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By MICHELLE BOORSTEIN, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Sundays were at once wonderfully familiar and painfully different for the 70 Christians who, in staggered small groups, entered Hopeful Baptist Church for the 11 a.m. service. In the months since the novel coronavirus shut down communal worship, some congregants could not resist coming to their small country church anyway. One 6-year-old wanted to have her birthday parade in Hopeful’s parking lot. A dozen people, longing to connect, met one evening and, spread out and silent, walked prayer circles around the building.
By MATT WELCH, Winchester Star (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
After working the night shift, Philip Swanson and Lucky Orndorff had a longstanding tradition of meeting for post-work beers. But the coronavirus outbreak put a halt to that. On Friday, though, that sense of normalcy started to return as businesses began to open up under Gov. Ralph Northam’s Phase One plan. Swanson and Orndorff joined other friends at an outside table at Macado’s on the Loudoun Street Mall on Friday and shared laughs and smiles around a table of beer mugs, shot glasses and appetizers.
By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Coronavirus? Not when it’s 78 degrees and there’s a beach nearby, apparently. The Virginia Beach Oceanfront felt like summer in more ways than one Saturday as children ordered “blue and lellow” snow cones and bought hermit crabs, shoppers sampled fudge inside cramped gift shops and bikers pedaled on the boardwalk — with the usual complaints of people walking in the bike lane. And that’s as the beach is considered closed.
By DAVID MCGEE, Bristol Herald Courier (Metered Paywall - 15 articles a month)
Voters who trek to the polls for Tuesday’s local elections can expect a number of precautions to minimize exposure to COVID-19. The city of Bristol joins more than 100 cities and towns across the commonwealth with local offices on the general election ballot. Originally scheduled for May 5, voting was postponed to May 19 by Gov. Ralph Northam after the state Senate rejected his call for shifting the elections to November amid the current public health crisis.
By SABRINA MORENO AND MEL LEONOR, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
When Yesica Godoy’s husband tested positive for the coronavirus, he was told to isolate himself — to quarantine away from his wife, 4-month-old baby and 11-year-old child. His only option was the rented room in Northern Virginia his entire family already lived in that offered little space for social distancing.
By LUANNE RIFE, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
On April 10, Gov. Ralph Northam announced he had assembled a task force to protect frail, elderly Virginians after 32 of them had died while in long-term care and a Richmond-area home was in the grips of one of the nation’s deadliest outbreaks. The virus has since swept through 170 nursing homes and assisted living centers, killing 589 Virginians — at least 13 of whom lived in the Roanoke Valley — and infecting nearly 4,000 workers and residents.
By STAFF REPORT, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
After weeks of saying that healthy people didn’t need to wear masks in public, elected leaders and health officials across the country in April reversed course and began recommending them in stores and places where it’s difficult to stay 6 feet apart. You can’t get on a plane or in an Uber without one. People are required to wear one when they leave home in New York. But in Virginia, you can still get into a Walmart, or a Home Depot or an ABC store with an uncovered face.
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52 articles, 24 publications
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The Virginia Public Access Project
Data from the Virginia Department of Health includes a timeline of when COVID-19 cases were confirmed, a statewide map showing the number of cases and deaths by locality and per-capital cases by ZIP Code. VPAP has added daily hospital utilization numbers from the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association. Updated each morning before 11:00 am.
By KATE ANDREWS, Va Business Magazine
Next week, Virginia officials will allocate about $2.2 billion in federal stimulus funds to state agencies, which are sending requests to the governor’s office through Monday, Virginia Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne announced Friday. So far, of the $3.1 billion in federal funds from the CARES Act given to Virginia, $650 million has been allocated to localities for costs related to the process, with distribution expected June 1, Layne said.
By DANA SMITH, WVEC
In just four days, on Thursday, May 21, Virginia's state parks will be back open for camping—just in time for Memorial Day weekend. Dave Neudeck, Communications & Marketing Director for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, said park employees are taking steps to ensure campers are safe, and they're already preparing for overnight guests.
By STAFF REPORT, Winchester Star (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-10th, has introduced legislation that would direct a scientific study of the spread of COVID-19-related disinformation and misinformation on the internet. Her proposal was included as one of the provisions of the Heroes Act — a $3 trillion COVID-19 relief bill that passed the House on Friday.
