Weekly COVID-19 Update

While this pandemic continues, it is encouraging to note that residents, local businesses, and communities across Virginia have come together to combat the virus and be a neighbor to one another.

As the Commonwealth begins to ease restrictions, I want to assure you that our goals remain the same: to ensure the health and safety of Virginia workers, families, and consumers.

This week, Governor Northam issued an amended Executive Order 62, allowing specific localities to delay entering Phase One of the “Forward Virginia” plan to safely and gradually ease restrictions on certain business operations.

Executive Order 61, effective as of today, May 15th, outlines Phase One regulations for individuals, businesses, and places of worship. The executive order states:

• A safer-at-home strategy, rather than a stay-at-home order
• Ban of social gatherings of more than 10 people
• Maintained recommendations for social distancing, teleworking, and wearing face coverings
• Enhanced workplace safety measures
• Churches and non-essential retail businesses will open with a 50 percent capacity
• Barbershops and salons will open for appointments only
• Gyms and entertainment businesses will remain closed
• Non-essential businesses in Northern Virginia will be closed until May 28, 2020

The Virginia Department of Health will be hiring 1,300 individuals to conduct and oversee the contact tracing process. Interested applicants will find a listing of the number of open positions in the orange box on the left hand side of the page, and a link to the staffing agencies who will conduct the hiring process.

Lastly, Prince William County is partnering with the Health Department and Walmart to create two drive-thru testing sites. The details are as follows:

• Location 1: 17041 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Dumfries, VA 22026
• Location 2: 8386 Sudley Rd., Manassas, VA 20109
• Beginning May 15, 2020, the site is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays weekly 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., weather permitting. Appointments must be made through eTrueNorth’s online portal at www.DoINeedaCOVID19test.com, which will screen individuals to ensure they meet CDC eligibility for testing.
• For questions regarding testing, please call 800–635–8611.
• Those tested will need to wear a mask and stay in their cars for verification of eligibility criteria, ID check, and self-administered test. For the safety of all those on-site, the test site is not available to those who walk up.
• The site will use a self-administered nasal swab test that will allow those tested to swab their nose onsite while in vehicles, observed by a trained medical volunteer to ensure the sample is taken correctly, and dropped in the sealed sample into a container on the way out of the drive-through site.

COVID-19 Resources:

• Virginia Department of Health website
• Virginia Department of Social Services website
• “Forward Virginia” Guidelines page
• Prince William County COVID-19 page
• Stafford County COVID-19 page

If you need constituent services, please contact our office at DelJCarrollFoy@house.virginia.gov.

Stay safe and healthy.

Thank you,

Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy