The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Virginia
- Level
- State
- Authority
- Va. Code Ann. section 8.01-225.03 (2020 Sp. Sess. I, cc. 6, 7)
- Issued
- 2020-10-13 Oct. 13, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-10-13 (in force from passage); applies to causes of action arising between March 12, 2020 and the end of the EO 51 state of emergency (read as 2020-10-13)
- End
- Causes of action arising after the EO 51 emergency lapsed on June 30, 2021 are outside the section; section amended 2024 (cc. 37, 150) (read as 2021-06-30)
- In force
- Oct. 13, 2020 to June 30, 2021
- Quarters
- 2020 Q42021 Q12021 Q2
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Health care ordersOperating conditionOther
- Addressees
- specified businesses only: licensed hospices, home care organizations, DBHDS-licensed private providers, assisted living facilities, adult day care centers
- Character
- liability shield condition
- Collection
- Standing duties: Virginia DUT-VA
Operative words
shall not be liable for any injury or wrongful death... arising from the delivery or withholding of care when the emergency and subsequent conditions caused by the emergency result in a lack of resources, attributable to the disaster, that render such hospice, home care organization, private provider... unable to provide the level or manner of care that otherwise would have been required
Penalty
None; a conditioned immunity (the condition is the disaster-caused lack of resources and the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct)
What it required
Confines Virginia's only COVID-19-specific statutory immunity to five classes of licensed care providers, 'in the absence of gross negligence or willful misconduct,' and only where a disaster-caused 'lack of resources' made the ordinary standard of care impossible; every other Virginia business, and every act of these providers not attributable to a resource shortage, remained subject to ordinary liability measured against the orders, the incorporated guidelines and 16VAC25-220.
Retrieval noteCapture of December 8, 2021 (history line '2020, Sp. Sess. I, cc. 6, 7'); the live 2026 text adds '2024, cc. 37, 150' and renames 'adult day care center' to 'adult day center.' Subsection A defines 'Disaster' or 'emergency' as 'a public health emergency related to the COVID-19 virus declared by the Governor pursuant to section 44-146.17 and set forth in Executive Order 51 (2020) on March 12, 2020.' Subsection D limits the immunity to 'causes of action arising between March 12, 2020, and such time as the declaration of a state of emergency related to the COVID-19 virus set forth in Executive Order 51 (2020) is no longer in effect.' The General Assembly enacted no general business or employer immunity for COVID-19 in 2020 or 2021: the LIS listing of Title 8.01, Chapter 3 (read Sept. 29, 2026) shows the immunity sections 8.01-225, 8.01-225.01, 8.01-225.02, 8.01-225.03, 8.01-225.1, 8.01-225.2 and 8.01-225.3 only, and this research located no other COVID-19 shield in the Code (verified_secondary as to that negative).