Virginia Resources Updated: April 23, 2021
North Carolina Resources Updated: July 30, 2021
COVID-19 Key Resource List (Virginia):
Commonwealth of Virginia Official COVID-19 Website
This website is a comprehensive resource that provides information pertaining to official actions, guidance, updates, and information about the novel coronavirus. The Department of Social Services has recently launched a website to streamline access to resources and guidance for citizens.
Recent Updates
During the week of April 19, 2021, Governor Ralph Northam issued two announcements regarding key changes to his next steps in the “Forward Virginia” plan on easing restrictions in the Commonwealth. Every Virginian must continue to practice safety measures that have been proven to keep everyone safe: maintain proper physical distancing, avoid gatherings with individuals outside of your household, practice hand sanitation, and wear masks while indoors and in public.
The key changes in the Fifth Amended Executive Order Seventy-Two, which went into effect on April 21, 2021 include:
- All restaurants, dining establishments, food courts, breweries, microbrewers, distilleries, wineries, and tasting rooms may allow patrons to be seated at the bar for service, provided there is a minimum of six feet between parties.
- Outdoor races or marathons where physical distancing of runners can be maintained, may include no more than 100 runners per grouping.
- Individuals may gather in the following educational settings:
- Instructional setting that includes, any assemblage of students, teachers, and administrators or other school staff for the purposes of educational instructions and conducting activities that are related to educational instructions. Provided they adhere to guidelines set by the relevant governing body.
- School performances where the performers and participants are students, teachers, administrators, and other school staff. School performance must follow the guidelines found here.
The following measures in the Sixth Amended Executive Order Seventy-Two will go into effect on May 15, 2021:
- All public and private in-person gatherings of more than 100 individuals indoors and 250 individuals outdoors are prohibited.
- Indoor entertainment and public amusement venues will be allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity or 1,000 people. Outdoor venues will be allowed to operate at 50 percent, with no specific cap on the number of individuals.
- Indoor recreational sporting events will be allowed to have up to 250 spectators or exceed the lesser of 50 percent of the occupancy capacity for the venue. Outdoor recreational sporting events will be allowed to have the lesser of $1,000 spectators per field or 50 percent of the occupancy capacity of the venue.
- All restaurants may return to selling alcohol after midnight and dining rooms will no longer be required to close between midnight and 5:00 a.m.
- Here is a link to the Governor’s Forward Virginia guidelines for all business sectors on best practices.
Here is a link to all of the Governor’s Executive Orders and Directives.
If you have business or industry specific questions, please feel free to reach out to our Government Relations team.
COVID-19 Additional Resources (Virginia):
Virginia Employment Commission http://www.vec.virginia.gov/
- Governor Northam has directed the Commissioner of the Virginia Employment Commission to waive the one-week waiting period for benefit payments.
- Information on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for businesses and benefits for workers previously not covered by traditional unemployment insurance.
- Workers may be eligible to receive unemployment benefits if their employer needs to temporarily slow or cease operations due to COVID-19. If a worker has been issued a notice to self-quarantine by a medical or public health official and is not receiving paid sick or medical leave from his or her employer, he or she may be eligible to receive unemployment benefits. In addition, a worker may be eligible for unemployment benefits if he or she must stay home to care for an ill family member and is not receiving paid family medical leave from his or her employer.
- Virginia Employment Commission will give affected workers special consideration on deadlines, mandatory re-employment appointments, and work search requirements.
Department of Health: www.vdh.virginia.gov
- Symptoms of COVID-19 information.
- Share the Facts about COVID-19 resource.
- A daily update of the number of Virginians tested and the number of confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Department of Medical Assistance Services (Medicaid): www.dmas.virginia.gov
- Eliminating all co-payments for services covered by Medicaid and Family Access to Medical Insurance Security (FAMIS), including COVID-19-related treatment as well as other medical care.
- Ensuring current Medicaid recipients do not inadvertently lose coverage due to lapses in paperwork or a change in circumstances.
- Permitting Medicaid recipients to obtain a 90-day supply of many routine prescriptions, an increase from the 30-day supply under previous rules.
- Waiving pre-approval requirements for many critical medical services and enacting automatic extensions for approvals that already are in place.
- Expanding access to telehealth services, including allowing Medicaid reimbursement for providers who use telehealth with patients in the home.
Secretary of Commerce and Trade: https://www.commerce.virginia.gov/covid-19/
- Resources for Virginia businesses impacted by COVID-19 including federal loan and tax relief programs for small and large businesses.
- State Agencies resources for businesses.
- The ReBuild Virginia grant fund is administered by the Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity and provides support to small business and non-profits who were impacted by COVD-19. Funds can be used to meet financial obligations and operating expenses as well as offset additional costs of operating as a result of COVID-19 restrictions. Additional information and the application can be fund here.
COVID-19 KEY RESOURCE LIST (North Carolina):
North Carolina Official COVID-19 Website
This website is a comprehensive resource concerning North Carolina’s response to COVID-19.
Williams Mullen COVID-19 Legal Updates
Williams Mullen attorneys continue to serve our clients and have helped by assembling a legal resource page with alerts on federal and state actions related to COVID-19. An email sign-up is available so you can have legal alerts and updates sent as soon as they are published.
State Regulation
Governor Roy Cooper announced that effective September 1, 2021, workers at agencies that are part of the Governor’s Office or are headed by members of the Governor’s Cabinet who are not fully vaccinated must submit to regular testing for COVID-19. In addition, effective August 2, 2021, face coverings will be required for all Cabinet agency workers who are not fully vaccinated. The face covering requirement for unvaccinated Cabinet agency workers applies in any indoor space, within a state government office, building, or facility, that is that is controlled by an agency that is either part of the Governor's Office or is headed by a member of the Governor's Cabinet. Cabinet agency workers who are fully vaccinated and wish to avoid testing and the wearing of masks must have their vaccination status verified. These provisions, which apply to roughly 55,000 state employees, are included in Executive Order 224.
