Virginia Governor Ralph Northam (D) will impose new restrictions on restaurants and bars, but only in an eastern section of the state that is experiencing a huge increase in new cases of coronavirus, it announced Tuesday.
Northam said bars in the Hampton Roads area will be banned from serving alcohol after 10 p.m., and that restaurants should close at midnight and be reduced to 50 percent of their ability to eat indoors.
“This will effectively close the bars,” he said during a press conference.
Additionally, Northam said all public and private meetings in the eastern region of the state, including Virginia Beach, will be limited to 50 people, below the current state limit of 250.
“It’s about stopping the spread of COVID-19 in Hampton Roads. It happens when many people get together, when many people don’t comply, and … when too many people are selfish,” the governor said.
The rest of the state will remain in Phase 3, with no restrictions on bars or restaurants in the interior.
Statewide, the Virginia test’s positivity rate is 7.3 percent, which has dropped slightly from 7.7 percent last week. There were 922 new positive coronavirus cases reported Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to just under 87,000.
The seven-day average of new cases daily is about 800, compared to more than 1,000 during the state peak in late May.
Most areas of the state, including the northern Virginia suburbs of DC, are fine, Northam said. The positivity rate in northern Virginia is 5.7 percent, he said.
Overall, the positivity rate is 10.8 percent for the Hampton Roads area, but Northam said it is much higher in some localized areas. Outside of Hampton Roads and the central peninsula area, the rate is 6 percent, Northam said.
Officials in DC and the Maryland suburbs of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties were wary of Virginia’s rush to Phase 3, and were concerned that it could lead to an increase in infections and disrupt progress in the area.
Both northern Virginia and the Maryland suburbs waited longer than other parts of their states to reopen due to high infection rates at the time in the Washington area. But Virginia moved to Phase 3 earlier this month, while the other areas have not.
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