By EVAN GOODENOW, Winchester Star (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Neither rain, sleet, snow, gloom of night, a coronavirus pandemic or the threat of bankruptcy keeps U.S. Postal Service workers, including those in Winchester, from delivering the mail. Letter carrier Steven Miller relies on his Christian faith to help him deal with the fear of being infected with COVID-19 while delivering mail.
By TYLER HAMMEL, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
As Virginia barber shops and salons now can reopen for the first time in two months, owners and contractors are faced with a choice of adapting to a new reality or keeping their scissors to themselves. For some, such as His Barber Shop in the Barracks Road Shopping Center, the decision feels like the culmination of weeks of waiting and preparing.
By AMY FRIEDENBERGER, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
The disruption brought on by the coronavirus to Wonju Korean Restaurant hit suddenly. No one could dine inside the restaurant on Williamson Road in Roanoke. Revenue plummeted. The owners didn’t know if they could keep their employees. The landlord wouldn’t budge on rent payments. Rebecca Jeong, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Johnathan, researched online for financial aid options. They found the Virginia 30 Day Fund, which provides small businesses in the commonwealth $3,000 forgivable loans to help with payroll, rent, preserve health care coverage for employees or other needs.
By DON DEL ROSSO, Fauquier Now
The Opal mother and daughter needed to get out of the house Friday. The weather cooperated and Warrenton had figured out an innovative way to allow its restaurants to provide outdoor dining, within Virginia’s coronavirus guidelines. So Vonda Fredette, 52, and Nicole Seuferer, 20, decided to mark the occasion with lunch in Old Town.
By KIM BARTO MEEKS, Martinsville Bulletin (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
In the weeks before an outbreak of COVID-19 struck Young Williams Child Support Services, a complaint was filed with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) about the call center’s efforts to prevent the virus’s spread.
By CHARLES FISHBURNE, WCVE
With families cooped up and restless, “Pick Your Own” strawberry patches are an increasingly popular way to get outdoors. Visitors at Robbie Vaughan’s farm in Virginia Beach have gone from 2,500 this time last year to 15,000. Vaughn says one of his customers told him her visit was the first time she'd been out of the house in a month and a half, and "Now they’re feeling normal.”
By NOLAN STOUT, Daily Progress (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Everyone could admit – this weekend was a little weird in Charlottesville. Saturday was supposed to be one full of students, family and friends crowded onto the University of Virginia’s Lawn to celebrate accomplishments of four years or more. But instead, thousands flocked to different venues spread across the country and world. More than 9,000 viewers crowded around screens in their homes and for a chance to celebrate and ignore the elephant in the room — the coronavirus pandemic.
By ERIN ZAGURSKY, Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily (Metered paywall - 3 articles per month)
William & Mary’s Class of 2020 received words of encouragement and advice from not just one Commencement speaker this year, but many as the university hosted its first virtual degree-conferral ceremony. While the slate of alumni, faculty, staff, students and others acknowledged that this wasn’t the Commencement ceremony anyone had envisioned, the speakers applauded the graduates for their resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic and encouraged them — from whenever they might be watching — to celebrate fully the hard work and dedication that had earned them a W&M degree.
By JUSTIN BAER, Wall Street Journal (Subscription Required)
The coronavirus pandemic has turned vibrant college towns across the U.S. into vacant ones. This weekend was supposed to be one of the busiest of the year for businesses in Blacksburg, Va., as parents, grandparents and well-wishers converged on the town to celebrate the 2020 graduates of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
By ASHLEY LONG, Collegiate Times
Members of the Virginia Tech Class of 2020 were granted their degrees in a virtual commencement ceremony held Friday evening. The ceremony began by revealing the Class of 2020’s Hokie Birds, London Hughes and Charlotte Powell, followed by the Virginia Tech Chamber Singers’ performance of the National Anthem and the raising of the flag. Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands then gave an opening statement in which he acknowledged the effects COVID-19 has had on the graduating class.
By PETER JAMISON, IAN DUNCAN AND REBECCA TAN, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Dozens of deaths and thousands of new infections from the novel coronavirus were reported in the Washington region Saturday, even as some areas began welcoming droves of summertime visitors following the relaxation of quarantine restrictions in Virginia and Maryland.
By ANTONIO OLIVO, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
Virginia started a gradual rollback of restrictions on churches and nonessential businesses in most parts of the state Friday — with harder-hit Northern Virginia, Richmond and Accomack County excluded for at least another two weeks.
Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
The number of confirmed and presumed coronavirus cases in Virginia grew by more than 700, according to the latest numbers released Sunday by the Virginia Department of Health. Another seven deaths, included two in Virginia Beach and one in Northampton County, were attributed to COVID-19.
By CATHY DYSON, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
The good news is there haven’t been any local cases of the strange inflammatory syndrome, associated with COVID-19, that doctors say may have sickened 200 children in 20 states. The bad news is fear of the novel coronavirus has kept families out of pediatricians’ offices and prevented children from getting immunized for a raft of illnesses.
By KATE MASTERS, Virginia Mercury
Plenty has changed in the two weeks since Gov. Ralph Northam announced his plans to gradually reopen Virginia starting Friday. What Northam first described as a widespread reopening with possible regional exceptions (most notably, in Northern Virginia) has become a more piecemeal approach after the governor granted last-minute exemptions to the city of Richmond and Accomack County, two localities that worried their COVID-19 caseloads were still far too high to safely loosen restrictions.
By ANNA MEROD, Winchester Star (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Emergency Department nurse Jennifer Grace has been working in the High Intensity Respiratory Unit (HIRU), where patients with confirmed or suspected cases of the coronavirus are treated at Winchester Medical Center. Because no visitors are allowed inside the hospital right now because of the virus, nurses like Grace are among the hospital staffers who interact with coronavirus patients.
By ANA LEY, GARY A. HARKI AND PETER COUTU, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Gov. Ralph Northam has started opening parts of Virginia’s economy against fears that people of color will be hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic — a concern that is backed by the state’s own testing data. A Virginian-Pilot analysis of COVID-19 data released with location information for the first time last week shows that ZIP codes with high concentrations of people of color have higher rates of infection compared with whiter ZIP codes throughout the commonwealth.
By SOPHIE KAPLAN, Washington Times
As coronavirus restrictions are eased in Maryland and Virginia, many church-goers will be returning to their pews for the first time in about two months to participate in corporate prayer and worship — but with fewer people, less singing and masks covering their noses and mouths. “There’s a real longing for the sacraments, and we are very conscious of that, in wanting to answer that need as soon as we can,” said Mary Ellen Russell, director of community affairs for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. “Obviously, it is a real priority that we take care of everybody’s safety and protect their health.”
By ALI ROCKETT, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
Despite Gov. Ralph Northam’s phased loosening of restrictions on social gatherings in churches and other places of worship, most in the Richmond area will remain empty. Many Richmond religious leaders said they weren’t planning to reopen this weekend, or anytime soon, even before Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney asked to delay the first phase of the reopening plan in the state’s capital — a plan that went into effect for most of the state Friday.
By JESSICA WETZLER, Daily News Record (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Standing on a square outlined with yellow chalk, Paula Cook and her family stood outside the Church of the Incarnation for the first time since March 8, waiting to be escorted inside. The yellow squares became a waiting area for the nearly 20 people who signed up in advance to attend the service. The Harrrisonburg church was one of few to open its doors Sunday.
By NEIL HARVEY AND RALPH BERRIER JR., Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Late Sunday morning, as Villa Heights Baptist Church’s band struck up “God is Able” to herald one of the Roanoke Valley’s first in-person church services in about two months, a few details around the room drew the eye. The group’s drummer wore a bandana across the lower half of his face. A cart of cleaning products sat parked near the organist.
By JESSICA WETZLER, Daily News Record (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Leonard Phillips, of Harrisonburg, began coming down with a dry cough on Wednesday and by Thursday developed body aches. He had never been tested for COVID-19, so when the chance was available for free, he took it. He became one of 118 city residents able to get tested Saturday. The city of Harrisonburg, in partnership with the Virginia Department of Health and Sentara Healthcare, held its second mobile COVID-19 testing, this time available for all city residents.
By RANDY ARRINGTON, Page Valley News
On Saturday morning, both Page County and the Lord Fairfax Health District saw its biggest one-day jump in new cases of COVID-19 since April 25. Saturday also marked the second-highest day of reported new cases for both the county and the district since the pandemic began.
By IAN MUNRO, Daily News Record (Metered Paywall - 5 articles a month)
Sherrie Warner, 63, and her husband of 43 years, George Schaeffer, 61, have been homeless since November. That’s when they began going to Open Doors. But now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they live at a city hotel as they are slated to shortly transition to permanent housing.
