as well as several other types of businesses as essential. the post reported that construction projects were still underway in those jurisdictions and that a spokesperson for northam had claimed that the federal government had determined that construction is essential. the post also reported that the state of washington's transportation department had suspended work on nearly all of its projects and that washington's governor had clarified his stay-at-home order to state that construction was not considered an essential activity. on march 23, governor northam closed all public and private schools until the end of the academic year. jerry falwell jr. announced that liberty university was reopening its dorms to students who wished to return to campus from spring break even though classes were being taught online. university staff and faculty have also been told to report to work. both decisions remain controversial. a local emergency was declared in front royal on march 23. march 24–31 on march 25, northam and the state health commissioner issued a public health emergency order that prohibited inpatient and outpatient surgical hospitals, free-standing endoscopy centers, physicians' offices, and dental, orthodontic, and endodontic offices from providing procedures and surgeries that require personal protective equipment (ppe), which if delayed, are not anticipated to cause harm to the patient by negatively affecting the patient's health outcomes, or leading to disability or death. the prohibition did not include outpatient visits delivered in hospital-based clinics. the united states department of homeland security's march 28 guidance on essential critical infrastructure lists as "essential" the construction of residential/shelter facilities and services (see "essential services"), energy-related facilities, communications and information technology, public works including the construction of critical or strategic infrastructure and infrastructure that is temporarily required to support covid-19 response, is for certain other types of community- or government-based operations, or is otherwise critical, strategic, or essential. the guidance does not contain any such listings for other types of construction. during the afternoon of march 30, governor northam issued a stay-at-home order, to be effective until june 10 unless amended or rescinded by a further executive order. the order required everyone to remain at their place of residence, with certain specified exceptions (including traveling to work, to obtain food and for outdoor exercise). maryland's governor larry hogan and the district of columbia's mayor muriel bowser issued similar orders on the same day (see covid-19 pandemic in maryland and in washington, d.c.). april 2020 cars line up at a drive-thru donation site in arlington, virginia on april 3, 2020. on april 3, governor northam announced that the dulles expo center will be the interim site of the first field hospital in northern virginia. a total of three field hospitals are expected to open throughout the commonwealth. the dulles expo site is expected to be operational by mid-may. on april 10, the institute for health metrics and evaluation at the university of washington in seattle reported that virginia had not implemented a closure of non-essential services. the institute further reported that maryland and the district of columbia had implemented these closures on march 23 and march 25, respectively. on monday april 13, reuters reported that 42 of the 154 covid-19 deaths in virginia occurred at the canterbury rehabilitation & healthcare center in henrico county, a nursing home located near richmond. the outbreak is one of the worst coronavirus disease clusters in the united states. on april 15, the march 13 order, which would initially expire on april 23, was extended to end on may 8. the order for all residents to stay-at-home until june 10 was still in place. on april 16, demonstrators gathered in richmond's capitol square in front of the executive mansion to protest northam's closure and stay at home orders. on april 24, northam presented a four-staged "forward virginia" blueprint informed by "diverse health and business stakeholders" to "safely" ease public health restrictions related to the spread of covid-19. may 2020 a metal covid-19 sign at a park in vienna, virginia in may 2020phase i of virginia's reopening began on may 15 for most of the state. phase i was delayed until may 29 in northern virginia (specifically arlington, fairfax, loudoun, and prince william counties, and the cities of alexandria, fairfax, falls church, manassas, and manassas park), as well as richmond and accomack county. on may 20, mountain mission school in grundy reported 17 cases. on may 29, wearing of facial coverings in buildings open for business became mandatory by executive order 63 which was signed by the governor. the order is by authority granted to the governor by article v of the constitution and vested in the state health commissioner pursuant to the code of virginia until it is either amended or rescinded by a subsequent executive order. the order allows exceptions including health or medical reasons for which wearing a mask is contraindicated. the order has been criticized for its deliberately ambiguous wording which mandates facial coverings but allows full discretion of a patron on how to define a "health or medical" exception. it further holds that a patron is neither required to show proof nor declare verbally what health or medical condition applies to his decision for going without a facial covering. the spokesman for the governor's office stated that while the ability to enforce the order is flawed, it is hoped and expected that virginians will comply with the order. june–august 2020 virginia state parks staff at sky meadows state park wearing masks while working on august 11, 2020. all of virginia entered phase ii on june 12, and phase iii on july 1. on july 15, the virginia department of labor and industry adopted binding safety regulations on covid-19, the first such regulations in the united states. the regulations include mandates about control measures and prohibits retaliation against workers for expressing concern about infection risk, and provides for fines of up to us$130,000 for companies found in violation. on july 28, additional restrictions were imposed on restaurants and bars in the hampton roads area of southeastern virginia (specifically virginia beach, norfolk, portsmouth, chesapeake, suffolk, hampton, newport news, poquoson, york