RICHMOND, Va. (WHSV) Virginia Governor Ralph Northam addressed the commonwealth on Friday for his latest briefing on Virginia's response to COVID-19.

The governor's Friday briefing comes after he announced on Wednesday that elective procedures would resume at medical facilities across Virginia as of May 1 and addressed testing challenges that Virginia has faced up to this point. On Monday, he discussed the situation at meat processing plants and the need for continued pediatrician visits throughout the pandemic.

Northam's blueprint on reopening Virginia established last Friday calls for the commonwealth to see two weeks of a trend showing declining daily case totals before we can enter Phase 1 of the process.

This past Sunday and Monday saw declining daily case totals, but a rise of 804 from Monday to Tuesday broke that streak. From Tuesday to Wednesday, cases rose by 602, and then, as testing began increasing, so did the case numbers reported, with 885 from Wednesday to Thursday and then 1,055 from Thursday to Friday.

The Virginia Department of Health's numbers reported on Friday also appeared to show the highest single-day increase of tests reported to the state, with nearly 15,000. However, in Friday's briefing, state health commissioner Dr. Norm Oliver said the number of tests from Thursday to Friday was about 5,800. It's just that the health department changed their methodology to now report the total number of tests for Virginia rather than the total number of people tested, which included people who had been tested multiple times. (More on that can be found in today's updates below).

While cases appeared to skyrocket, the percentage of Virginians who have gotten tested and received positive test results dropped by about a percentage point, to 16%, with more tests now available.

As of May 1, Virginia has 16,901 confirmed tests and clinical diagnoses for COVID-19. Month-by-month, that was more than 11 times the total of 1,484 that had been reported on April 1.

Virginia's projected peak, according to most data modeling, should be around now, but the number of reported cases may continue to rise significantly as Virginia works to ramp up testing.

You can watch each of the governor's briefings through WHSV's livestream at whsv.com/livestream2 or on the WHSV News app. That livestream can also be watched through our Roku and Amazon Fire apps. You'll also be able to watch it live in the video player above during the briefing.

The testing timeline in Virginia

Governor Northam started Friday's briefing by recapping the commonwealth's timeline for COVID-19 leading up to May.

The governor highlighted that when Virginia's first positive COVID-19 case was confirmed on March 7, less than eight weeks ago, there was a real fear that hospitals could be overwhelmed in Virginia, as had been seen in places like Italy and New York.

Northam said the state struggled to obtain supplies for testing and PPE at the start of the pandemic, but implemented restrictions, including the Stay at Home order and business closures, to help prevent that situation from happening.

He said the commonwealth waited to see if those restrictions would work, "and it has worked."

Highlighting the fact that hospitals have not been overwhelmed, with plenty of ventilator and ICU capacity available, Northam said while the case count continues climbing, so does testing.

Testing, Northam said, is the key to moving forward carefully, and he presented a slideshow on where Virginia stands as far as testing.

Showing graphs on Virginia's cumulative testing and daily cases reported, he pointed out the steady rise in cumulative cases and the increase in daily cases, saying that the daily cases will need to begin declining for future steps.

A graph showing hospitalization numbers alongside cumulative cases made the governor's point that capacity is available in hospitals, which he said was part of the state decision to resume elective procedures.

Also key to increasing testing, the governor said, is a steady supply of PPE. To help make that possible, Northam said the state is opening up three new facilities to decontaminate mass quantities of masks and other PPE to allow more supplies to be reused.

Testing: A multi-step process

Dr. Karen Remley, the former Virginia Department of Health commissioner who's been leading Virginia's testing task force, took part of Friday's briefing to outline the testing process.

Dr. Remley called it a 5-step process, with the 5 steps being: sick patient, clinician, specimen collection, lab test, test result

Each of those steps, she said, is a place Virginia can improve the process.

First, Dr. Remley said the key is getting patients who are experiencing symptoms to get themselves tested, which she said can still be a challenge. She said patients who are experiencing possible symptoms can go to the Virginia Department of Health website and find an online map that shows all testing locations in the state with a search by zip code.

As far as collecting the test itself, she said Virginia is implementing the CDC's newest guidance on testing, which allows doctors to let individuals perform their own nasal swab test, using less PPE and allowing testing in many more locations.

For lab tests, Dr. Remley said Virginia's state lab has increased testing capacity by at least 3,000 tests a day with new contracts with private labs in Virginia and North Carolina.

Touching back on the blueprint outlined by Gov. Northam last week for reopening, she said Virginia is now in Phase 2 of testing, which calls for around 5,000 tests to be administered a day.