By DENISE M. WATSON, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Everything in Norfolk was so dull, Annie Donahoe wrote. The virus had closed almost everything. Schools and businesses were shut, she told her brother, Arthur. Movie theaters were shuttered. The teenager wasn’t even working but hoped her shop would open the next week.
By DAVE RESS, EMILY HOLTER AND MATT JONES, Daily Press (Metered Paywall - 1 article a month)
When David Black, scrambling to get his corn crop into the ground, tried to download a new planting program at the same time his son, home from college because of the coronavirus stay-at-home order was trying to do some online course work, the Charles City county family’s recently upgraded internet service couldn’t cope. It slowed to a crawl -- and with rain in the forecast for the next few days, Black couldn't afford to wait. His son had to set aside his studies for a bit.
By HANNAH NATANSON, Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
The pings began as soon as the fifth-grader logged into online school. For the first few days, the noises heralded cheerful messages from friends, sent through the chat function of the Google learning platform employed by Fairfax County Public Schools. Then the notes turned darker.
By JONATHAN EDWARDS, Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
The Norfolk Sheriff’s Office appears to have snuffed out an outbreak of the coronavirus in the city’s jail. Fifty-five of the jail’s roughly 1,000 inmates and deputies ultimately tested positive for the virus during an expansive testing campaign by the Sheriff’s Office, Virginia Department of Health and Sentara Healthcare.
By ALLISON BROPHY CHAMPION, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
More than 200 people with symptoms of the novel coronavirus received free COVID-19 testing Saturday during a drive-thru event in Culpeper County. The collaborative event was held outside University of Virginia Primary Care Commonwealth Medical Center on Bennett Road across from Eastern View High School.
By CATHY JETT, Free Lance-Star (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
Mary McIntosh’s greeting to shoppers as the Fredericksburg Farmers Market reopened Saturday morning was a sign of COVID-19 times. “Welcome to the Farmers Market, pandemic edition,” the former market manager told a couple of people who’d been directed to her spot in the middle of Hurkamp Park.
By JUSTIN MATTINGLY, Richmond Times-Dispatch (Metered Paywall - 25 articles a month)
When Stephanie Hare decided late last year to run for a seat on the Ashland Town Council, her first bid for elected office, she wasn’t sure what to expect. One thing is for certain: Hare was not anticipating a pandemic.
By MATT WELCH, Northern Virginia Daily
Even though you couldn’t see it, Blake Pierpoint was smiling under her mask all day while she was cutting hair Friday. Pierpoint, who owns Blake and Co. Hair Spa at 1201 N. Shenandoah Ave. in Front Royal, said having clients sit in her chair and catch up about the last two months of life was among the highlights of her 2020 so far.
By CALVIN PYNN, Harrisonburg Citizen
Harrisonburg Democrats had their biggest-ever turnout for a primary over weekend, as that party’s voters selected Mayor Deanna Reed and two newcomers — Charles Hendricks and Laura Dent — as their nominees for the three city council seats on the ballot this fall.
By YANNA RANAIVO AND ALISON GRAHAM, Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Municipal elections this year are occurring in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis that prompted the state to move the date of town and city elections from May 5 to Tuesday amid failed efforts to move them to June and even November.
By JOHN R. CRANE, Danville Register & Bee
Peninsula Pacific Entertainment and the company looking to purchase the White Mill property want residents to push Danville City Council members to support a casino project at the former Dan River Inc. site. Peninsula Pacific and The Alexander Company placed an ad spanning two pages in Sunday's Danville Register & Bee saying they were the best candidate for a casino project in the city and warning readers of a "real possibility that out-of-state interests could take control and supplant our project in favor of a 'big box' casino in another part of town."
Roanoke Times Editorial (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Today is a red-letter day in the history of Roanoke. Today is the last official day for Norfolk Southern’s locomotive shop — once the economic engine that powered Roanoke. Founded in 1881 as the Roanoke Machine Works (and acquired by Norfolk & Western in 1883), “the shops” date back to a time when Roanoke was still Big Lick.
Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Virginia, with other state and local governments, reached a $1.6 billion settlement with the largest manufacturer of generic opioids in the United States, and that is welcome news. It is further evidence that the commonwealth’s leaders have been working hard — with some good results — in the continuing struggle to halt this devastating epidemic.
Free Lance-Star Editorial (Metered Paywall - 10 articles a month)
Gov. Ralph Northam’s Phase I relaxation of his two-month coronavirus lockdown on Friday comes with sensible guidelines on maintaining physical distancing, routine cleaning and disinfecting of workplaces, and screening employees for symptoms of illness that should become a regular part of doing business in Virginia from now on. Coronavirus is not the only infectious disease out there, after all.
