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Here’s a recap of the top stories on the morning of Wednesday, October 6, 2021:
Richmonders living in areas of high poverty are more likely to have had COVID-19 than those living in wealthier areas. As Connor Scribner reports, that disparity was driven wider during this summer’s surge.
The state denied hospitals’ requests for emergency waivers as COVID surged this summer, according to internal emails. The Virginia Mercury reports hospitals sought the flexibility to quickly add bed capacity and hire out-of-state providers. The requests were made in August, when hospital admissions began to surge. The number of Virginians hospitalized with COVID-19 increased ten-fold between July and September. The governor’s chief of staff Clark Mercer says although hospitalization numbers are up, they “haven’t been unmanageable.”
The Richmond school board decided this week to keep police in schools for the foreseeable future. But a proposal to have police formally mentor students didn’t meet muster. VPM’s Megan Pauly reports.
Nineteen flood mitigation projects will receive grants aimed at making Virginia communities more resilient to the effects of climate change. Yesterday, Governor Ralph Northam announced the nearly 8 million dollars in grant money from the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund. The program prioritizes areas with vulnerable and underserved populations, and projects that use nature-based solutions. Most of the funding will go to projects in coastal areas of Hampton Roads. More than one million dollars will be spent in Richmond, to fund work on residential streets near the McGuire VA Hospital, as well as in the Manchester and Shockoe Bottom neighborhoods.
Some Charlottesville residents got multiple deliveries of mail this weekend. The post office there brought in dozens of carriers from other areas to try and overcome the backlog of delayed mail. Randi B. Hagi, from our partner station WMRA, reports.