Phase 3 calls for 7,500 tests a day, Phase 4 calls for 10,000 tests a day, and Phase 5 calls for 2,000 tests a day with a steady rate of testing once most cases have already been identified.

Dr. Remley said the state has gotten increased supplies necessary to ramp up testing, and is doing so, focusing on the people who meet the CDC's priorities for testing, including hospitalized patients, healthcare workers, and high risk populations.

As far as next steps, she said the health department is working with more private labs to do up to 5,000 more tests a week and that local health districts are establishing more drive-thru and mobile testing sites to get more people tested.

She heavily encouraged people to keep following all social distancing guidelines but to go out and get tested if you have symptoms.

Phase 1 and what's next

Gov. Northam said the big picture of all the data presented is that Virginia is making progress and that the measures taken have worked to slow the spread of COVID-19 and prevent any surges that would overwhelm hospitals.

He said PPE supplies are now steady, hospital capacity is available, and Virginia is increasing testing.

But what comes next?

Virginia has not entered Phase 1 of Northam's blueprint for reopening, and won't until we see a 14-day trend of declining daily case totals.

But the governor emphasized multiple times in Friday's briefing that where Virginia currently stands is what many states are calling their "Phase 1."

Virginia has resumed elective procedures and reopened dentist offices to non-emergency appointments. Beaches and parks have remained open for the purpose of exercise throughout the pandemic.

Each of those are steps other states are counting as parts of their "Phase 1."

As far as exactly what Virginia's Phase 1 will look like, when it can be implemented, and what it will mean for businesses, Northam said announcements on that will be made at his briefing scheduled for Monday.

Virginia's businesses and what's been able to stay open

Northam's Chief of Staff Clark Mercer answered a reporter question on Virginia's businesses, providing some insight into Virginia's decision to only close select non-essential businesses throughout the pandemic.

Touching on Northam's point that Virginia is already at what "Phase 1" is for some other states, he said Virginia never closed many non-essential stores, like toy stores, for instance, and only required the closure of businesses where social distancing isn't possible, like hair and nail salons and wineries.

Mercer said that was because they did not want, as a government, to define which businesses could sell the same type of product, effectively forcing people away from local toy stores into big box stores that also sell toys, to continue his toy store example.

Mercer said the key has been for all the non-essential stores allowed to remain open to keep following guidelines on social distancing and abide by the state's limit on gatherings of 10.

How can testing increase?

The governor, acknowledging studies showing that Virginia's per-capita testing was among the lowest in the country, said that the commonwealth focused on high-risk populations to start with, but is moving to a new strategy as they ask doctors to not turn away patients and have anyone who meets the CDC criteria for testing tested.

Northam said the goal is to make it as easy as possible for a sick person to get a test in a setting they trust. To do that, his administration is developing guidance for doctors to provide more tests in outpatient settings.

Why did the numbers on Friday show an increase of 15,000 tests?

The latest Virginia Department of Health numbers released on Friday morning appeared to show around 15,000 tests administered from Thursday to Friday, which would have been a huge increase over previous highs of about 5,000 tests a day.

That increase, according to state health commissioner Dr. Norm Oliver, was largely due to a change in methodology.

While testing did increase on Friday to around 5,800, the spike in testing numbers appeared because the VDH numbers now display the total number of tests administered overall, whereas they had previous reported the number of people tested.

According to Dr. Oliver, previously, it was not uncommon for a sick patient to get tested, get tested again in the hospital, and potentially get tested again going to a skilled nursing facility, and that would all display as one test on Virginia's system. Now, the system will indicate every single test, rather than just the total number of people tested.

The rationale behind the change, according to Northam's staff, is because every test administered uses testing supplies, reagents, and PPE that is critical to the state response.

They estimated about ten percent of people positive for COVID-19 received more than one test, causing the increase in Friday numbers.

It also is one explanation for why Virginia's testing numbers had been so low, compared to surrounding states.

The situation at long-term care facilities

Two weeks ago, Gov. Northam established a nursing home task force to set up COVID-19 testing at any facilities in the state with at least two confirmed cases. The testing, known as point-prevalence, has involved testing every single resident and staff member on the same day to determine the scope of outbreaks.

It's been performed in collaboration with the Virginia Department of Health, UVA Medical Center, VCU Health, the Virginia state lab, and the National Guard, which helps run tests when needed.

Now, Northam says any long-term care facility in the state can reach out to their local health district to request point-prevalence testing at any point, thanks to the efforts of the nursing home task force.

The governor reminded people that the National Guard is in areas to help perform tests, and reminded Virginians that seeing their vehicles should be no cause for alarm.

