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As businesses reacted to the coronavirus outbreak in Virginia, many employees found themselves teleworking, wearing special protective gear or even sewing masks for health care workers. Here is a sampling of contributed photos representing the “new normal.” Click on the photos to expand. Subscribe to Virginia Business. Get our daily e-newsletter.
U.Va., VCU researchers battle pandemic
While health care workers scrambled to keep up with the growing number of COVID-19 cases in Virginia, researchers in Charlottesville and Richmond were working to solve the pandemic. In March, VCU Health liver specialist and cancer researcher Dr. Arun Sanyal began testing remdesivir, an antiviral medication that is showing promis[...]
Bath County hit hard by resort closures
Communities across the state are hurting from coronavirus-related layoffs and closures, but in Bath County, “it’s devastating,” says state Sen. Creigh Deeds, whose law practice is located on Hot Springs’ Main Street. “Two major employers are closed,” he says, referring to The Omni Homestead Resort and The Greenbrier [...]
Conference hotels
Read more from the cover story package: Unconventional times — Hotels closed, workers furloughed as convention biz dries up Virginia hotels, attractions shut down during pandemic Delay of game — Sports tourism takes a timeout amid coronavirus Subscribe to Virginia Business. Get our daily e-newsletter.
Delay of game
The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed one of Virginia’s growing economic drivers: sports tourism. But even amid mass cancellations and lost revenue, tourism officials hold out hope that, for the sports sector at least, there can be recovery. “Over the years, sports tournaments and competitions have generally been recession-res[...]
Charting growth
As the Virginia Chamber of Commerce marks its 25th year of celebrating the commonwealth’s 50 fastest-growing companies, this unfortunately will be the first year that Virginia’s Fantastic 50 award winners haven’t been recognized with an in-person event. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s Fantastic 50 awards ban[...]
Setting the rules of the game
In mid-March, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and two weeks later, on April 3, the Steven Mnuchin-led U.S. Department of Treasury finalized its plan to provide emergency loans to small businesses. This extraordinary action signaled a dramatic break from contemporary politics. The pr[...]
Ballad Health furloughs 200 Virginia workers
Not even health care systems are immune from the effects of COVID-19. Tennessee-based Ballad Health announced in early April it had furloughed between 200 and 250 Southwest Virginia employees to cut administrative costs and ensure it can keep critical frontline medical workers employed during the crisis. Other health systems op[...]
Sorry, we’re CLOSED
“April is the cruelest month,” T.S. Eliot wrote, but for the hospitality and tourism industries, the cruelty began in March. With conferences and conventions canceling reservations amid the pandemic, hotels and convention centers across the commonwealth have temporarily shut down operations, furloughing and laying off wo[...]
Unconventional times
After recent visits to Savannah, Georgia, and St. Louis, Missouri, Pete Kingwill is bringing the annual Police Fleet Expo to Richmond in August. The Chicago-area-based meeting planner has been scouting locations in Virginia and North Carolina for a while now, knowing that the Southern states checked many of the boxes for what’[...]
Pomp and absence
With the rest of the spring semester moved online, her graduation was the only thing Tannah Blair, an accounting major in Virginia Tech’s class of 2020, had to look forward to. “When they made the announcement that graduation was canceled and was being moved online, I was beyond devastated,” Blair says. Due to the COVID-[...]
Leveraging the past
Vernon Green served 20 years, five months and 18 days in the Army, retiring in 2014 as a chief warrant officer after three deployments to Iraq and one to Kuwait. Today he heads his own information technology and cybersecurity business responsible for 10 major government projects. And he hires veterans like himself. During his ti[...]
