Author Archives: Carol J Bova

About Carol J Bova

I used to be The Eclectic Lapidary, and to some extent, I still am. Although I live in a place where stone other than driveway gravel is scarce, that's offset by the fact my entire county is inside the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater. Mathews County is a fascinating place and I love living here. I'll share more about Mathews from Inside the Crater.

How Hole in the Wall Became Hole in the Wallet

Posted on by
Reply

By Carol J. Bova

After the septic system of the former Seabreeze Restaurant failed in June 2016, the Board of Supervisors voted to postpone signing a new lease with the Hole in the Wall Waterfront Grill until repairs on the failed 1998 system were completed. Former county officials and the local health department influenced the Board of Supervisors to sign the lease in December 2016, but the septic repairs were not completed until a year later.

The county owns the .927-acre parcel which has a public boat ramp in addition to the restaurant. At less than one acre, it is too small to subdivide. Twice in 2017, in 2019, and again last year, the issue of selling surplus land, including this site, was raised and died in Board of Supervisors meetings. If the land were sold, there would be no way to guarantee the boat ramp would remain public.

As of March this year, the County has paid over $127,000 in septic pump and haul bills for Hole in the Wall Waterfront Grill. Many now recognize the Board should never have agreed to the lease until the septic system issues were resolved. Board minutes and FOIA requests eventually filled in the backstory of how former Mathews County Administrator, Mindy Conner, and former Building Official, Jamie Wilks misled the Board.

This was not the first time Conner acted against the County’s best interest. Conner and two other former county employees are involved in a lawsuit filed by Mark Eubank that went all the way to the Virginia Supreme Court. The details were in “A Malicious Prosecution” published in Bacon’s Rebellion in September 2021. The case was sent back to the lower court and is scheduled to be heard later this year.

On September 27, 2016, Wilks told the Board that the issues with the restaurant’s septic system were in the process of being resolved, and repairs would begin after an inspection in the coming week. Although the lease was still being negotiated, Wilks reported he had already given Mac Casale a permit to begin interior demolition of the former Seabreeze Restaurant. The Board voted to delay signing the lease until the septic repairs were complete.

On October 25, Wilks told the board he had received a preliminary report from the septic contractor, soil scientist and septic engineer, and he had to work with the Health Department on their recommendations. He said the Health Department already told him they would approve the repairs, and the process was “just the technicalities.” He did not inform the board that the scientists had no viable solution to return the system to normal function.

At the November board meeting, Conner said, “We have a path to getting the approval…an agreement on the scope of work they want us to do.” She urged the supervisors to go ahead and authorize her to execute the lease on their behalf because it wouldn’t take effect until the Health Department approved the septic system for use. The board gave her the authorization, and the lease was signed on December 1.

The supervisors were still not told the October inspection by the septic system experts showed the septic system was discharging into the groundwater which was at the depth of the drainfield chambers. (The drainfield is under the parking lot.) There is also no record that the board knew the local health department representative, Patricia Duttry, had written an email to Conner and Wilks on November 7 saying “Because of the shallow seasonal water table and depth of the drainlines, the design would have to meet the Regulations for Alternative Onsite Systems related to direct disposal to ground water.” She offered to support a variance from the required treatment levels which could only be granted by the State Health Commissioner.

It is a mystery why Duttry would go along with direct discharge at a waterfront location at Milford Haven which connects to the Chesapeake Bay instead of saying she would have to pull the septic system operating permit if the county could not meet the health department’s septic system standards.

On December 5, 2016, Wilks confirmed to Duttry the septic system drainlines were not damaged or blocked and asked to begin repairs immediately. He added, “We would include the missing items that were never installed.” In spite of FOIA requests, the last line of this email has never been explained: What items for the septic system had been missing from the original 1998 installation?

On December 7, Duttry told Conner and Wilks they could still use the 1998 septic permit “for 45 seats/380 gallons per day (and using a 1000 gallon Multi-flo unit for treatment to reduce biological oxygen demand and total suspended solids) so there would be no room for expansion.”

The septic contractor wrote to Conner and Wilks on January 7, 2017 and included the findings and recommendations from the October inspections and testing. The soil scientist’s report said, “The three drainlines are completely in the water table. It is amazing it has worked as long as it has….I really have no viable solution for repair.” He then discussed creating an elevated mound which would eliminate the parking lot, or consider trying to obtain a permit for direct discharge into the ground water. (Note that Duttry was already aware of this recommendation the previous month.) The soil scientist also said, “Maybe the permanent pump and haul is the best option, but this will be costly, especially during peak season.” He noted, “Health Department Regulations generally prohibit permanent pump & haul.”