The Census

The governor reminded Virginians that it's not too late to respond to the U.S. Census, saying it's critical to count every single person living in Virginia. He urged anyone who has not yet filled it out to do so online or through the mail.

Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

May is Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Gov. Northam said at this time, it's a reminder that many people of Asian descent have faced increased bigotry and harassment simply because the coronavirus originated in China, and reminded people that that is unacceptable.

Foster Care Month

May is also Foster Care Month, so Gov. Northam thanked foster parents for all they've done to welcome children into their lives and the social workers who support them.

Money granted for schools

Northam announced that the Virginia Department of Education has allocated $238.6 million in federal funding through the CARES Act, with 90% going directly to local school districts and 10% to statewide efforts.

What's the timeline on reopening schools?

Gov. Northam said so long as Virginians keep doing what they're doing, he's confident that K-12 schools will be able to begin again in August and September, as usual.

He said there's been no discussion on a start date for year-round schools who have been looking at July.

What's the timeline on reopening businesses?

When asked about a previous projection that Virginia may be able to enter Phase 1 and start reopening non-essential businesses on May 8, Northam said the plan for reopening businesses remains under consideration with the state's COVID-19 Business Task Force and will be fleshed out in his Monday briefing.

He said the task force is working on a blueprint and criteria to determine exactly what Phase 1 will look like

He thanked people for their patience as his administration considers a lot of data to make the decisions, and said he understands that consumers want to be reassured that entering a business is safe for them.

What is Virginia's contact tracing capability?

Dr. Norm Oliver was asked about Virginia's workforce on tracing the contacts of positive cases after Virginia did not have data to report to NPR when they reported on numbers for contact tracing nationwide.

He said the Virginia Department of Health does not have a central roster of the people doing contact tracing because it's handled by local health districts.

Citing an example of one district that increased their normal number of people working on contact tracing from 5 to 20, he estimated the number for Virginia as a whole is "in the hundreds" and said they're working to increase it to about 1,500.

Will Virginia identify specific facilities with outbreaks?

The governor was asked, for at least the third time in a briefing, if Virginia will be able to report the specific facilities where outbreak have been identified, especially involving long-term care centers.

For at least the third time, Dr. Norm Oliver explained that it's not a decision the Virginia Department of Health or the governor can make, because Virginia's state code defines facilities and businesses as "persons" and requires the health department to protect the anonymity of all "persons," effectively meaning that they can't identify facilities with outbreaks unless the facility agrees.

There's no way for that to change, Dr. Norm Oliver highlighted once again, unless legislators were to change the state code.

Cases in Virginia doubling

Gov. Northam said while Virginia has still seen the total number of cases doubling, it's happening with less frequency. At the start, Virginia saw its cases double around every 2 to 3 days. Now, that's around 9 to 12 days as the curve slowly begins to flatten.

Dr. Remley said part of the increase in Virginia's cases is due to an increase in testing, but that cases are increasing as well.

What about reopening Virginia by region?

Gov. Northam said in a prior briefing that he was open to the idea of reopening parts of Virginia on varying schedules, depending on the status of cases in each region.

However, on Friday, he said feedback on that idea from the state's business task force has been mixed.

He highlighted a concern from one business in southwest Virginia, where few cases have been reported, that reopening their business while similar businesses elsewhere in the state remained closed could result in people traveling from hot spots to them, ultimately causing a spike of cases in their area that would then force them to close again.

Northam said feedback from the business task force is being considered and once again pointed to Monday as the day he'll announce guidance for businesses looking toward Phase 1.

Unemployment

Gov. Northam said the Virginia Employment Commission has been inundated with applications, seeing more in a week than they had in the previous three years.

As many Virginians report not getting their unemployment benefits and a nearly impossible system to navigate, with a phone line that almost never gets you to a person and instead hangs up on you, Northam said VEC workers are "doing all they can" to handle the surge of claims.

Moving into the future

Gov. Northam reminded everyone to keep washing their hands, social distancing, and taking care of their friends, family members, and neighbors.

The governor said his administration will continue to reach out to businesses over the coming days and continue to assess data to establish new guidelines for Phase 1 of reopening.

Virginia remains under a series of public health orders and executive orders designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the commonwealth. The timeline of those measures can be seen below.

On Wednesday, April 29, Gov. Ralph Northam announced the first public health order to end, letting elective procedures resume on May 1. That also effectively re-opened dentist's offices for regular appointments and veterinarian's offices.

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Gov. Northam talks testing progress and where Virginia stands - WHSV