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byline: Kate Andrews

Chase, McAuliffe lead gubernatorial races, Wason Center poll finds

Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and state Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, lead the packs in pursuit of their parties’ gubernatorial nominations, according to a poll released Friday by the Wason Center for Civic Leadership at Christopher Newport University.

McAuliffe, who has outraised other Democrats in campaign funds, leads the field with 26% of the vote — although 49% of Democratic voters surveyed said they are undecided. Chase has a narrower lead of 17% among likely Republican voters polled. On the GOP side, 55% say they’re undecided.

Here’s the breakdown among the other Democratic candidates:

  • Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax — 12%
  • Former Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy and state Sen. Jennifer McClellan — tied at 4% each
  • Del. Lee Carter — 1%

And on the Republican side:

  • Del. Kirk Cox — 10%
  • Pete Snyder, entrepreneur — 6%
  • Glenn Youngkin, former CEO of The Carlyle Group — 3%

Chase’s hard-right stance and ardent support of former President Trump, which has led her into trouble with fellow Republicans and Democrats, is a sharp contrast next to the more moderate Cox, the former speaker of the House of Delegates. As voters get to know other candidates, the tension “could crack the party and open the door for Snyder or another contender,” Wason Center Research Director Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo said in a statement. Quentin Kidd, the center’s academic director, notes that McAuliffe “opens with a head start, but he’s a long way from closing the deal.”

McAuliffe has the highest name recognition and has a favorable/unfavorable rating of 25% to 21%, while Chase’s ratings are 9% favorable and 14% unfavorable. Chase was censured last month by the state Senate in part for her participation in a pro-Trump rally Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C., before the violent breach of the U.S. Capitol, as well as a laundry list of other actions and words. She is suing the legislative body to have the censure resolution expunged from the record, claiming that it was a violation of her civil rights to free speech.

In a poll of 508 likely voters conducted Feb. 6-11 by YouGov, McAuliffe and Chase held stronger leads than in the Wason poll, based on interviews with 1,005 Virginia registered voters conducted Jan. 31-Feb. 14. McAuliffe carried 33% of Democratic votes, and 21% of undecided Democratic voters say they lean toward voting for the former governor. Chase had 19% of likely Republican votes in the YouGov survey, followed by Snyder with 10% and Cox with 6%, and 10% of undecided Republican voters said they lean toward the Chesterfield senator.

In the other statewide races, the Wason poll found that 42% of Democratic voters say they support Attorney General Mark Herring, who is running for a third term. Only 3% said they support Del. Jerrauld “Jay” Jones, and 50% say they are undecided. Virginia Beach attorney Chuck Smith leads the Republican field of AG candidates with 10%, and Del. Glenn Davis leads the field for the lieutenant governor nomination, with 8% of Republican voters saying they support him. Among Democratic voters, 78% say they are undecided on the crowded lieutenant governor field, and no candidate has a significant lead.

Virginia’s Democratic Party will hold primary elections on June 8 for the three statewide offices, while state Republicans currently have a May 1 convention scheduled to choose their nominees — although a hearing is taking place Friday in Richmond Circuit Court on Chase’s civil suit to prevent the party from hosting a convention, which she says is not fair to voters during pandemic restrictions on large gatherings.

In other questions, Democrats lead Republicans 49% to 37% in a generic ballot for the House of Delegates, in which all 100 seats are up this year. Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has a 54% approval rating, and 47% of Virginians polled say the state is heading in the right direction, although 41% say it is going in the wrong direction, falling along partisan lines.

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State GOP seeks dismissal of Chase lawsuit

The Republican Party of Virginia is asking the Richmond Circuit Court to toss out a lawsuit by state Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, that seeks to force the party to hold a primary election instead of a nominating convention.

In papers filed this week by Washington, D.C., attorney Lee Goodman, the Republican Party of Virginia filed a motion to be heard before a scheduled hearing for Chase’s motion for an emergency temporary injunction against the state GOP. If granted, Chase’s injunction would prevent the state party from moving forward with plans for its May 1 convention to nominate GOP 2021 candidates for governor, attorney general and lieutenant governor.