The Governor encouraged other agencies of state government, local governments, private businesses, and organizations to adopt the measures included in EO 224. He added that all public and non-public schools should require all students, school staff, and visitors, regardless of vaccination status, to wear face coverings at all K-12 schools.
Here is a link to the FAQ document on EO 224.
Governor Cooper announced earlier in July 2021, that the executive order requiring masks in certain settings (e.g., schools, prisons, health care facilities, public transit and childcare) would not be extended and would expire at the end of July 2021. As a result, the decision on whether to require masks in schools will be made at the local level.
Immunity Provisions
Section 4.14 of SB 704 provides immunity to essential businesses with respect to claims from a customer or employee for any injuries or death alleged to have been caused as a result of the customer or employee contracting COVID-19 while doing business with or while employed by the essential business, so long as there was no act or omission of the essential business constituting gross negligence, reckless misconduct, or intentional infliction of harm.
And as referenced above, this provision is applied to restaurants (even though they originally were not open as “essential businesses”).
Section 3D.7.(a) of SB 704 includes an immunity provision for health care providers that is almost identical to the essential business immunity provision.
Later in the legislative session, HB 118 was approved by the General Assembly. This legislation provides immunity for individuals, governmental entities, corporations, nonprofit corporations and other legal entities (collectively “person”) from legal claims alleging that the person’s act or omission resulted in a third party’s contraction of COVID-19. Any act or omission that constitutes gross negligence, willful or wanton conduct, or intentional wrongdoing is not covered. The immunity applies to claims arising on or after July 2, 2021, and continues in effect as to claims arising no later than 180 days after the expiration or rescission of Executive Order 116 (the executive order issued by the Governor declaring a state of emergency in response to COVID-19).
The immunity provision in this legislation has a few attributes of note that are not present in the immunity provision included in SB 704. First, it applies to a universe of entities beyond just essential businesses. Second, it is not limited to claims from customers or employees. And, lastly, it is effective for a longer period of time (claims arising no later than 180 days after the expiration or rescission of Executive Order 116 vs the expiration or rescission of Executive Order 116).
Local Government Regulation
Governor Cooper and his administration have developed a COVID-19 County Alert System (System). The System categorizes all 100 counties into give tiers using criteria that measure the level of viral spread. The Governor has also announced recommended actions for public officials, individuals, businesses and community organizations to decrease the spread of the virus that are specific to the tiers.
The three tiers of counties are as follows:
- Green: Low Community Spread
- Light Yellow: Moderate Community Spread
- Yellow: Significant Community Spread
- Orange: Substantial Community Spread
- Red: Critical Community Spread
The System uses a combination of three metrics: case rate, the percent of tests that are positive, and hospital impact within the county.
As of July 22, 2021, there is one red county, 12 orange counties, 41 yellow counties, 41 light yellow counties, and 51 green counties. DHHS publishes an updated System report the 2nd week of every month.
A document outlining the System, along with the initial classifications, can be found here.
COVID-19 Additional Resources (North Carolina):
NC Department of Health and Human Services: https://www.ncdhhs.gov/
- COVID-19 case count.
- Numbers to call or text for COVID-19 assistance.
- COVID-19 symptoms and health tips.
- Past COVID-19 briefings.
- COVID-19 overview page can be found here.
- Information on the testing and treatment of COVID-19 can be found here.
NC Department of Commerce: https://www.nccommerce.com/
- North Carolina Employment Security Division is publishing instructions and guidance to help employers and employees understand the new changes to the state’s unemployment system related to COVID-19, which can be found here.
NC Judicial Branch: https://www.nccourts.gov/
- To find local announcements, changes, and administrative orders by county, please see the COVID-19 Updates page.
NC Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV): https://www.ncdot.gov/dmv
- Find out about extensions and what services can be conducted online here.
NC Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services: http://www.ncagr.gov/
- Information on food safety can be found here.
- FAQ’s about COVID-19 and agriculture, essential businesses and critical infrastructure, and facility updates can be found here.
COVID-19 Additional Resources (Federal):
Department of Homeland Security:
FDIC and Other Bank/Lending Regulators:
- All federal agencies that regulate all U.S. financial institutions issued a written statement on Sunday, March 22, 2020: https://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2020/fil20022.html
- In it, these agencies provided the following sweeping guidance to all financial institutions nationwide:
- The agencies encourage financial institutions to work prudently with borrowers who are or may be unable to meet their contractual payment obligations because of the effects of COVID-19.
- The agencies view loan modification programs as positive actions that can mitigate adverse effects on borrowers due to COVID-19.
- The agencies will not criticize institutions for working with borrowers and will not direct supervised institutions to automatically categorize all COVID-19 related loan modifications as troubled debt restructurings (TDRs).
- Citing bank-related accounting methodology from both GAAP and FASB perspectives, the agencies explain that short-term modifications made on a good faith basis in response to COVID-19 to borrowers who were current prior to any relief will not automatically be characterized as TDRs. This has the historic impact of freeing up banks to temporarily defer monthly payments or extend maturity dates with the fear of hobbling a banks’ loan portfolio or requiring additional capital reserves with TDR designations.
- Note that the agencies provide an example of “short term modifications” as being six-month deferrals.
- Note also the agencies suggest that such modifications should be available only to borrowers who are “current” which they defined as “less than 30 days past due” before the implementation of a modification.
US Small Business Administration:
