RICHMOND, Va. -- Dr. Deborah Birx, one of the White House's top coronavirus advisers, made a stop in Richmond Tuesday to meet with Governor Ralph Northam and participate in a roundtable with community and state health officials.
The stop in Virginia was her last in a five state tour of areas where they are concerned about rising percent positivity of COVID-19.
Brix offered recommendations to prevent Virginia from becoming the next COVID-19 hot spot, specifically mentioning the Portsmouth and Chesapeake region, along with Richmond.
Brix says she showed state leaders what other hotspot states like Texas and Arizona have done to get their big outbreaks under control.
She is also recommended that Virginia implement these changes now.
- Mask wearing at all times when outside the home
- Restricting bars and restaurants and closing those that can’t properly practice social distancing
- More messaging to multi-generational households to encourage people to wear a mask in the home to protect family members that are more at risk.
Birx says it’s up to each Governor on how to implement the recommendations, but she’s recommending it be done statewide, rather than by locality.
She recommends statewide because residents could go to a hotspot like Virginia Beach and bring it back home to their locality.
"And then together, we think we can get through this with those mitigation efforts, where we have shown that they work and are working across the south," said Brix. "And it could really prevent Virginia from having the experience that their southern states have had by starting mitigation efforts sooner rather than later."
Governor Northam is expected to address Brix's recommendations at a press conference Tuesday at 2 p.m. You can watch that press conference here.