Virginian-Pilot Editorial (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
A detailed picture of the coronavirus in Virginia should center on nursing homes and assisted-living centers, where so many at-risk residents have succumbed to infection and death in 160 facilities across the commonwealth. Look closely, however, and the picture is blurry and undefined because Virginia has been unwilling to release detailed data about outbreaks in those facilities. That needs to change, quickly and permanently.
By JENNIFER LEWIS, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
Virginia’s pipeline industry has a troubling record of putting profit before people, a practice that becomes more dire in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Lewis is president and founder of Friends of Augusta. She lives in Waynesboro.
By BOB NEWMAN, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
We have had the collective hell scared out of us as a country, and for good reason. The United States has had the worst outcomes of any country to date from COVID-19, with more than 1.4 million cases and 85,000 deaths, despite the difficult measures imposed two months ago.
Dr. Bob Newman, a University of Virginia Medical School graduate and U.S. Navy veteran, spent more than 15 years in private practice in rural Virginia and 17 years teaching family medicine, most recently at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk.
By BOB GIBSON, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
The impacts and changes to the lives of Central Virginia residents brought about by the past two months of coping with the COVID-19 pandemic are profound and will be long-lasting. Trust in the federal government is low and faith in the state government’s response to the crisis remains higher as many residents struggle with competing feelings about protecting public health and returning the economy to better health.
By JACOB FISH, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
April was Second Chance Month and Virginia just took a giant leap forward on criminal justice reform. Last month, Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation that ended the suspension of driver’s licenses for those who owe court fines and are unable to immediately pay, effectively offering a path toward redemption for those who have made a mistake.
Fish is director of grassroots operations for Americans for Prosperity-Virginia.
By MICHAEL W. COLEMAN, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
The Virginia Maritime Association extends its sympathies to everyone coping with difficulty and loss from COVID-19. We are sincerely grateful to those risking exposure on the frontline of this fight. Among them, but not popularly recognized, are women and men keeping vital medical supplies and other essential goods moving through the maritime supply chain.
Coleman is Virginia Maritime Association president and president of CV International and Capes Shipping Agencies.
By GORDON C. MORSE, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
Terry McAuliffe doesn’t really do coy. He may offer a fain turn of the shoulder and a hair flip, when the question comes up, but he’s running for governor again and don’t think otherwise. But politics being what is — life being what it is — you can’t step into the same river twice. The circumstances of his candidacy-to-be will be broadly different than his successful 2013 bid and may make his election compelling in ways still evolving.
After writing editorials for The Daily Press and The Virginian-Pilot in the 1980s, Gordon C. Morse wrote speeches for Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, then spent nearly three decades working on behalf of corporate and philanthropic organizations
By BEHR AND RAFAEL DIAZ, published in Virginian-Pilot (Metered Paywall - 2 articles a month)
We are advancing into the 2020 hurricane season amid the COVID-19 public health crisis. Parts of America may soon need to manage emergency response to one or more hurricanes under pandemic conditions. The occurrence of hurricane events within the life cycle of the pandemic might have far-reaching implications for the health and well-being of populations.
Behr is associate research professor at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center and social science & policy program manager for the Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience at ODU. Rafael Diaz is associate professor at ODU.
By HARRISON CRECRAFT, SCOTT EMERY AND KAREL SVOBODA, published in Washington Post (Metered Paywall - 3 articles a month)
The 2020 legislative session was a historic one for Virginia. For anyone concerned about climate change and reducing pollution, the omnibus Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) is a big step forward. But news reports have mostly misrepresented the law. It is better than represented. According to the summary posted on Virginia’s Legislative Information System, Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power “are required to produce their electricity from 100 percent renewable sources by 2045 and 2050.”
Harrison Crecraft, Scott Emery and Karel Svoboda are founding members of Zero Carbon Virginia.
By DEREK KLOCK, published in Roanoke Times (Metered Paywall - 18 articles a month)
The early models predicting 20+ million infections and nearly 1 million fatalities have thankfully been incorrect, so far. We are now a nation with multiple epicenters, frazzled nerves and little patience. New York City captured our attention and is mercifully passing the worst; but new outbreaks in care facilities and food processing plants and other more rural locations aren’t getting the same airtime and that could cause complacency.
Klock is a professor of practice of finance in the Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business.
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