VA's Health Workforce Gets $4.3M Boost For COVID-19 Response

VIRGINIA — Virginia's statewide health agency will be receiving $4.3 million in grant funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help expand the roles and capacity of community health workers to respond to COVID-19, according to a release.

The Institute for Public Health Innovation (IPHI) applied for the CDC funding on behalf of the Virginia Department of Health and other health agencies across the state. Funding for the grant is provided through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act of 2020.

The fund, which is called the Community Health Workers for a Healthy Virginia, will also be used to assist the recovery from the pandemic and to identify financial strategies to support the development of a long-term and sustainable CHW workforce.

A requirement of the fund is that the money will be used to focus on areas in the state reporting high rates of COVID-19. This includes portions of the Richmond metro area, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Danville, and parts of southwestern Virginia in the Mount Rogers Health District.

Local health officials will use the money to hire and deploy new CHWs in these targeted areas. This will also address identified gaps in COVID-related services, such as testing, vaccination, and quarantine support.

“For a variety of reasons COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on some communities including urban African American and LatinX communities and rural communities in Southwest Virginia,” State Health Commissioner M. Norman Oliver said, in a release. “Community health workers on the frontlines, embedded in communities, have a unique view of community and individual needs. Developing the community health worker workforce has been a priority for Virginia for many years, and this grant is a big boost to our efforts.”

Last week, the CDC reported nearly all of Virginia was experiencing a high level of community spread of the coronavirus.

The City of Fairfax in the only jurisdiction in the state reporting a community transmission rate lower than high, according to the CDC. The city experienced a "moderate" rate of community spread from Aug. 24 to Aug. 30.

On Tuesday, the VDH reported 3,487 new COVID-19 cases in Virginia, which is up from the 2,469 new cases reported on Sunday and the 2,291 on Monday.

The new number is in line with the 3,000-plus new cases that were being reported daily a week ago. Taken together, these numbers follow a trend of increasing daily cases that started in mid-July.

VDH also reported 132 new hospitalizations and 32 new deaths related to COVID-19 on Tuesday.

In Virginia, 9,959,695 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to date. A total of 5,466,820 people in the state or 64 percent of the population 18 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Also, 4,838,481 people are fully vaccinated, which accounts for 56.7 percent of the total population and 67.8 percent of people 18 and older.

Related:

High COVID-19 Community Spread Across All Of Virginia: CDC