What's next? What you can do and how the region is responding to COVID-19

Dear Valued Partners,

The Greater Richmond Partnership is committed to the health and safety of our community, businesses and employees. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I want to assure you that we continue to be here for you. Our staff and I have stayed informed and connected to leaders at our local and state government levels and regularly update a COVID-19 information page on our website to help keep you informed. There is great uncertainty, the largest of these is when we will arrive on the other side of the curve, but our staff is proactively preparing plans to adeptly shift into recovery mode. 

The economic impact of COVID-19 will be felt in our region. We are working with our partners to understand and estimate what those impacts will look like. A bright spot is that Richmond-based Chmura Economics and Analytics developed a COVID-19 Economic Vulnerability Index that says that our region will be among the least vulnerable communities in the U.S. seeing approximately eight percent less job losses than other communities. The reason for this is our diverse industry clusters and the relative strength of those industries in our region. While we are poised to recover well, it doesn’t mean we are immune to this economic downturn.  

Now is the time for local businesses and the community to band together and support one another. I have been impressed with the way our region already quickly organized to alleviate the impacts from this health and economic crisis. From supporting stores and restaurants to quickly changing manufacturing to meet the needs of our healthcare systems, the Greater Richmond region is showing its might – but there is more we can do – here are five things you can do to support our economy now. We are also so fortunate to have the highest quality of healthcare to help fight this crisis. The experienced doctors, nurses and medical staff at VCU Health, Bon Secours and many other medical facilities are fighting everyday to save and improve the lives of our community residents. We are fortunate to have everyone working together and we remain stronger together. 

My sincerest wish is that you, your teams and loved ones are remaining safe and healthy.