This information was not shared with the supervisors, and Conner hired two companies to do work on the system, then chose one to complete all the repairs. The company submitted a report to the health department at the end of December 2017 that with the maintenance and repairs that were done, the system should return to normal function. It turned out that even more work was needed, and again in May 2018, a second report to the Health Department repeated that the system was functioning as designed.

As part of the lease, the tenant was to raise the building out of the floodplain.

HITW raised off the ground

The restaurant opened in July 2019, but a year later, Duttry told the Mathews Gloucester Gazette Journal about more problems. “The high water table is one of those problems, she said, but the issue that has been causing eruptions of effluent onto the ground has to do with the aeration and filtration systems in the engineered septic system. There seems to be an excessive buildup of fats, oils and greases in the aeration tanks, she said, and thus far no one has been able to pinpoint the cause.”

Imagine that. A buildup of fats, oils and greases in a restaurant septic system, and no one could pinpoint the cause.

Because of the sewage eruptions through potholes in the parking lot, the county arranged for pump and haul of the waste beginning in July 2019.

Casale worked with former county administrator Mindy Conner to solicit a proposal for an ozone disinfection system from NextGen Septic Solutions in Ohio to be used with the existing Multi-Flo septic system. In November 2019, Casale corresponded with Pat Duttry and David Fridley from the Virginia Health Department (VDH) on how to get approval to install the system which was not approved for use in Virginia. He was told to arrange a preliminary engineering conference to review the proposal and that final plans would need to be prepared by a Professional Engineer licensed in Virginia. A copy of the VDH reply was sent to Conner.

Almost a year later, on September 1, 2020, NextGen sent Conner their technical proposal. The Board of Supervisors wasn’t officially informed of the proposal until their September 22, 2020 meeting packet was distributed. Although the board voted “to authorize staff to move forward with the pilot program as offered by the Health Department,” the next day, Casale sent the proposal to VDH.

Ten months later, according to Board minutes, Conner told the Board on May 24, 2021, the permit fee was “between $200 and $250 for the Hole in the Wall septic repair. She noted that the proposed system would be a NextGen system.”

Four days later, May 28, 2021, without using public purchase policy and without a bid process, without a formal contract or board approval of the original invoice, Conner approved the first payment of $50,000. The invoice of $72,800 did not include shipping, site preparation, on-site installation, taxes and permit fees. The check dated July1, 2021 was voided and reissued on July 27, 2021 under the ARPA account as a capital outlay. There was no record posted to the board or public until the August 23, 2021 meeting packet.

On July 23, 2021, a week before she retired for medical reasons, Conner wrote, “Accepted by Melinda Conner 7/23/21” on a NextGen Scope of Work with no amounts shown.

On November 5, 2021, interim county administrator Sandy Wanner approved a second payment of $18,000.

The county received a third NextGen invoice dated January 28, 2022 to upgrade the system to 544 gallons per day at a cost of $128,900 with $60,900 still due, plus all the additional charges for shipping and installation.

It should be noted Duttry’s 2016 statement was that the VDH septic system permit did not allow for any expansion, and that the lease on page 8 said capital improvements were the responsibility of the tenant.

In regard to the last point, Casale provided NextGen an inaccurate sewage usage number of 384 gallons per day (gpd). (The street number is 384, 380 gpd is the permit amount.) The NextGen proposal addressed to Casale said, “It is assumed that all of the above treatment units are working, as designed.” But they were not, and the site was on pump and haul because of effluent eruptions onto the ground. The system was certified to the health department as functioning in May 2018 before the lease began on June 1, 2018.

No new design or engineering report was submitted to VDH showing the system could meet the current standards, not the 1998 standards the restaurant permit used. But even the proposed  new upgraded system’s maximum capacity of 544 gallons a day will not resolve the problem because the restaurant water meter readings show they used more than that daily average for every day in both July and August 2022, and that does not consider melted ice and other discarded liquids.