county, james city county, and williamsburg). the restrictions were expected to be in force for 2–3 weeks before being reevaluated. on july 31, the arlington county board adopted during a closed session an emergency ordinance that prohibited groups of more than three people from congregating on posted streets and sidewalks. the ordinance required pedestrians to maintain at least six feet of separation from others on those streets and sidewalks. people violating the ordinance could receive fines of up to $100. by august 11, there were 15 outbreaks of covid-19 at poultry- and meat-processing plants in virginia. these resulted in a total of 1,224 confirmed cases, 49 hospitalizations, and 10 deaths. on august 29, the arlington county government announced that county police would begin enforcing its july 31 emergency ordinance that had prohibited groups of more than three people from congregating on posted streets and sidewalks. people who refused to comply when on posted sidewalks in such commercial areas as clarendon and crystal city could receive fines up to $100. september 2020 on september 1, governor northam expressed concern about southwestern virginia, which was reporting 229 new cases each day and does not have a large number of hospitals. the number of cases in southwestern virginia is close to the 251 cases per day in northern virginia, an area which has many more hospitals. on september 5, a total of 866 outbreaks throughout the state were under investigation. this included 39 outbreaks at long-term care facilities, which had a total of 9,560 cases and 1,386 deaths. on september 10, the additional restrictions on the hampton roads area of southeastern virginia were rescinded. on september 16, the arlington county board voted to allow the emergency sidewalk distancing ordinance that it had adopted on july 31 to lapse on september 29 because the ordinance had proven to be ineffective. the arlington county manager told the board before the vote that the county's police had failed to issue any citations for violations of the ordinance, despite the posting of signs that had warned of fines for committing such violations. on september 25, governor northam announced that he and his wife had tested positive for covid-19. october–december 2020 on october 2, over 1,000 new daily cases were reported, part of a trend of the highest number of daily cases since may. on october 5, ralph northam announced he had recovered from covid-19, and criticized then-u.s. president donald trump for downplaying the virus. cases across the state generally staggered around mid october to mid november at about 700 to 1,200 new cases per day before a spike in cases occurred in late november. on december 9, governor northam announced new restrictions through an executive order, this included limiting social gatherings from 25 back down to 10, excluding educational, employment, and religious settings. the mask mandate, enacted in june 2020, was expanded to include all indoor settings, and outdoor settings where social distancing is not possible. finally, the restrictions imposed a curfew from midnight to 5:00 a.m., excluding essential travel. the order went into effect on december 14. january–february 2021 a field of flags in surry county created as a memorial to virginians who have died of covid-19. according to bloomberg, on january 15 virginia ranked near the bottom of u.s. states in terms of utilizing the covid-19 vaccine supply that it had on hand. bloomberg reported on january 17 that virginia had given 3.71 doses per 100 people at a time that the u.s. as a whole had given 4.35 doses per 100 people. also on january 17, the prince william health district in northern virginia stopped giving vaccine appointments because of a present and projected limited supply of the vaccine. by the end of january 2021, nearly 7% of the commonwealth received their first shot of the covid-19 vaccine, and 1% have been fully vaccinated. into february 2021, cases of covid-19 began to decline, with the estimated number of active cases dropping from about 65,000 to 40,000 by mid-february. in mid-february approximately 1 million virginians received their first dose of the covid-19 vaccine. on february 17, 2021, the state opened its online registration system for covid-19 vaccines for the general public. march–april 2021 on march 31, 2021, virginia moved into phase 1c of the covid-19 vaccine eligibility. on april 1, 2021, governor northam announced that the state would be moving into phase 2 of the vaccination efforts starting on april 18, 2021, meaning all adults in virginia, regardless of their health, can register for the covid-19 vaccine. by may 2021, half of the state received their first dose. vaccination further information: covid-19 vaccination in the united states on december 14, 2020, first pfizer-biontech vaccine doses arrived and on december 15, 2020, first pfizer-biontech vaccine doses administered. vaccination in long-term care facilities begin. as of february 1, 2021, around 817,823 people have been vaccinated with at least one dose in virginia. among them, 124, 407 people have been fully vaccinated. virginia is currently in phase 2. phase 1a: vaccinate healthcare personnel and residents of long term care facilities. phase 1b: vaccinate frontline essential workers, people aged 65 years and older, people living in correctional facilities, homeless shelters and migrant labor camps, and people aged 16 through 64 years with a high risk medical condition or disability that increases their risk of severe illness from covid-19. phase 1c: vaccinate other essential workers. these workers are in sectors essential to the functioning of society and/or are at higher risk of exposure to sars-cov-2, including people working in the follow areas: energy water, wastewater, and waste removal workers (includes recycling removal workers) housing construction food service transportation and logistics institutions of higher education faculty/staff finance information technology & communication media legal services public safety (engineers) other public health workers phase 2: general population k-12 education as a result of the pandemic, governor ralph northam issued executive order fifty-three closing schools for the remainder of the 2019–2020 school year on march 23, 2020. in virginia, decisions on the reopening of schools have been left up to local school districts rather than being made at a statewide level. before entering phase ii or iii of reopening schools to students, every public and private school in virginia