday afternoon before the announcement.
The industrial park was built on 800 acres where the former Klopman textile manufacturing plant once stood; Burlington Industries bought the mills in the 1950s, employing more than 1,000 people at its height. In December 2002, the plant closed its doors, a year after Burlington filed for bankruptcy. In 2016, Pittsylvania County, Samet Corp. and Hurt Partners LLC announced a partnership to build the park, giving tenants access to rail and highway transportation, as well as water and wastewater infrastructure. The authority was formed in 2018 to market the park, although the town of Altavista dropped out of the group in late 2019.
“Hurt’s never seen this,” said Tim W. Dudley, vice chairman of the authority and the Staunton River District member of the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors. “We’re going to be so proud of this.”
Gov. Ralph Northam approved a $500,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Pittsylvania County with the project, as well as a performance-based grant of $300,000 from the Virginia Investment Performance (VIP) program, an incentive that encourages capital investment by existing Virginia companies. The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission approved $135,000 in Tobacco Region Opportunity Funds for the project.
The company also is eligible to receive rail access funding from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, as well as benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program.
The total number of confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases in Virginia is now 22,342, according to the Virginia Department of Health’s Friday update, with 812 virus-related deaths and 3,059 people hospitalized.
In the past 24 hours, there were 43 more deaths recorded — including confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases — and 772 more cases. Also, VDH notes that 1,674 health care workers across the state have had the virus.
As Gov. Ralph Northam’s proposed limited reopening date of May 15 approaches, one key statistic — the percentage of positive cases set against the total number of tests given — continues to decrease, with 16% of people tested May 7 showing positive tests, down from a high of 22% from April 18-22.
These are the localities with 400 or more cases in the commonwealth, as of May 8:
Globally, there are 3.8 million reported COVID-19 cases and 270,118 confirmed deaths, as of May 8. In the United States, which has the most confirmed cases and deaths worldwide, there are 1.25 million confirmed cases and 75,670 deaths attributed to the coronavirus. More than 21,000 people are confirmed dead from COVID-19 in New York City alone.
Gov. Ralph Northam is likely to loosen restrictions next Friday on “nonessential” businesses, allowing gyms, spas, theaters, dine-in restaurants and other enterprises to reopen after more than seven weeks, but feelings are mixed about the wisdom of this decision, given that Virginia saw a 36% increase in confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases during the last week.
About two-thirds of Americans are worried states are lifting restrictions prematurely, saying it’s too soon for businesses such as retail stores, movie theaters, gyms and restaurants to reopen, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released May 5. And 68% of those polled believe that the worst of the pandemic is happening now or is yet to come. Excluding New York City, cases in the rest of America are steadily rising. Modeling from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts that new cases will rise by 20% in reopening states, with 100,000 more deaths expected nationwide from the coronavirus by early August.
Acting against the advice of public health experts, President Donald Trump has pushed states to ease restrictions and reopen businesses as soon as possible, however, in light of the devastation the pandemic has wreaked on the economy. In April, America saw the sharpest drop in employment since the Great Depression, with unemployment surging to 14.7%. More than 33.4 million Americans have filed initial unemployment claims since mid-March and countless businesses have closed, filed for bankruptcy or are struggling to stay afloat amid social distancing measures.
In a May 5 ABC News interview, Trump acknowledged that it’s “possible” there will be an increase in COVID-19 deaths as a result of reopening. That same day, during a factory tour in Arizona, Trump said, “Will some people be affected? Yes. Will some people be affected badly? Yes,” the president said. “But we have to get our country open and we have to get it open soon.”
Here in Virginia, Richmond-based Legal Aid Justice Center called Northam’s reopening proposal “jaw-dropping,” as well as “reckless and cruel,” arguing in a statement Wednesday that reopening businesses prematurely will put lives at risk, particularly those of low-wage workers and black and Latino Virginians. Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, a Democrat, said in a roundtable discussion this week that people of color will be most negatively affected as businesses reopen and people “on the front lines” contract COVID-19.
Others in Virginia are advocating for fewer restrictions on businesses, although many say that they want to do so cautiously, limiting exposure to the virus. Bobby Dyer, Virginia Beach’s mayor and a Republican, said he hopes beaches will reopen by Memorial Day weekend, considering the fact that North Carolina’s Outer Banks is reopening to tourists on May 16. Republican state Sen. Amanda Chase of Chesterfield County, who is seeking the 2021 GOP nomination for governor, led a second Reopen Virginia rally Wednesday on the streets surrounding the state Capitol grounds in Richmond, wearing gloves and a mask, although it was pulled down as she spoke to protesters. On her Facebook page, she posted, “Is it fair for the government to pick winners and losers? I say it’s not.”