The NextGen proposal states the air temperature requirements are 32 to 95 degrees F and the dryer unit for the ozone generator is used up to 75% relative humidity. This makes its use as an outdoor system questionable for Gwynn’s Island. The site cannot support a new drainfield that can handle the Hole in the Wall Grill’s volume of effluent, so that rules out a number of other options.

The pumping expenses are over $127,000 from July 2019 through March 8, 2023. The daily average of water meter readings generally ran between 500 and 833 gallons in the warm weather season from July 1, 2022 through September 19, 2022. Only two weeks showed an average per day at or below the permitted 380 gallons a day going to the septic system. (These averages include days when the restaurant was closed.)

Adding the pumping cost and the amounts paid to NextGen adds up to just over $195,000. Paid by taxpayers  Now, the Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing March 28 to see what taxpayers think about spending another $307,000 to correct the problems caused by the tenants’ raising of the building and improper foundation work that created a safety issue. (See Unsafe Structure Notice including lease and structural engineeer’s report here for details.)

If the County repairs the building, the total from taxpayers would be over half a million dollars. All because former county staff did not disclose facts that would have prevented the Board from going ahead with the lease, a tenant who would not abide by the VDH permit limitations, and the failure of the former building official to properly inspect the construction involved in raising the restaurant.

No other business in the county receives a subsidy from taxpayers for their business expenses. This one shouldn’t either.

Update: At the March 28 Board meeting, the county administrator provided a Powerpoint presentation with a timeline of events and the options, along with the budget impacts. Click here for that slide show.

Virginia Department of Education Absenteeism Reports Under Learning Climate Are Misleading!

Posted on by
Reply

By Carol J. Bova  Posted October 19, 2022

On October 18, I posted Mathews County Chronic Absenteeism Rates from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) School Quality reports broken out as one part of Learning Climate for each of our schools. The numbers were alarming for some subgroups, particularly economically disadvantaged high school students at 42.9% and Black high school students at 45%.  What the Learning Climate reports do not show is the total numbers the percentages are based on because the number of the absent Black or economically disadvantaged high school students were too small to show on a report. Another set of VDOE reports under School Climate – Chronic Absenteeism tells a different story.

Of 224 chronically absent students in all three of our schools, only 17 were Black students. Now 224 out of 903 students is still too many to be absent more than 10% of the school  year, but 17 is 7.6% of all chronically absent students in all grades–a far cry from 45%. With rounding off, the real number could be as low as two or three students, but could not be more than eight! The following chart shows the numbers of absent students are spread out through all grades, but are the worst in ninth, tenth and eleventh grade.

It will take continuing efforts to get all our students back in school on a regular basis, and it must be done if our children are going to have the best possible future.

Grade Number of Chronically Absent Students Percent Chronically Absent
KG 12 19.4%
1 17 27.9%
2 10 18.5%
3 15 22.7%
4 11 18.6%
5 16 23.9%
6 15 22.7%
7 17 21.5%
8 13 15.7%
9 27 31.4%
10 28 38.4%
11 27 38.6%
12 16 26.7%
All Students 224 25.30%

I regret any undue concern caused by using the VDOE Learning Climate percentages in the October 18 post. We must, as a community, insist that VDOE reports be constructed in a way that doesn’t mislead a user and require sorting through 21,103 lines of information to extract real numbers for our local schools.

Source of School Quality/Learning Climate reports: https://schoolquality.virginia.gov/divisions/mathews-county-public-schools#desktopTabs-6

Source of School Climate/Chronic Abenteeism Reports: https://doe.virginia.gov/statistics_reports/school_climate/index.shtml

How Can Our Kids Learn If They’re Not in School? Absenteeism Rates in Mathews Public Schools –Not what they appear to be at first look!

Posted on by
Reply

By Carol J. Bova  posted October 18, 2022, updated October 19

What these numbers from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) School Quality/Learning Climate reports fail to indicate is the number of students that are covered by the percentages. The October 19 post, “Virginia Department of Education Absenteeism Reports Under Learning Climate Are Misleading!” explains why.

