Getting ahead of the curve. It’s still not clear when a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine will become available, but the Northam administration is preparing to accelerate the roll-out when it does. Virginia’s plan calls for spending nearly $71 million for mass vaccination clinics and $2.5 million for refrigerators and thermometers, reports The Virginia Mercury. The vaccine will be given first to residents of long-term care facilities, which have accounted for nearly 50% of COVID deaths, as well as health practitioners and other essential workers — potentially including first responders, teachers, and childcare providers. Priority also will be given to members of other elevated-risk groups such as Virginians 65 or older, “people from racial and ethnic minority groups,” and “people from tribal communities.”
Some hard numbers on home schooling. The COVID-19 epidemic has not been kind to Virginia public school enrollment. From an article in the Free Lance-Star: In Stafford County, as of early September, 471 students had withdrawn from the public school division for home schooling this year — that’s nearly three times the 162 home-school students the previous year. In Spotsylvania County the number of home-school students are 1,519 this year compared to 1,089 last year. The city of Fredericksburg saw 172 home-school requests this year, a jump of about 100. Another 52 Spotsylvania families indicated they were withdrawing for private schools. Local school officials lament the loss of state and federal aid.
Hampton Roads’ Deep Dig. Construction has begun at last on a $3.8 billion project to add twin two-lane tunnels and make other improvements to Interstate 64 linking Norfolk to Hampton. The existing four-lane Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel is one of the worst transportation bottlenecks in the state. Funded with regional transportation tax dollars, the tunnel will employ new tunnel-excavation technology, reports Virginia Business. A German-fabricated boring machine with a 46-foot-diameter rotating cutterhead will drill 50 feet deeper than the existing tunnels.