Northam says he’s basing his reopening decision on several statistics: the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests against the total number of tests — a percentage that has continued to decline since April 20 as more people are tested — and the number of people hospitalized with the virus, which also is relatively low statewide, with 1,613 people currently in Virginia hospitals with either positive or pending COVID-19 test results, according to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association’s Thursday data. The number of ventilators in use remains around 20%, and there are close to 4,700 hospital beds available, as well as 3,695 extra beds added under a statewide executive order. No hospitals in the state are reporting difficulty in obtaining personal protective equipment, or PPE, in recent days.
Those who oppose or have concerns about reopening Virginia next week point to other factors:
The number of coronavirus-related deaths in Virginia has grown daily, with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) reporting 769 confirmed and probable virus-related deaths Thursday, an increase of 56 deaths since Tuesday. More than 65% of the state’s COVID-19-related deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities, which have seen 3,109 cases statewide and 452 deaths.
Non-white Virginians, especially black and Latino people, are disproportionately affected by the virus, making up more than half of all cases statewide and nearly 38% of all virus-related deaths in which races of patients were recorded, according to VDH. In Richmond, officials said that 16 out of 17 deaths recorded were among black or African American patients.
States that have partially reopened — notably Georgia, which allowed gyms, barber shops, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys to reopen April 24 — are expected to see more cases, although it is too early yet to track reliably, according to the CDC. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp in recent days has allocated mobile hospital units to Gainesville, Albany and Rome, Georgia, where hospitalization numbers remain high.
Also, Virginia is still near the bottom of the nation in the number of tests it is conducting per 100,000 residents, according to Johns Hopkins University. As of Wednesday, Virginia had conducted only 1,335 tests per 100,000 people — fewer than neighbors Washington, D.C. (3,557), Tennessee (3,355), West Virginia (3,089), Maryland (2,083) and North Carolina (1,584).
Only Arizona and Puerto Rico are conducting fewer tests per capita than Virginia, although Northam and other officials regularly mention that Virginia has quickly ramped up its testing capacity in recent weeks, and is now able to test about 6,500 people a day. As of Thursday, VDH reports that 122,119 people in Virginia have been tested, and 136,558 tests have been conducted in total, with some people tested more than once.
Virginia’s testing lag, which state health officials attribute in part to concerns about preserving enough PPE for health care workers and warding off a severe backlog of tests at the state lab when it was the only facility in Virginia producing test results, has remained a sticking point for many who are worried that the commonwealth will see a spike in COVID-19 cases after Northam allows businesses to reopen.
Nationally, an internal White House document forecasts that after states reopen, the United States could see as many as 3,000 deaths a day in June.
ZZQ Texas Craft Barbeque in Richmond has closed indefinitely.
However, Northam and other state governors are under pressure from local officials and business leaders, who are seeking to roll back social-distancing restrictions as industries continue to flounder and unemployment numbers skyrocket because of the pandemic.
Reopening proponents point to the fact that Southwest Virginia and other less-populated regions of the state have seen far fewer coronavirus cases, hospitalization and deaths. Many in those areas voiced support for a regional reopening plan, which the governor rejected, partly out of concern for people traveling from hot spots and carrying the virus to less-affected communities.
Even some elected officials in the Peninsula, where outbreaks continue in the region’s nursing homes, are saying it’s time to reopen, noting the toll of the shutdown, particularly on restaurants and tourism businesses. Six officials from James City County and York County’s boards and the Williamsburg City Council signed an April 24 letter to Northam, writing, “We would like to see a phased reopening of business begin as soon as possible, provided we can ensure that our citizens are protected through reasonable limitations and the maintenance of social distancing.” They further suggest that restaurants and businesses that offer services like hair care should be allowed to reopen “with strict guidelines.”
Jay Langston, executive director of the Shenandoah Valley Partnership, said that consistency from the state is needed for businesses to succeed as they reopen. “We cannot afford to tell our businesses they can reopen if they meet certain regulations, and then amend them a week later because the government has additional regulations,” he said. “Businesses, nor the public, can withstand this uncertainty.”
The Virginia Chamber of Commerce issued its “Blueprint for Getting Virginians Back to Work” initiative April 30, asking for businesses to fill out a survey by May 15, in an effort to “help move the commonwealth beyond the term ‘essential business’ to a plan that eventually allows all businesses to reopen.” President and CEO Barry DuVal said in a statement that “many businesses have remained open during this pandemic using precautionary measures like increased remote working arrangements, health screenings at entrances, providing workers with protective gear, rerouting workers through separate entrances and exits, and staggering shifts to limit interaction,” measures that others can take in reopening safely, he added.