Both the Republican and Democratic parties are required to register plans for a primary election with the State Board of Elections by Tuesday, Feb. 23.

A hearing is scheduled at Richmond Circuit Court on Friday, although the courts were closed Thursday due to winter weather and could also close Friday.

Virginia Democrats plan to hold a statewide primary in June allowing voters to choose nominees, but Republicans are planning to host an “unassembled” convention to choose its 2021 state candidates — a pandemic-era version of a nominating convention, which is ordinarily held in a building with thousands of delegates. The party hosted so-called “drive-through” conventions last year to choose its nominees for Congress.

Chase, a gubernatorial candidate, has vocally opposed holding a convention instead of a primary.

Chase’s suit requests that the Richmond Circuit Court declare that the party is allowed only to hold an in-person convention — leading to the inevitable decision that such a gathering would be illegal under Gov. Ralph Northam’s Executive Order 72 to prevent the spread of the pandemic.

Chase argues that because gatherings of more than 10 people have been outlawed by executive order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the state GOP “has chosen a method that is illegal under the governor’s current executive orders and is secretly planning to choose the statewide nominees themselves, bypassing the people of Virginia. I will not stand for this.” She said also that the state party’s plans amount to “socialism,” by allowing only a few people in power to decide on candidates.

The GOP’s State Central Committee ended a meeting in January before holding a vote to choose a primary election, and it is not scheduled to hold another meeting until after the Feb. 23 state elections board deadline.

Goodman, a former chairman and commissioner of the Federal Election Commission and the Republican Party of Virginia’s general counsel from 2009 to 2013, argues in his motion that Chase’s suit has no merit because the party has not fixed its nomination method, and that Chase “has no right to a state-run primary. The party has a well-established First Amendment right to reject a state-run primary.”

Goodman also says that it’s uncertain that Gov. Ralph Northam will continue to restrict gatherings, and that Chase “wants to influence ongoing deliberations within the party rather than to enjoin the actual nominating method the party will employ in the spring.”

In another motion opposing Chase’s injunction, Goodman says Chase is “not harmed by being required to compete for the nomination in the method chosen by her party. Moreover, the ulterior relief she seeks — a state-run, taxpayer-funded primary — is not relief this court can mandate upon the party.”

Chase vocally opposes a convention and flirted in December with running for governor as an independent — in part, she argued, because GOP officials could cut her out of the nomination over personal dislike. A self-described “Trump in heels,” Chase has long had disagreements with her party. In 2019, she left the Senate Republican Caucus over its more moderate stances on Medicaid and tax increases, and she was kicked out of the Chesterfield County GOP after making public statements against the Republican county sheriff.

In late January, Chase was censured by the Virginia Senate for “failure to uphold her oath of office, misuse of office and conduct unbecoming of a senator” based on several controversies over the past two years, including participation in the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally Jan. 6 at the National Mall that preceded the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. She is the first Virginia senator censured since 1987, with a vote that included three Republican senators supporting her censure. Chase has sued the state Senate in response, claiming the censure is a violation of her civil rights to free speech.

The first declared GOP candidate for governor, Chase has raised more money than her competitors, who all joined the race after the November 2020 election, and according to recent polls, is the GOP frontrunner in the crowded race. Other vying for this year’s Virginia GOP gubernatorial nomination include state Del. Kirk Cox, former Carlyle Group CEO Glenn A. Youngkin, former New Media Strategies CEO Pete Snyder and retired Army Col. Sergio de la Peña. Youngkin and Snyder, however, are multimillionaires who could potentially self-fund their campaigns.

Youngkin said in a radio interview that he is “extraordinarily frustrated” by the State Central Committee’s decision not to hold a vote at its January meeting to reconsider the unassembled convention method but that he aims to win a primary or convention, whichever is held. “If we’re going to have a primary, let’s go have a primary,” he said. “I am so happy to run for governor no matter what state central decides. But this idea that we’re not going to decide is just unacceptable. … Let Republicans in Virginia choose. If we choose a convention, which is great with me, I plan on winning that because we need to choose a governor who can win.”

