Del. Carter Calls on Gov. Northam to Take Emergency Actions in Response to COVID-19 Public Health Crisis

Posted

Delegate Lee Carter of the 50th District (Photo courtesy of Capital News Service)

Manassas, VA – Saturday Delegate Lee Carter (D-50th) sent a letter to Governor Ralph Northam calling on him to take emergency actions in an effort to save lives and mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

These actions include:

(1) Ordering all Virginians to shelter in place within their homes, except for work on food distribution, critical infrastructure, or life and safety;

(2) Ordering the immediate closure of all bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues to all but delivery and carry-out service;

(3) Beginning the immediate conversion of unused facilities such as schools, shelters, and hotels to increase surge healthcare and isolation capacity;

(4) Providing for immediate temporary accommodation of all unhoused people within the Commonwealth;

(5) Ordering the immediate suspension of all non-critical medical and dental procedures to preserve PPE supplies for critical care;

(6) Taking necessary steps to ensure COVID-19 tests for all healthcare workers with suspected exposure, to prevent spread within healthcare facilities.

In Carter's letter, he tells the Governor the the reported numbers do not accurately reflect the true outbreak in the Commonwealth. 

"Healthcare providers throughout the Commonwealth are currently seeing an influx of patients with symptoms that suggest COVID-19 but who are unable to be tested. These healthcare providers are also unable to acquire adequate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent nosocomial transmission from these patients to others within the healthcare setting."

"Additionally, what has been seen in other countries like China and Italy who are already in the midst of this crisis is a significant spike in demand for hospital beds, far beyond capacity, that lags behind mass exposure to infection by several weeks."

"I am encouraged by today’s Executive Order Number Fifty-Two, which aims to address this concern, but that order alone is insufficient. As such, the time to act is before large numbers of Virginians require hospitalization, not when they arrive."

"I am calling for you to take the following actions immediately, all of which have been implemented in other parts of the United States."

“Taking these steps now carries the potential to save tens of thousands of lives. I urge you to undertake these actions without delay,” the letter concludes.

Carter Letter to Northam on COVID-19

actions, bristow, bristow-news, closings, coronavirus, covid-19, del-carter, emergency, emergency-powers, featured, gov-northam, lee-carter, manassas, order, prince-william-county, public-health, ralph-northam, shelter-in-place, state-of-emergency, virginia, virus