Localities across the commonwealth have adjusted their annual budgets in recent weeks, rolling back spending and furloughing workers. In a call this week with Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce members, Sen. Tim Kaine said that most cities and counties are expecting at least a 15% decrease in tax revenue due to business closures.
As for Northam — who holds the keys to restarting Virginia’s economy — the May 15 reopening is “not written in stone,” he said Wednesday. If the number of COVID-19 cases or hospitalizations in the state rise beyond where he’s comfortable, or if his counterparts in Maryland and Washington, D.C., present concerns about the reopening date, the governor says he may postpone.
Assistant Editor Sydney Lake contributed to this article.
Reopening the state is “not written in stone,” Gov. Ralph Northam cautioned Wednesday during his regular COVID-19 news conference. It appears as if he will go forward with easing restrictions on nonessential businesses next Friday as previously announced, but the timeline could change, depending on various factors, including the governor‘s coordinated efforts with Maryland’s governor and Washington, D.C.’s mayor.
“If they want to raise that floor another week, or whatever they think is necessary, we’ll work with them on that,” Northam said of Gov. Larry Hogan and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, with whom he spoke by phone Tuesday. “We’re still a week-and-a-half away. Things aren’t written in stone. There has to be some flexibility.”
Northam also said Wednesday that localities will be permitted to add — but not subtract — social-distancing restrictions when the state lifts Executive Order 53 and enters Phase One of reopening nonessential businesses. Noting that some regions, including Northern Virginia and the Eastern Shore, are still seeing high numbers of cases compared to other parts of the state, Northam said he considers the state’s restrictions “the floor” of what’s expected when Phase One of the state’s blueprint launches, allowing the reopening of businesses such as hair salons, spas, restaurant dining rooms, theaters, amusement parks and other recreational businesses.
Phase One requires limiting gatherings to 10 people or less, and maintaining six feet of distance between employees and patrons, as well as other policies tailored to specific industries like hair salons and spas.
The governor reiterated the specific criteria he’s considering when letting the shutdown order expire:
The percentage of positive COVID-19 tests remaining on a “steady or downward” trend
The number of hospitalized patients steady or decreasing
Steady availability of hospital beds and ventilators
Increased ability to test and trace cases
In information shared Monday by the Virginia Department of Health, the percentage of positive cases compared to the total number of tests conducted has steadily gone down since April 20, but the number of confirmed and probable cases still rises by hundreds daily. Wednesday’s VDH update was delayed because of a technical error VDH said occurred overnight, but Tuesday’s statistics show 19,357 confirmed cases and 899 probable cases across the state, an increase of 717 confirmed cases in 24 hours.
Northam also discussed efforts to address outbreaks at two poultry packaging plants in Accomack County on the Eastern Shore, where approximately 260 people have tested positive so far.
The poultry plant owners — Perdue Farms and Tyson Foods Inc. — are conducting testing of all 3,000 employees at both facilities, with results expected later this week. A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been working with the plants on providing testing and setting up Plexiglas barriers between employees in their workspaces. Other precautions include providing hotel space for employees who are quarantined and staggering break times to prevent crowding in the workplace.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver compared the impact of the outbreak at the plants to a “cruise ship with 3,000 COVID patients” embarking daily, causing further concern about community spread. As of Tuesday, Accomack County had 429 positive cases, according to the Virginia Department of Health, and Oliver noted that a nursing home and a convenience store there have experienced multiple cases. “The outbreak goes beyond the meat-processing plants,” he said.
On Friday and Saturday, the Virginia National Guard and VDH employees will run drive-thru testing sites on the Eastern Shore, with about 1,000 people expected to be tested each day, said Maj. Gen. Timothy Williams, the state’s adjutant general and leader of the Virginia National Guard. Members of the Guard have assisted with 12 COVID-19 testing events, including in Richmond, Northern Virginia and the Sussex II State Prison, in recent weeks, as well as delivering PPE supplies and working with food banks.
Northam also said he has asked President Trump to extend Title 32 authorization — allowing the state to be reimbursed by the federal government for activating the Virginia National Guard — beyond the end of May, when the earlier order expires.
Earlier Wednesday during a news briefing, state health officials said they are conducting about 6,500 tests per day, and there are approximately 160 sites statewide where testing is available, in addition to testing at long-term care facilities, prisons and other group settings, and walk-up testing held at various times in underserved communities. Two retail pharmacies also have set up testing sites recently, with more to come, said Michael Keatts, VDH’s northwest regional health emergency coordinator.
Stamford, Connecticut-based Cenveo Worldwide Ltd. is shutting down its Cadmus printing plant in Henrico County by the end of May, laying off 184 employees.