Similarly, Cox’s campaign said the delegate hopes “that the State Central Committee will take care of its business, hopefully sooner rather than later, but that isn’t stopping us from doing everything it will take to win no matter the nomination.”

De la Peña’s campaign says the former Trump appointee to the Department of Defense “has no opinion on a convention or primary.” Snyder’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

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State launches COVID-19 vaccine hotline

Gov. Ralph Northam announced Wednesday that a COVID-19 vaccine hotline, staffed with about 750 customer service employees, has launched. The number is (877) VAX-IN-VA, or (877) 829-4682.

The phone number, targeted for Virginians without reliable internet access, opened the day after the Virginia Department of Health started a statewide vaccine registration website, replacing local health districts’ sites. The number will be staffed from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, and some staffers speak Spanish, Northam said at his news conference Wednesday. Any Virginia resident who wants a vaccination can register through the website or the phone number, although the wait may be longer for some people, depending on qualification factors such as age, profession and preexisting health conditions.

Separately, anyone 65 or older in Virginia who wishes to receive a COVID-19 vaccination shot at a CVS pharmacy must also register on CVS’s website. Demand continues to outstrip supply, and about 1 million people in Virginia, or 12.4% of the state’s population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

TTY service is available for people who are hard of hearing, and there is a call-back service for people who speak languages other than English or Spanish. Callers must provide some basic information to determine eligibility for vaccination, but they will not be asked for a Social Security number or legal immigration status. Like those who register on the website, callers will receive confirmation that they are now on the state’s waiting list and a reference code to check their status later.

Fairfax County, unlike the rest of the state, will continue using its local website to register residents for vaccination. People who registered earlier with their local health districts may not yet be able to see their registration yet because those waiting lists are still being added to the centralized site, but they should be available in a few days, Northam added.

The governor said that he continues to talk to the White House and other governors regularly, and that he isn’t “shy” about mentioning the state’s need for more vaccine doses, which reflects the situation in other states.

“We have told the president and his team, ‘We need more doses,'” Northam said, at an average of 120,000 doses a week. Virginia needs about 350,000 doses a week to meet demand, the governor added. On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the federal government will increase the number of doses sent to states this week, from 11 million to about 13.5 million, and will also double the number of weekly doses sent directly to pharmacies, from 1 million to 2 million.

It was not clear yet how many more doses that could mean for Virginia, although the federal government has previously allocated doses to states based on population.

Many residents have raised concerns about equity in making vaccinations available to the state’s most vulnerable populations — chiefly Latino and Black residents who may work or live in conditions that leave them at higher risk of catching the virus. Virginia’s chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, Janice Underwood, said the state’s health equity task force is working across several agencies to make sure doses are available to people in those populations.

In the General Assembly, twin bills passed by the state Senate and the House of Delegates and signed by Northam allows dentists and other health care providers to administer COVID-19 vaccines. According to the Virginia Dental Association, which has 3,900 member dentists across the state, dental students and dentists will be allowed to volunteer at vaccination clinics, and many have completed the health department’s vaccine provider intent form, the first step for any health care worker to give shots.

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Yorktown consulting firm sues SCHEV over VMI probe contract

A Yorktown-based consultancy is suing the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and the firm conducting an investigation into Virginia Military Institute’s racial attitudes and practices, a contract the plaintiff unsuccessfully bid on last year.

In a civil suit filed Feb. 11 in Richmond Circuit Court, the Center for Applied Innovation LLC (CAI) seeks an injunction against Barnes & Thornburg LLP that would halt all its work on the VMI probe, and accuses SCHEV of illegally favoring the Indiana-based law firm for the $1 million contract.

According to the suit filed on CAI’s behalf by Richmond-based attorney Patrick C. Henry II, Barnes & Thornburg, which has offices around the country, was not authorized to do business in Virginia on Nov. 20, when it submitted its bid for the VMI probe following a request for proposals run by SCHEV. The company, an Indiana-based limited liability partnership (LLP), received its Virginia State Corporation Commission qualification to perform work for the state on Nov. 25, Henry argues in the suit.

