The Shadow
RICHMOND — Virginia will not be moving to Phase III of Gov. Ralph Northam’s plan for reopening the state’s economy this week.
At a Tuesday press briefing, the governor said numbers related to COVID-19 continue to look favorable, but Virginia will not move to Phase III on Friday.
Virginia has been in Phase II of Northam’s plan since June 5.
“I want to have more time to see how the numbers look before we make changes,” Northam said Tuesday.
He said he will have more to say about Phase III during his 2 p.m. press briefing today.
As of June 12, 7.4 percent of COVID-19 tests being administered around the state were coming back positive for the virus.
Regional COVID-19 Update
There were 112 active cases of COVID-19 in the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts on Tuesday.
Active cases are individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 and are in isolation.
Dr. Molly O’Dell, direction of communicable disease prevention, said 14 new cases were reported in the health districts from Monday to Tuesday.
“The pandemic is not over. It is not over until we have no new cases for two incubation periods and we are nowhere near that,” O’Dell said, while again stressing the need for social distancing, the wearing of face coverings in public and frequent washing of hands.
On Tuesday, seven COVID-19 outbreaks were reported in the two health districts. The outbreaks included five Roanoke-area restaurants, one manufacturing facility, one church and one congregate living facility.
“We are seeing more cases definitely from opening up activity, when you have five of our outbreaks in restaurants,” O’Dell said. “We’ve opened up restaurant capacity more, and we are seeing that’s a place where transmission is occurring. The more opportunity for transmission, the more our cases will go up.”
All of the transmissions has been among restaurant employees, she said. To her knowledge, no customers have been infected.
State law prohibits health officials from identifying the restaurants.
“What needs to happen when there is an outbreak, is everybody has to get in there and do a significant clean. If it’s a small restaurant and they don’t have enough employees to manage and have everybody appropriately in isolation and quarantine, they may need to close,” O’Dell said.
“Some of these larger restaurants have a deeper source of personnel so even if there are 10 or 12 people in isolation and quarantine, they may be able to draw on other personnel who were never in the facility during the time ill people were there,” she added.
Under an order by the governor, all restaurant employees are required to wear face coverings.
O’Dell said that in addition to enforcing the face- coverings mandate, restaurants should have good screening procedures in place.
“As businesses reopen, they need to become comfortable with rigorous adherence to basic practices of screening and social distancing and appropriate face coverings,” she said.
Local Update
The Virginia Department of Health on Wednesday reported 35 cumulative cases of COVID-19 in the Alleghany Highlands since the pandemic began.
There were 30 confirmed cases in Alleghany County and five in Covington. Bath County was still reporting no cases.
O’Dell said that as of Tuesday, there were two COVID-19-related hospitalizations in the Alleghany Highlands.
Ronceverte, W.Va.
Church Update
Wednesday, the Greenbrier County, W.Va., Health Department said the number of positive COVID-19 cases linked to a Ronceverte church had grown to 33.
On Sunday, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reported 17 people linked to Graystone Baptist Church had the virus.
Gov. Jim Justice, at a news conference Monday, said the number had increased to 28.
“We currently have 34 total known active cases of COVID-19 [in Greenbrier County.] Thirty-three are linked to the church outbreak,” said a Wednesday post on the Greenbrier County Health Department’s Facebook page
“There appears to now be community transmission related to the outbreak, thus everyone needs to wear masks out in public and be vigilant about social distancing,” the post said.
The church will be closed for at least two weeks. The West Virginia National Guard was dispatched to the church Sunday to perform deep cleaning.
In a Wednesday press briefing, Justice reiterated that COVID-19 safety guidelines may not have been adhered to at the Graystone Baptist.
“Church, our most holy and sacred ground, absolutely could be the number one spot for the biggest possibility for an outbreak to happen,” Justice said.
He stressed the need for churchgoers to adhere to social-distancing guidelines, skip every other pew in seating arrangements and wear face coverings.
“If we are going to church, we have got to do this,” said Justice, in noting that there have been six confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks in West Virginia churches.
Three of the church outbreaks are active.
In the Lewisburg-Ronceverte area, health officials tested 839 people for COVID-19 Friday through Monday. Eight of the tests came back positive.
West Virginia has reported 88 deaths from COVID-19.
“In Lewisburg, which is my hometown, if we don’t lose somebody there, it will be another miracle,” Justice said.