The printing plant was open Tuesday, but an employee said he couldn’t discuss the closing because he had signed a nondisclosure agreement.
In recent years, the Cenveo plant in Richmond has printed comic books (for major publishers, including Marvel Comics) and magazines (including Virginia Business), along with journals and books and other printed matter, such as direct mail advertisements. Cenveo also owns subsidiaries that print labels, envelopes, packaging and marketing materials.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted our customers’ businesses and, in turn, has diminished the available work at the facility. One large customer has ceased all work permanently, several publishers have cancelled or delayed their print projects, and nearly all comic production has ceased,” the company’s regional human resources manager, Laurie Burger wrote, explaining why the company was unable to file the WARN notice 60 days ahead of the plant closure as required when announcing factory closures and mass layoffs.
“The friends we have worked with at the Cadmus Byrd plant will be sorely missed,” said Tim Birdsong, a sales representative with New Jersey-based Roosevelt Paper Co., one of the printing plant’s suppliers. “Roosevelt Paper wishes each of them the best possible success in these daunting times. They are in our thoughts and prayers. We wish them good health and safety.”
Cenveo, which emerged from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in 2018, acquired Cadmus Communications — which then had about 3,300 employees — for about $430 million, including debt, in 2007. Cadmus was then the world’s largest printer of scientific, technical and medical journals, as well as the fifth-largest periodicals printer in North America, with annual revenues above $450 million, according to a news release at the time of purchase. In 2010, Cenveo closed three printing facilities, including the LexisNexis plant in Charlottesville, with a loss of nearly 300 workers.
The plant traces its origins back to William Byrd Press Inc., a commercial periodical press founded in Richmond in 1913. Byrd merged with Washburn Graphics Inc. of Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1984, forming Cadmus Communications Corp. as a holding company. After the merger, Byrd and Washburn continued to operate under separate management. Cadmus Communications made several purchases in the 1980s and ’90s, including the 1999 buyout of Waverly Press, a Baltimore-based research journal printer. Waverly and Byrd Press combined to create Cadmus Journal Services.
Richmond-based Sauer Brands Inc. is expanding into popcorn seasoning with the acquisition of Chicago Custom Foods LLC, the company announced Tuesday. CCF makes Kernel Season’s, a brand that makes more than 20 popcorn flavors.
Sauer, which owns Duke’s Mayonnaise, The Spice Hunter and its own line of spices and seasoning, did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. Chicago Custom Foods CEO Jason Roy will report to Sauer Brands CEO Martin Kelly, and CCF, which employs about 50 people, will be operated as a separate business at its current location in Chicago’s suburbs.
In July, Charlotte, North Carolina-based Falfurrias Capital Partners purchased C.F. Sauer Co. after decades of family ownership and has maintained the headquarters and spice plant in Richmond. The Sauer family still owns Sauer Properties, a commercial real estate company with holdings in the greater Richmond area.
Beyond Kernel Season’s, the No. 1-selling popcorn seasoning brand in the U.S., CCF also makes Tasty Shakes oatmeal mix-ins and Veggie Season’s vegetable seasonings. Truffle Season’s, a line of truffle-flavored popcorn flavors, is set for release later this year. CCF’s products are sold at 30,000 stores in the United States and internationally, as well as being used by movie theaters in 30 countries.
William W. “Bill” Lovette, executive chairman of Sauer Brands, said Tuesday that CCF created the popcorn flavoring category in grocery stores, after starting their business at cinemas. Today, Lovette said, theaters make up about 10% of the company’s business, and the rest is sold via large retailers like Walmart and Target, and grocery stores, including Kroger and Publix.
He added that Sauer has thrived financially during the COVID-19 pandemic, with more people cooking at home over the past two months and buying groceries. None of Sauer’s ingredient suppliers encountered serious delays, either.
Much of the work at the plants — including two condiment manufacturing facilities in Kansas and South Carolina, and The Spice Hunter’s plant in California — is done by machine, which allows social distancing, Lovette said, and everyone who enters a facility is required to wear a mask. In packaging areas, workers are able to spread out and use barriers to remain protected.
Also, about two weeks ago Richmond’s spice plant started producing hand sanitizer, providing it for free to first responders and Sauer workers.
Some workers in South Carolina and Kansas were furloughed because they work for plants that manufacture products for restaurants, many of which were closed for public health reasons. Several are returning to work soon, although Lovette said he didn’t know exactly how many. He added that although a few workers across the company’s operations had to be quarantined after traveling during early March, none had tested positive for the coronavirus, and overall, work continued smoothly.
“I noticed the care with which they approached the products,” Lovette said of the employees. “That’s probably what I’m most grateful for, their attitude of serving others.”
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