Northam announces Northern Virginia's reopening will be delayed

During his COVID-19 press briefing Monday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced he will be working with local leaders to delay the beginning of phase 1 of reopening Northern Virginia.

This comes a day after leaders from five Northern Virginia localities issued a joint letter to the governor saying that they were not ready to start the process of reopening. Phase 1 originally was planned to begin statewide this Friday.

Gov. Northam said that while the percentage of tests that are positive has gone down throughout the state, Northern Virginia’s positive percentage is more than twice that of the rest of the state.

The time table for Northern Virginia’s reopening is now uncertain, Northam said, and will depend upon trends in the region during the coming weeks.

“This is about the health and well-being of Virginians, and I couldn’t ask for a better relationship,” said Northam. “[Northern Virginia officials] have chosen to be part of the solution, and as soon as they feel comfortable and we feel comfortable collectively with moving to phase 1, we’ll certainly do that.”

The governor said that there will be more information on the logistics of Northern Virginia’s reopening in Wednesday’s press briefing.

State officials will not do anything to restrict Northern Virginia residents from traveling to the rest of the state to patronize newly opened businesses, Northam said, but he hopes that if they do, they will follow the guidelines that have been put in place.

The governor also announced that the reopening of DMV offices across the state will be delayed by at least another week.