Division ALL STUDENTS ALL STUDENTS ALL STUDENTS ALL STUDENTS
2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021 2021-2022
Enrollment 1064 1008 932 903
All Students 13.8% 13.0% 12.6% 25.3%
Female 11.1% 26.5%
Male 14.0% 24.1%
Black 13.9% 7.8% 24.7% 28.8%
Hispanic 10.5% 17.1% 10.8% 15.2%
White 13.0% 12.7% 10.8% 25.9%
Asian 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Multiple Races 28.8% 24.1% 29.4% 23.5%
Students with Disabilities 19.1% 22.1% 16.1% 28.0%
Economically Disadvantaged 20.0% 16.8% 18.1% 32.4%
English Learners 0% 0.0% 0% 5.9%
ALL STUDENTS Mathews  Elementary Thomas Hunter Middle School Mathews High School
2020-2021 2020-2021 2020-2021 2020-2021
Enrollment 932 333 313 286
ALL STUDENTS 12.6% 6.6% 13.8% 17.9%
Female 11.1% 7.2% 13.1% 12.8%
Male 14.0% 6.0% 14.3% 23.7%
Black 24.7% 16.7% 16.7% 40.0%
Hispanic 10.8% 0.0% 15.8% 16.7%
White 10.8% 4.5% 11.9% 14.8%
Asian 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Multiple Races 29.4% 23.5% 33.3% 31.2%
Students with Disabilities 16.1% 7.9% 25.0% 18.4%
Economically Disadvantaged 18.1% 10.4% 18.2% 27.5%
English Learners 0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
ALL STUDENTS Mathews  Elementary Thomas Hunter Middle School Mathews High School
2021-2022 2021-2022 2021-2022 2021-2022
Enrollment 903 319 291 293
ALL STUDENTS 25.3% 21.5% 20.7% 33.9%
Female 26.5% 22.7% 24.3% 31.8%
Male 24.1% 20.6% 17.2% 36.3%
Black 28.8% 23.8% 16.7% 45.0%
Hispanic 15.2% 17.6% 5.3% 30.0%
White 25.9% 21.4% 22.6% 33.5%
Asian 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Multiple Races 23.5% 23.5% 19.0% 30.8%
Students with Disabilities 28.0% 26.2% 28.6% 30.2%
Economically Disadvantaged 32.4% 28.1% 27.9% 42.9%
English Learners 5.9% 12.5% 0.0% 0.0%

Source: https://schoolquality.virginia.gov/

Woke Geology from the Washington Post

Posted on by
Reply

By Carol J. Bova

The Washington Post published a piece June 4, 2021, on the geologic origins of Mid-Atlantic summer destinations, many in Virginia. Its wrap-up switches into Woke doctrine and describes the Chesapeake Bay as “a case study in climate change…Efforts are on to mitigate the effects of rising water on islands in the bay and the cities and towns along it.” The article warns, “Climate change may have brought the bay into being, but now human-caused climate change endangers it… will the Chesapeake Bay itself cease to exist, subsumed by the Atlantic?”

Dramatic. Of course, there was no place for mention of the impact crater that provided the depression in which the Bay formed. The article refers to the melting glaciers of 10,000 years ago. No mention, though, that during each of the five Ice Ages going back to 2.4-2.1 billion years ago, glacial periods have always been followed by interglacial periods when the temperatures rise, or that we’re still in one.

Of course no mention of the land subsidence from the excessive drawdown of water in the Potomac and related aquifers by Virginia, D.C., Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. And certainly no mention of the role of that subsidence in relative sea-level rise in the Chesapeake Bay region, especially in Hampton Roads.

Instead of those inconvenient details, it was much easier to rely on the mantra of “human-caused climate change.”

New Long Term Care Facility Outbreaks are Statewide

Posted on by
Reply

By Carol J. Bova

Steve Haner said in a recent comment on “Nursing Home PPE Shortages and Deaths Still Rising,” published on baconsrebellion.com, “I can’t seem to tell on the VDH site where the new outbreaks are. Are they following the pattern with cases, which are surging in Eastern and SW Virginia, but very diminished now in NoVA and fairly low in Central VA?”

The only way to tell is to download the Outbreak Dataset and sort by Health District, Long Term Care Facility (LTCF) outbreaks, and date reported, then sort into regions.  Since VDH doesn’t give case numbers or deaths in this dataset, we can only compare number of outbreaks by date. (The Outbreaks tab on the COVID-19 Dashboard only gives the total number of cases from all five categories of outbreaks.)

In the past month, 24 of 35 Health Districts had increases in outbreaks.

The 11 that did not were Alexandria, Eastern Shore, Lord Fairfax, Loudon, New River, Norfolk, Prince William, Roanoke, Southside, West Piedmont, Western Tidewater.

