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Virginia town announces layoffs amid coronavirus outbreak

ABINGDON, Va. (AP) — A Virginia town says it is laying off full-time and part-time workers because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The town of Abingdon announced in a statement that the town manager reduced spending in response to revenue projections that suggested losses from taxes on sales, meals and lodging.

While not expecting a deficit, Mayor J. Wayne Craig said in the statement that spending cuts mean 13 full-time and 64 part-time town employees will be laid off.

Craig also said the town will place a hold on all nonessential spending such as travel, training and equipment replacement.

Va. health dept. improves nursing home inspection backlog, reforms sanction criteria for facilities

Stories of neglect in care or unsanitary living situations have plagued several of Virginia’s nursing home facilities in recent years and data backs up a lapse in oversight by state agencies.  With reform efforts underway, the Virginia Department of Health officials said they aim to adopt sanction criteria by the end of the year to rein in bad actors and get troubled facilities back on track.  As of July, 58% of Virginia’s nursing homes were overdue for inspections and 68 of Virginia’s 289 nursing homes were found to have serious deficiencies, according to ProPublica. Several of the state’s flagged facilities with numerous deficiencies also had high staffing turnover rates.  The issue has been salient among various healthcare spaces, including VDH. 
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