The complaint also accuses SCHEV of limiting CAI President Robert C. Morris Jr.’s access to the procurement records he sought to examine when protesting the contract’s award to Barnes & Thornburg, granting Morris only two hours to look at more than 1,000 pages of documents in person at SCHEV’s offices in Richmond in December. The suit says that Morris has underlying health conditions that could place him at increased risk of severe illness from the coronavirus, and that with the state attorney general’s input, SCHEV refused to provide access to the documents remotely.

The suit also claims that SCHEV provided Morris with only some of the documents he requested under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, including “completely redacted” copies of the governor’s Oct. 30 work plan in which Gov. Ralph Northam and others discuss the situation at VMI, which came under scrutiny last year for reports of recent racist actions against Black cadets.

Northam, a 1981 VMI alumnus, announced in October that the state would launch a third-party investigation of the Lexington military college’s culture after The Washington Post published a story about a Black student who said he had been threatened with lynching by another student in 2018, among other offenses. The state allocated $1 million for the equity audit, set to start in mid-December. CAI’s suit accuses SCHEV of “arbitrary and capricious” scoring of Barnes & Thornburg’s proposal that indicates “demonstrated bias” in the firm’s favor — information that the agency then tried to keep from CAI by not providing full information on the proposal.

“It is abundantly clear that SCHEV, aided by the [attorney general’s office], governor’s office, and other Virginia government officials and agencies, employed tricks, artifices, outright misrepresentations and intentional omissions to engage in an unlawful scheme to fraudulently conceal from CAI material portions of the procurement record,” the suit alleges.

The suit arrives amid more controversy surrounding the VMI probe. In a progress report issued Feb. 4 by Barnes & Thornburg’s team conducting the equity audit, the state postponed signing the contract by several weeks, delaying the start until Jan. 7, amid VMI’s insistence that its legal counsel, Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, participate in all interviews conducted by the auditors.

“All of this has consumed valuable time that the team could have spent on conducting substantive fact-finding work,” the report says.

In October, VMI’s superintendent, retired Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, resigned “with deep regret” from the post. His interim replacement, retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Cedric T. Wins, a 1985 alumnus, has participated in extensive conversations with state officials and the VMI Board of Visitors, which voted to remove its statue of Confederate Gen. Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, who taught at the institute, in December.

On Feb. 11, Wins announced Barnes & Thornburg would begin conducting interviews on post and virtually, as well as sending an anonymous survey to cadets, alumni, faculty and staff members.

SCHEV declined to comment on the suit and confirmed that the case will be handled by the attorney general’s office. Barnes & Thornburg also declined to comment Wednesday.

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Business groups ask Va. lawmakers for higher PPP tax deductions

Virginia’s two legislative bodies have not yet agreed on an amount that Virginia businesses can deduct from federal Paycheck Protection Program loans they received last year, and how much of the loans they’ll have to pay state taxes on. Business groups are asking state lawmakers to allow higher deductions — especially for sectors like hospitality and restaurants that are still suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic impacts.

In two bills currently going through the General Assembly, the Senate has approved a $100,000 deduction, while the House of Delegates has agreed to only a $25,000 deduction — requiring businesses that received PPP loans to pay state taxes on all funding above those amounts. The maximum loan amount allowed under the program was $10 million; approximately 114,000 small businesses in Virginia received a total of $12.6 billion in PPP loans last year (including Virginia Business Media LLC). In January, the U.S. Small Business Administration opened a second round of PPP loans capped at $2 million each.

In December 2020, Congress stipulated that all PPP funds would be exempt from federal corporate taxes and also allowed businesses to deduct expenses paid with PPP funds. 

The two state bills, which would bring Virginia into conformity with the latest federal IRS code, will ultimately have to be reconciled before reaching the governor’s desk — and business groups know which way they want the decision to go: toward higher deduction rates.