By Health Regions:
Central:       Increases in 6 of 7 Health Districts
Eastern:      Increases in 6 of 9 Health Districts
Northern:    Increases in 2 of 5 Health Districts
Northwest:  Increases in 4 of 5 Health Districts
Southwest: Increases in 6 of 9 Health Districts

Virginia Department of Health (VDH) first published outbreaks by Health District and report date on May 9, 2020; starting numbers occurred before that date.

Long Term Care Facility Outbreaks by Health Districts

 

Nursing Home PPE Shortages and Deaths Still Rising

Posted on by
Reply

By Carol J. Bova  Published on Bacon’s Rebellion, August 23, 2020

Deaths in COVID-19 cases originating at Virginia long-term care facilities.

After a review of over 15,000 nursing home reports submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), Brian E. McGarry, David C. Grabowski, and Michael L. Barnett published a paper in Health Affairs on August 20th. In “Severe Staffing and Personal Protective Equipment Shortages Faced by Nursing Homes During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” they concluded, “Despite intense policy attention and mounting mortality, the shortages have not meaningfully improved from May to July of 2020.”

While six fewer Virginia nursing homes reported nursing staff shortages as of August 9,  there were more reports of all other staff shortages and supplies of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) between the weeks ending June 7 and August 9 according to the CMS COVID-19 Nursing Home Dataset. Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise.

 

Cases originating in Virginia long-term care facilities.

On June 8th, I wrote to COVID19JIC@vdem.virginia.gov, healthandhumanresources@governor.virginia.gov, and Tammie Smith at the Virginia Department of Health. She replied to my question of whether the Virginia Department of Health reviewed the dataset and what action they took, if any, in regard to the PPE shortages reported May 31. Her response was:

Long term care facilities are encouraged to practice PPE conservation per CDC guidance and to reestablish their PPE supply chains; access has improved recently. Those unable to source PPE through their regular supply chains routinely contact the State Unified Command for assistance.

Publicly provided PPE is distributed regularly to these facilities to ensure optimum safety in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. PPE requests are coordinated and sent to the Virginia Emergency Support Team (VEST) through their Regional Healthcare Coalitions.

Guidance information for nursing homes is here https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/content/uploads/sites/182/2020/05/VirginiaLongTermCareFacilityTaskForceCOVIDPlaybook.pdf

Two months later, there are still 57 Virginia nursing homes reporting PPE shortages, 20 without a current supply of N95 masks and 13 of those with no surgical masks either, and one without any hand sanitizer.

The system isn’t working. Whether there are additional failures in infection control procedures is to be seen as normal nursing home inspections resume. But there is no excuse for the Commonwealth’s failure to ensure adequate supplies of PPE. If owners are at fault, fine them or take other actions. The Commonwealth needs to act now.

As McGarry et al said, “Unless these shortages are prioritized by policymakers, long-term care residents will continue to be at a great disadvantage in the pandemic.”

As of August 21, 14.6% of all LTCF (long-term care facility) cases (1,321 of 9,020) have ended in death, and represent 54.1% of all COVID-19 deaths in Virginia. By comparison, correctional facilities have seen a total of 16 deaths. Our nursing home residents do not deserve a death penalty for being in a nursing home without adequate supplies or staff.

Comparison of Nursing Home shortages reported to CMS weeks ending Jun 7 and Aug 9, 2020

 

 

Sixty Percent of All Virginia Covid-19 Deaths Are in Long Term Care Facilities

Posted on by
Reply

By Carol J. Bova

Updated July 6

Long Term Care Facilities (LTCF), have had 242 LTCF outbreaks, 6,889 cases, and 1,099 deaths that represent 60.5 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in Virginia according to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) report as of July 1. But VDH won’t release the names of 52 facilities.

Back on May 1, there were 132 LTCF outbreaks responsible for 311 of Virginia’s 581 COVID-19 deaths. When Julie Carey from NBC4 in Washington asked at Governor Northam’s press conference why the number of deaths had increased from 118 to 311 in one day, the governor said, “Well first of all, that’s not the state of Virginia. Is that nationwide?” She told the governor, “No, that was in our data today.”

Heath Commissioner Dr. Norm Oliver turned to Dr. Laurie Forlano, the deputy commissioner of population health at the Virginia Department of Health, and Virginia’s Office of Epidemiology public health director, and asked, “Do you want to take that, Laurie, or do you want me to take it?”

