Virginia Mercury by Kate Masters

March 25, 2020

Virginia’s state laboratory in Richmond has quietly expanded its capacity for testing COVID-19, the disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus. Dena Potter, director of communications for the Department of General Services (the agency under which the state lab operates), said it’s now able to test more than 2,000 patients for the virus — a significant increase from last week, when the lab’s capacity was at roughly 1,000 patients.

Results are generally delivered within 12 to 24 hours of the time when samples are received, she said.

As state officials rush to respond to the growing pandemic, the increase in testing provides a glimmer of hope. On Wednesday, VCU Health announced it had developed its own in-house test for COVID-19. Right now, it’s limited only to hospitalized patients with severe symptoms of the disease (and dependent on the hospital’s access to testing supplies such as reagents and swabs), but VCU “aims to obtain same-day results with this testing option,” according to a news release.

 NBC News By Henry Graff 

 March 24, 2020 

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Setting realistic expectations, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam issued a strong reminder that the coronavirus pandemic is far from over.

“The world has no doubt changed. This will be our new normal for awhile," said Northam.

Tuesday, Northman and his COVID-19 response team held a briefing. The governor said he does not believe the country will open up by mid-April like President Donald Trump is suggesting.

“We all want our lives to return to normal as fast as possible but I think we have to use science. We have to use data. We have to use consultation with folks like I have behind me and really do what’s in the best interest of, in our case, of Virginians,” said Northam.

Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. have agreed to share resources and capacity to deal with the pandemic. Northam said they are fighting a biological war right now and while there is light at the end of the tunnel it will take months, not weeks, to get there.

NBC by Daniel Grimes

March 18, 2020

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) -An expert at the University of Virginia Center for Politics says the coronavirus may impact the presidential election in ways this country has never seen before.

J. Miles Coleman says each party will have to contend with a changing landscape because of the pandemic.

“A lot of people have talked about kind of moving to a system where everything is vote by mail,” Coleman said.

That would come with its own set of challenges: “Elections are administered by the states. We could see all types of stipulations on who gets a ballot, how you can request them,” he said.

The coronavirus might take away one of President Donald Trump’s biggest selling points for his reelection effort: “One of the things that’s really keeping him in the game is the economy is so good. Well, we’ve seen the stock market lately, and that might not still be the case,” Coleman said.

It is not all bad news for the president: “The price of gas has been under $2 for the first time in a while, so there are signs like that,” Coleman said.

As for the Democratic primary, Coleman said there is little to no path for Senator Bernie Sanders because there is no way he could surpass former Vice President Joe Biden to secure the Democratic nomination.

CNN

March 13, 2020 

Russian trolls are back and ready to meddle in this year's presidential election, but this time they're coming from an unexpected source. A CNN investigation has revealed that part of the meddling campaign has been outsourced to the West African nations of Ghana and Nigeria. The trolls are focusing almost exclusively on racial issues in the US, with the aim of deepening divisions and provoking social unrest. Facebook has removed dozens of pages, accounts and Instagram accounts (remember, Facebook owns Instagram) in response to the revelations. Some Instagram accounts had hundreds of thousands of followers.