In a letter to House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn and Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw sent Wednesday, the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging and Travel Association says that both bills “unfairly limit tax deductions. PPP represented a temporary fix, which directly benefits Virginia’s fiscal outlook through reduced unemployment and lower Medicaid enrollment. But this legislation reverses this economic benefit by increasing state tax burdens when Virginia’s hospitality businesses can least afford it.”

VRLTA President Eric Terry notes in the letter that the state’s restaurant industry continued to lose jobs into December 2020, and the leisure and hospitality industry has lost more than 72,000 jobs statewide over the last year. He asks that legislators consider a higher deductible amount for hospitality businesses that were more adversely affected than other kinds of businesses, while voicing support for the Senate’s plan.

“As you consider legislation regarding tax conformity with federal standards, we ask that you take into consideration the exceptionally challenging situation of the hospitality industry,” Terry wrote. “The recent announcement of an additional $730 million in the mid-session budget re-forecast provides you with the ability to do more to help those in the hospitality industry which were most heavily impacted by COVID-19.

“Without action, our members will face surprise tax bills at a time when they should be focusing on surviving the winter and the pandemic. We ask that you consider creating a higher deductibility allowance for the hospitality industry to recognize the unique challenges our members continue to face.”

On Monday, Gov. Ralph Northam announced that state revenue is expected to be $730.2 million higher than expected for the next two years, jumping to $46.7 billion. In his statement, the governor said that the additional funds “allow us to move forward with our shared priorities — providing Virginia families and businesses the relief they need to get back on their feet, supporting public schools and giving our public workers a pay raise.”

The Virginia chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business released a statement Feb. 4 that praises the Senate’s recommended deduction of $100,000 and asks the House to reconsider its $25,000 limit.

“Small business owners were desperate when they took these federal loans after losing large amounts of revenue due to state-mandated shutdowns and restrictions,” NFIB State Director Nicole Riley said in a statement. “They followed all the rules set by Congress to keep their employees paid and off unemployment, so at the federal level the loans were forgiven and all related expenses were deductible. Now, almost a year later, when so many small businesses are still struggling to stay afloat, setting a higher cap on deductions will help them recover and prevent more business closures.”

Virginia is one of about 20 states that freeze conformity of state tax rules with federal tax code as of a particular date. Currently, Virginia’s state tax laws conform with pre-pandemic IRS code as it existed on Dec. 31, 2019.

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Metro awards $179M contract to replace escalators

Metro will begin replacing 130 escalators in 32 stations in May, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) announced Tuesday. The transportation authority that runs the Metrorail and Metrobus lines in the Washington area has awarded a $179 million, seven-year contract to KONE, a Finnish elevator and escalator company with its U.S. headquarters in Illinois.

Metro’s oldest escalators average 38 years in service, according to Metro General Manager and CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld. The replacement of the 130 escalators in Metro stations in Northern Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., follows the completion of an eight-year project concluded in 2019 in which 145 escalators were replaced and 153 escalators were renovated. After the completion of this project, 517 of the system’s 618 escalators will have been replaced or renovated since 2011, according to WMATA.

To install the new escalators, KONE will demolish existing escalators and remove the parts, making room for new electrical cables and equipment made specifically for the project. Among the replacements will be four escalators at the Rosslyn station that date to 1977 and rise nearly 10 stories. No more than 18 escalators will be out of service at any one time, according to the statement, and additional scheduling details will be provided later.

More information, including which stations will be impacted, is available here.

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Statewide COVID vaccine registration site launched

The Virginia Department of Health launched its COVID-19 vaccine registration system Tuesday, available at vaccinate.virginia.gov. A phone hotline will open Wednesday, allowing Virginians who don’t have reliable internet access to register for the vaccine.

The site comes after local health districts had set up local sites for residents to register for vaccines, which are currently available to people age 65 and older, as well as others in high-priority groups such as teachers, medical responders, transportation and grocery store workers. Those local registration sites — with the exception of the Fairfax Health Department, which is maintaining its own system — are now closed, although VDH officials say that people on local health department waiting lists do not need to re-register on the new statewide site.

