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VOL. 29 NO. 16

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

www.richmondfreepress.com

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Photo coverage of community spirit amid the coronavirus pandemic B2

APRIL 9-11, 2020

Hard hit again

City Council readies for lower revenue Preliminary figures show African-Americans and Latinos projections are being disproportionately hit by COVID-19 in Virginia By Jeremy M. Lazarus

By George Copeland Jr.

It has been a week of recalculation and assessment, as Virginians collectively and individually continue to work to avoid the spread of COVID-19 amid new evidence that African-Americans and Latinos are being hard hit. Information released by the Virginia Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed 3,645 positive cases of COVID-19 in the state, with 615 hospitalizations and 75 deaths, including 32 at the Canterbury Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Henrico County, a center that once boasted of introducing a level of post-hospitalization care. Breakdowns of figures on deaths by race and ethnic group have been hard to come by nationally. But several states and cities, including Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, Connecticut and Las Vegas, have reported that African-Americans and other minority groups have been disparately stricken by COVID-19. Congress and private organizations such as the NAACP have been pressing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to release such demographic information, but so far to no avail. Virginia is among fewer than 12 states reporting data on the race or ethnicity of those testing positive and dying with the disease. While the figures are incomplete, as of Monday, African-Americans accounted for 28 percent of Virginia’s confirmed cases, while African-Americans comprise 20 percent of the state’s population, according to state Health Commissioner M. Norman Oliver. Another 12 percent of the confirmed cases involve Latinos, Dr. Oliver reported, also higher for a group that represents 9 percent of the state’s population. Of those who have died of COVID-19 in Virginia, 18.7 are African-American and 0.04 percent are Latino. Dr. Oliver said the data likely underrepresents the situation largely because of the difficulty in collecting information on the race or ethnicity of those who are tested. Please turn to A4

Photo courtesy of Governor’s Office

Gov. Ralph S. Northam puts on a mask during a media briefing on Monday that was made by inmates in the state Department of Corrections. The demonstration was to remind Virginians to cover their noses and mouths when they go out in public to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

Ninth District Councilman Michael J. Jones, chair of City Council’s Finance and Economic Development Committee, estimates that projected Richmond revenues in the new fiscal year that will begin July 1 could shrink by $75 million to $100 million as a result of the coronavirus. Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson, 6th District, one of the longest serving council members, said city budget analysts are running scenarios of potential losses from 10 percent to 30 percent in revenue. But so far, council members remain as much in the dark as the general public, said Councilwoman Kim B. Gray, 2nd District. Hopes are high that next week, council members as well as city residents can get a first glimpse of the projected impact the virus is having now and could have on the coming fiscal year. That could happen Monday, April 13, when City Council is scheduled to hold its first session to review the $1.92 billion city budget plan for 202021 submitted by Mayor Levar M. Stoney on March 6. Ms. Gray, meanwhile, issued a letter calling on Mayor Stoney to provide revised revenue estimates both for the current 2019-2020 fiscal year and for the 2020-21 fiscal year — based on prospects that Richmond, like other communities, is heading into a virusdriven recession that could create shortfalls in city revenue. So far, Mayor Stoney and his Please turn to A4

COVID-related furloughs push unemployment claims to new highs By Jeremy M. Lazarus and Ronald E. Carrington

Phillip Patterson has worked in various positions at the Marriott Hotel in Downtown for the past eight years – housekeeping, bellman, shuttle driver and maintenance engineer. Elton G. Christian Jr., a veteran cook, has been serving up savory barbecue, ribs and brisket at Pig and Brew, a restaurant in South Side, for the past two years. Both never expected to be laid off. But suddenly, they have joined the growing legions of the

unemployed who have lost jobs because of the business-killing coronavirus. The virus is creating widespread damage to a previously robust economy in the Richmond area and beyond. While hiring is still underway for health care workers, delivery drivers, grocery store employees, postal workers, sheriff’s deputies, police officers and other government positions, others jobs are being swept away, including those of restaurant employees and other service workers and those in the travel and tourism industry. Like state agencies across the country, the Virginia Employment Commission has been slammed with applications for unemploy-

Faces of COVID-19

Virginians of all walks of life have been impacted by the coronavirus, the airborne respiratory illness that has stricken more than 3,600 people in the Commonwealth and resulted in 75 deaths as of Wednesday.

Their passing impacts their families and the larger communities in which they worked, volunteered, worshipped and lived. Here are some of their stories.

Stories by Reginald Stuart

Phillip DeBerry

Sterling Matthews

Robert N. Hobbs Sr.