Dr. Forlano didn’t explain beyond saying “…numbers of cases,  et cetera, associated with an outbreak are added as quickly as possible to that file, so-to-speak. And so sometimes, there is a lag in capturing that and entering the data. I’d have to go back to the team to fully understand he jump, but that’s what I think it’s likely to be.”

Roger Watson from the Farmville Herald followed up saying that North Carolina reversed its decision on identifying individual longterm care facilities with outbreaks. He asked, “Is changing that rule in Virginia something that you will consider in the coming days?”

Dr. Oliver repeated the question and then said, “As I’ve stated before, this is not a decision that was made by the health department. It is actually something that’s incorporated into the Virginia code, which first of all identifies facilities and corporations, businesses as persons. And then requires us to protect the anonymity of person. So unless the code changes, I don’t see how we could do that.”

On June 19, Governor Northam announced he was “directing VDH to release the names of individual long-term care facilities (nursing facilities and assisted living facilities) that have experienced a COVID-19 outbreak.”

He said, “VDH has previously released aggregate data about outbreaks in long-term care facilities, given their responsibility to protect patient and facility anonymity under the Code of Virginia. However, due to the widespread nature of this pandemic, it is now unlikely that releasing facility information would compromise anonymity or discourage facilities from participating in a public health investigation.”(1)

No one from the Northam administration has cited exactly what section of the Code of Virginia barred the release of the facility names and numbers of cases. The Virginia Code discusses privacy of patient records, not hiding the identity of health care entities.

When the governor’s Long Term Task Force posted the list of nursing home and assisted living facilities with COVID-19 cases, they omitted 52 facilities from their list.(2) When contacted, their spokesperson, Brenden Rivenbark, explained that the Task Force only reported nursing home, assisted living and multicare facilities, but the VDH Outbreaks report includes two other categories: group homes and residential behavioral health facilities.

The only way to see what kind of facilities are in each outbreak category was to go to the VDH COVID-19 website, go to the Outbreaks tab, then go to the category in the list beneath the total outbreak and cases numbers, and then, click on the number of outbreaks. A list then appeared showing what the category includes. The information is now available under Data Downloads as of July 6.

But that’s not the complete answer. Nineteen Virginia nursing homes reported two or more confirmed cases to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), so they should have been in the VDH Outbreaks numbers and on the task force list. They were not on the June 30th list, but we have no way to know if they have been included in the outbreak numbers. As of July 6, two have been added to the list and one more identified using a name variation, leaving sixteen still to be posted.

At the tele-press briefing on July 2, Laurie Forlano said some of the facility names were withheld because of the small size of some facilities and the need to protect their anonymity.

Since the Task Force suppresses any number of cases or deaths fewer than five, exactly what does small mean, and why should they be exempt from public disclosure? And where is that authorized in the Code of Virginia?

The Task Force spokesperson sent an email on July 2 that he was scheduled that afternoon to discuss updates in facility name reporting and would be in contact after that so he could provide up to date information.

July 6 Update

Brenden Rivenbark advised today that the Task Force list of nursing homes, multiicare and assisted living facilities with COVID-19 outbreaks is now available to download under Data Downloads on the VDH Coronavirus site, https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/

The list includes 192 facilities and there are 16 more from the CMS  reports. That accounts for 208 of 254 total outbreaks, and at least 61 are currently active.

He also said, “In addition, we are working to clarify definitions on our pages to better outline which types are included in our various data sets.  Lastly, Dr. Oliver was instructed to release the names of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and multi-care settings by Governor Northam due to the increasing rate of outbreaks in these types of facilities.  Our leadership team continues to evaluate outbreaks in other facility types and the public health benefits that may be associated with sharing the names of other types of facilities.”

The VDH changes and response are appreciated.

This post will be updated as new information comes in.

 

  1. https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/all-releases/2020/june/headline-858302-en.html7
  2. https://www.baconsrebellion.com/wp/where-are-the-other-52-nursing-homes-with-outbreaks/

April 2020 Chesapeake Style

Posted on by
Reply

April 2020 Chesapeake Style

From main page, click the orange link to open.

When you can see the cover photo, to download,  click >> in the upper right hand corner of the black frame at the top of the magazine image.

I apologize if your Safari browser won’t open the file and show the >> symbols to download.! To read online, go to Safari Preferences, Page Zoom and enlarge to size you prefer.