“Data migration is continuing throughout the week and it may take several days for your name to appear in the centralized system,” VDH reports. “Everyone who has previously registered is still on the list, and their status will not be affected.”

Virginians age 65 and older who want to register for a vaccine dose available through CVS pharmacies must still register for an appointment through CVS’ national appointment system because of technological limits.

VDH anticipates high traffic on the new registration site Tuesday and encouraged anyone who isn’t able to enter their information to try again later. On the site, there are a series of questions seeking the following information: name, address, type of residence (including long-term care facilities), type of job (including professions at higher risk), underlying health conditions, race, age and ethnicity. English and Spanish are both available.

Registrants can select automated updates by phone, email or text that will occur weekly as long as they are on the list to be vaccinated; they can also check their status at vaccinate.virginia.gov and click “Check the List” at the top of the page. VDH says that migration of information from local health districts is still taking place Tuesday and that information may not yet be available on the site.

Although about half of Virginia’s population is now eligible for vaccination, demand for doses far outstrips supply. The state is receiving about 140,000 doses per week from the federal government, and as of Tuesday, 1,047,780 people have received at least one dose of the two-shot vaccine, or 12.3% of the population.

Gov. Ralph Northam will provide an update Wednesday on the new site and the VDH hotline, which will be manned by a 700-person call center, according to earlier reports.

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Va. State Senate seeks dismissal of Chase civil rights suit

In a response to state Sen. Amanda Chase’s lawsuit claiming her civil rights were violated by her political censure last month, attorneys representing the Virginia State Senate and its clerk filed documents Monday seeking the suit’s dismissal under sovereign and legislative immunity protection of the defendants.

Chase’s attorney, Tim Anderson of Virginia Beach, filed suit on behalf of the Republican gubernatorial candidate Feb. 1 in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia. The suit seeks an injunction to prevent Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar from publishing last month’s censure resolution, passed 24-9, in the official journal of the Senate of Virginia.

Chase, R-Chesterfield County, argued that the resolution violated her First Amendment right to freedom of speech and the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment, after she was censured for her speech and actions over the past two years, including participating in a pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, hours before supporters of the former president violently breached the U.S. Capitol. The suit also seeks to force Schaar to expunge the record of an earlier version of the censure, which argued that Chase engaged in “fomenting insurrection.”

In Monday’s documents, Solicitor General Toby J. Heytens of the state attorney general’s office argues that the two named defendants — the Virginia Senate and Schaar — are immune from the suit, so the complaint should be dismissed. According to Heytens’ argument, the Senate and the clerk, because she was serving in her official capacity during the censure resolution, cannot be sued under sovereign immunity — a tenet of Virginia law that in essence protects the state from civil lawsuits.

Schaar also is protected by “absolute legislative immunity,” Heytens argues, because she was acting in her professional capacity as “an agent” of the state. Similarly, had Chase sued individual senators, the response says, they too would be protected by legislative immunity under Virginia law.

The motion says also that “the Senate acted entirely consistently with its own rules when considering and approving the resolution of censure.” Attorney General Mark Herring issued an advisory opinion that both the state Senate and the House of Delegates “possesses broad power to discipline and, where it judges appropriate, expel member legislators.” Del. Lee Carter, D-Manassas, and a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, asked the attorney general if the General Assembly could discipline lawmakers who had participated in the Jan. 6 takeover of the Capitol.

According to an order filed by Judge Robert E. Payne on Feb. 3, oral arguments will be held at the federal court in Richmond on March 19.

Chase also has sued the Republican Party of Virginia in the Richmond Circuit Court, seeking an injunction against its May 1 nominating convention to determine candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, which she claims is not fair to voters under current pandemic executive orders. A hearing is scheduled Friday, four days before Virginia’s political parties must submit their nominating method to the State Board of Elections on Feb. 23. The state Democratic Party has declared it will hold a primary election in June.