For Richmond native Phillip DeBerry, taking command of the highways with a sense of skill and patience was a way of living for nearly half a century. Mr. DeBerry had been a Greyhound bus driver since 1975, delivering thousands of passengers to destinations along the East Coast from New York City to Mr. DeBerry the Carolinas and countless points in between. He never had a wreck, a negative encounter with a passenger or got a traffic ticket, said Shelia Abernathy, his companion for 45 years until his death on March 28 from the coronavirus. “He never met a stranger,” Ms. Abernathy said. He was known to go the extra step when needed, without being asked. On more than one occasion, she said, he would have on the bus a young mother with a child or two, with one or both of the children crying from apparent hunger. At a stop, he would offer the family food paid for out of his pocket to settle their stomachs and make the bus ride more endurable. That was his style, his character, she said. Mr. DeBerry, who was 72, was an alumnus of Armstrong High School.

Richmond native Sterling Matthews was looking forward to turning 61 on April 13. He also was making retirement plans with his wife of 44 years, Alice Allen Matthews, his high school sweetheart. A federal contract specialist at Fort Belvoir, his death on March 31has prompted Mr. Matthews Mrs. Matthews, a state of Virginia employee, to revisit their plans, she told the Free Press. “God will make sure I’m going to be fine,” Mrs. Matthews hastened to add in a tone of confidence. She said she still has a son, family and friends to call on. “It may take me a while” to make the transition to her new life, she said. Mrs. Matthews said her husband was actively involved in Moore Street Missionary Baptist Church on Leigh Street. There, he served as a deacon, taught in the Sunday School and sang in the G.G. Campbell Male Chorus. He was one of three members of Moore Street whose deaths have been attributed to COVID-19. Outside of church, he won praise over the years from the Alpha Phi Alpha

Robert and Sue Hobbs had known each other since their high school days in the late 1940s in Richmond, yet had not seen each other for nearly half a century until they met again at a combined 50th reunion for Armstrong and Maggie L. Walker high schools. A year later in 2013, they became husband and wife, Mr. Hobbs melding the families they had created during the years in between. Mr. Hobbs, who had joined the Marines in 1952 soon after finishing high school and was honorably discharged in July 1973 as a master sergeant, didn’t like to talk much about his military service. From what he did share, people around could appreciate that he suffered with physical and mental scars that needed regular care. They were wounds dating back to his flying on military helicopter rescue missions that included some crashes. Many runs were into enemy territory in which he unknowingly was exposed to the toxic chemical Agent Orange. That chemical would affect his physical and mental health for the rest of his life, his medical records show. Mr. Hobbs lived for years with spo-

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ment benefits from workers who have lost their paychecks as public, private and nonprofit entities downsize or close. While new data will be released Thursday, the impact of social distancing and shelter-in-place directives can be seen in the rise in the number of filings for unemployment. In Richmond, for example, 112 people filed for unemployment in the week ending March 14. But between March 14 and March 28, more than 7,500 people filed for unemployment, the VEC reported. That includes 3,070 people who filed between March 14 and March 21 and 4,504 people who filed between March 21 and March 28. The same surge in unemployment claims can be found in Chesterfield County, where 83 claims were filed in early March. But claims surged to 1,970 in the third week of March and 4,219 applications in the fourth and final week of March. In Henrico County, unemployment claims jumped from 79 in early March to a total of 6,600 in the final two weeks of the month. In a region that reported nearly 700,000 people employed in February, the loss of 21,000 jobs is not an immediate disaster. But it is the speed of the losses and the potential of a continuing surge that has many people concerned and has led the federal government to beef up and extend benefits an extra 13 weeks. Statewide, the VEC reported that a record 112,497 people filed for unemployment in the final week of March. That’s the largest number of initial claims in a week since records began being kept. It also added to the record 46,277 people who filed for unemployment statewide in the third week of March. Previously, initial weekly filings from more than 20,000 people were considered outsized. Again, in a state where 4.3 million people were employed in February, the numbers are more a harbinger of worsening business conditions in a broad swatch of the economy. Nationally, as of March 28, more than 6.6 million people had Please turn to A4

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Zoom Mansa Makamu, 7, pretends to zoom in a model 1960 Cadillac in his mother’s natural hair salon on 2nd Street in Jackson Ward. His mother, Ife Robinson, still comes to the shop daily to consult with clients about natural hair care over the phone. She and others in the salon business generally are not seeing clients to help prevent the spread of coronavirus. Please see more photos from businesses, B2.