Gov. Ralph Northam said today that he will not allow the state to move into Phase Three of the reopen from his COVID-19 shutdown, citing reports in other states of surges in cases.
Virginia’s situation, in contrast, is showing significant improvement even as the state has rolled through Phase One and Phase Two of the reopen, and has not seen numbers of cases and hospitalizations on a sharp decline even with weeks of intense racial justice protests in cities across the Commonwealth.
The seven-day rolling average of new reported cases is at 519 today, according to the Virginia Department of Health public dashboard, and the three-day average is at 487.3.
This is down 56.6 percent from a recent seven-day average peak of 1,195 back on May 31.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in Virginia hospitals is at 904 today, down 38.0 percent from the 1,458 hospitalized on May 31.
The number of COVID-19 patients in Virginia hospitals in ICU today is 241, down 42.1 percent from the recent peak of 416 back on May 28.
Phase One of the reopen began on May 15, and most of the state was in Phase Two on June 5, a week after the protests arising from the murder of George Floyd had begun in cities across the Commonwealth.
Northam said he will talk more about what Phase Three will look like at a press conference on Thursday.
The earliest that the state could move into Phase Three would be June 26.
Story by Chris Graham