 

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COVID roundup: Despite flattening rates, some Va. ICUs overwhelmed

Over the past week, Virginia recorded its 7,000th COVID-19 death and passed its 1 millionth person vaccinated, while the number of new cases and fatalities continue to decline. At the same time, however, some of the state’s intensive care units are full, according to federal data collected at the beginning of the month.

In a snapshot from Jan. 29 to Feb. 4, Richmond’s Bon Secours St. Francis Medical Center’s ICU was 98% full, and VCU Medical Center was 99% full. Chesapeake General Hospital and Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital had no available beds, and Sentara Obici Hospital in Suffolk was at 107% occupancy.

The state as a whole has 77% of its ICU beds occupied, a percentage that decreases to 50% when including surge beds, according to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association’s Feb. 15 update. According to a report by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, it’s not just that more people are sick with the virus, but hospitals are reducing the number of staffed ICU beds, including at VCU and Sentara Obici, due to staff shortages.

Causing further concern is the presence of two highly contagious variants of the virus from the United Kingdom and South Africa, which have shown up in Virginia; as of Sunday night, 11 U.K.-strain cases and two South African variant cases have been recorded in the state, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

The overall rate of new COVID cases in the state has continued to flatten, falling below 10% for the first time in several weeks; as of Monday, the seven-day positivity rate was at 9.3%, and the number of new cases last week in Virginia was at 20,713. The number of virus-related deaths was at 196, a decrease by 150 fatalities compared to the previous week. Since last March, the state has reported 551,538 cases and 7,016 deaths.

On Tuesday, the state is set to launch a statewide pre-registration system for COVID vaccination, VDH announced Friday. Previously, local health districts set up registration forms — some of which did not notify residents that their information had gone through successfully. Dr. Danny Avula, the state’s vaccine coordinator, said the new online system will inform all registrants that their information has been entered, and existing waiting lists from health districts will be added to the state system. Registrants also will receive weekly notification that they are still on the waiting list, Avula said. The state also will provide a phone number for questions and registration, particularly for Virginians without reliable internet access.

As of Monday, 1.3 million vaccine doses have been administered statewide out of 1.7 million received; 1,029,351 people — 12.1% of the population — have received at least one dose, and 337,968 are fully vaccinated. As of Monday, the state remained ninth in the nation for its percentage of doses administered, according to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed by Becker’s Hospital Review.

Last week, 36 CVS locations across the state began administering shots to Virginians ages 65 and older, part of a federal program providing about 26,000 more doses per week to the state — bumping the number of doses to nearly 140,000 last week. Avula noted that the state was not able to import VDH waiting lists into CVS’ registration system, due to shortcomings with the pharmacy chain’s technology.

With race and ethnicity information available for only 64.7% of people who have received shots in the state, the majority of shots were received by white, non-Hispanic people — 71.5% as of Monday, according to VDH. Women have received about 64% of doses, and the number of recipients by age is spread broadly, with people age 70 to 79 as the top age group.

As of Feb. 11, the following health districts have positivity rates of 10% or higher:

  • Chesapeake — 19%, down from 20.9% on Feb. 4
  • Hampton — 18.6%, down from 19.5%
  • Portsmouth — 17.8%, down from 19.9%
  • Norfolk — 13.9%, down from 14.6%
  • Pittsylvania-Danville — 13.7%, down from 15.3%
  • Rappahannock (city of Fredericksburg and Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford counties) — 13.5%, down from 15.2%
  • Eastern Shore — 13.4%, down from 16.2%
  • Virginia Beach — 13.1%, down from 15.9%
  • Peninsula (Newport News, Poquoson, Williamsburg, James City and York counties)  — 12.7%, down from 13%
  • West Piedmont (Franklin, Henry and Patrick counties and the city of Martinsville) — 12.5%, down from 13.5%
  • Piedmont (Amelia, Buckingham, Charlotte, Cumberland, Lunenburg, Nottoway and Prince Edward counties) — 12.2%, up from 11.8%
  • Western Tidewater (cities of Franklin and Suffolk and Isle of Wight and Southampton counties) — 12.1%, down from 14.3%
  • Three Rivers (Essex, Gloucester, King and Queen, King William, Lancaster, Mathews, Middlesex, Northumberland and Westmoreland counties) — 11.8%, down from 12.3%
  • Central Virginia (Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell counties and Lynchburg) — 11.6%, down from 11.8%
  • Prince William — 11.4%, up from 11.2%
  • Chesterfield — 11.2%, down from 11.6%

Globally, there are 108.9 million reported COVID-19 cases and 2,402,969 confirmed deaths, as of Feb. 15. The United States, which has the most confirmed cases and deaths worldwide, has seen 27.6 million confirmed cases so far, with 485,414 deaths attributed to the coronavirus since February 2020.

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Perspecta CEO Mac Curtis retiring; Peraton CEO Stu Shea taking reins

Mac Curtis, the president, chairman and CEO of Chantilly-based federal IT contractor Perspecta Inc., plans to retire this year and will be replaced by the head of Peraton Inc., the Herndon-based national security contractor that is acquiring Perspecta, according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In an undated letter to employees, Curtis announced he will retire after Peraton closes on its $7.1 billion all-cash acquisition of Perspecta, announced on Jan. 27 and expected to occur during the first half of 2021. Peraton Inc. Chairman, President and CEO Stu Shea will oversee the combined companies, which will retain the Peraton name, according to a second letter filed with the SEC on Feb. 2 by Ramzi Musallam, CEO and managing partner of private investment firm Veritas Capital, Peraton’s parent company.

“There have been many questions about my role going forward,” Curtis wrote to Perspecta staff members, “so I’d like to address the speculation directly and share some personal news with you. It is my intent to retire after this transaction closes. This is not a goodbye note in any way — there is much important work still to do! I felt it was important to share this decision so rumors do not distract us at this crucial time. Serving as Perspecta’s chairman and CEO has been the honor of my lifetime. I will remain your leader, champion and voice as we navigate through this intricate process together.”

Veritas Capital has been an investor in Perspecta since its June 2018 founding as a publicly traded company — the result of a three-way merger between Vencore Holding Corp., KeyPoint Government Solutions and the U.S. public sector business of DXC Technology. Veritas Capital held 14.5% of Perspecta’s shares before Peraton’s purchase announcement and has had a long relationship with Curtis, who has led three companies partly owned by the firm. Prior to leading Perspecta, Curtis was Vencore’s president and CEO.

At the beginning of February, Peraton closed its $3.4 billion acquisition of Northrop Grumman Corp.’s federal IT and mission support services business, and a few days later Peraton announced it was restructuring the company into four sectors led by four presidents: Space & Intelligence, Cyber Mission, Global Defense & Security and Civil & Health.

Shea

“One of the reasons Perspecta has been a powerhouse is due to the leadership of its chairman and CEO, Mac Curtis,” Musallam wrote. “I hope you will join me in thanking Mac for his tremendous service to Perspecta and wishing him well in his retirement. I have had the personal honor of knowing Mac for over 15 years. Mac led three predecessor companies owned by Veritas Capital — Vangent, Vencore, and Perspecta — and additionally served as a director on the boards of two other Veritas portfolio companies — CRGT and Truven Health Analytics. Mac was a valuable senior adviser to Veritas for years, and I have been grateful for his contributions to the firm.”

In 2019, Perspecta acquired Knight Point Systems for $250 million and won an $824 million contract with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and a $657 million extension on its IT services contract for the Navy. Curtis also won the 2019 Greater Washington GovCon Award for Executive of the Year from the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Professional Services Council. Last year, Perspecta unsuccessfully challenged the March 2020 award of the Navy’s $7.7 billion IT services contract to Leidos Holdings Inc. Perspecta previously held the contract, which included hardware products.

Shea designed some of the CIA’s earliest computer systems and is the founder and emeritus chairman of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation. He’s also the former president and COO of Leidos Holdings Inc. and guided the corporate division of Science Applications International Corp., into Leidos and a new SAIC.

 

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