This story was reported and written by VPM News.
This is a developing story. Please check back later for updates.
The federal government is withdrawing up to $425 million in grant funding for several COVID-related programs operated by the Virginia Department of Health. The cuts have already led to ongoing layoffs and the early cancellation of existing contracts across the state.
The decision of President Donald Trump’s administration to eliminate $11.4 billion in federal funding for COVID-related programs comes just a week after the nation marked the five-year anniversary of the pandemic’s beginning. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency — and program funding tied to that emergency status — in 2023.)
NBC News first reported the cuts Tuesday.
"The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago," Andrew Nixon, communications director for the US Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement published by NBC. "HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again."
According to a VDH-operated database, approximately 820 people died of COVID-19 in Virginia last year, and at least 130 in the commonwealth have died of the disease this year as of March 8, 2025.
The Virginia-relevant grants impacted by these new cuts had been providing funding for infectious disease testing through the state’s epidemiology lab, COVID-19 related child immunization and vaccines programs, and initiatives addressing health disparities among high-risk and underserved populations related to the pandemic. The programs were tentatively set to continue receiving federal funds for at least one more year.
That’s all according to an internal email sent to various VDH department leaders at 12:55 p.m. Tuesday by VDH Chief Financial Officer John Ringer. The email was later shared with VPM News by someone who is not authorized to speak on the record.
“We recognize these have broad impacts across the department,” Ringer wrote. The email goes on to detail next steps and a series of same-day tasks.
Those included:
- the immediate pause of discretionary spending
- an order to “review layoff policies” and prepare for a reduction in staff
- a directive to compile lists of the impacted employees, contract staff, contractors and programs by 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 25
- a separate directive to “develop priorities of work and positions” by 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 25 — for intermediate funding requests related to Continuity of Operations Plans (COOP) that “may be impacted” by end of day Thursday, March 27
“If you feel you need to redirect critical bodies of work (in your COOP plan only) to different funding, this will need to be reviewed and considered across agency priorities,” the email states.
Contractors paid by the rescinded grants should have been told by the end of business Tuesday that they should stop all work for two weeks to allow “time for review of critical services and other funding opportunities,” according to the Ringer email.
Vendors, subrecipients and contracts funded by the grants were to be informed that they should pause work for two weeks or until further notice. The email also offered talking points for VDH staff notifying contractors of the cuts and points of contact.
Many state health department employees and contractors through the agency learned Wednesday that their positions were being eliminated due to the federal cuts.
While VDH learned about the cuts Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for the agency, a later email from State Health Commissioner Dr. Karen Shelton said the agency had been anticipating the changes and had spent the past several months planning for reductions in federal spending.
“Though the affected grants include non-expended and unobligated funds, there will be impacts to current staffing and ongoing projects that these grants currently fund,” a VDH spokesperson said in a late Tuesday email to VPM News. “VDH is working to assess the exact impacts that these changes will have and will be communicating to affected staff and partner organizations.”
Federal savings are unclear in VDH cuts
It’s not immediately clear how much money the federal government is saving with Virginia’s program cuts. A January memo from the state health commissioner to appropriations leaders in the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates sheds some light on how much money had been awarded to now-affected programs.
The memo includes a 2024 report, required annually by the General Assembly, that outlines all federal grants awarded to VDH, including both the original funding amount of the grant and the amount of money spent to date.
The three grants identified in Ringer’s email totaled over $1.1 billion in awards since July 2019. While that timing may sound confusing because it predates COVID-19, the money comes from a long-standing CDC fund called “Activities to Support State, Tribal, Local and Territorial (STLT) Health Department Response to Public Health or Healthcare Crises.”
This federal grant helps fund groups, including nonprofits and Native American tribal organizations, that provide emergency response support to state, tribal, local and territorial health departments.
Nearly $425 million for those identified Virginia grants had not yet been spent as of the 2024 report. But it’s not clear if the federal cuts will impact all or part of the remaining money — or if Virginia will have to pay back any funds already spent to the government.
VPM News has reached out to VDH for confirmation and details relating to these program cuts, but did not hear back by publication time. A request for comment sent to HHS, which oversees the CDC and confirmed the program cuts to other media outlets, was not answered by publication time.
“This period of uncertainty will affect some of you personally”
The news of federal program cuts came as Virginia Department of Health leadership and staff gathered in Richmond for the annual public health preparedness summit. This year’s theme: “Reimagining Public Health Preparedness for the Future.”
The state health commissioner delivered her welcome remarks at the Richmond Westin just hours before sending an email to VDH staff across the commonwealth on Tuesday night.
According to the schedule posted on VDH’s website, Shelton’s remarks began approximately 5 minutes after Ringer’s email announcing the same-day tasks for agency leaders.
In her Tuesday night message, which was shared with VPM News and authenticated by multiple recipients who are not authorized to speak on the record, Shelton wrote, “several of our Covid-related grants are being revised to terminate effective March 24th, 2025.”
In the email, Shelton informed staff of the immediate pause in all discretionary spending noted in Ringer’s earlier missive and she noted that includes travel but not if it’s work-related.
“This period of uncertainty will affect some of you personally,” Shelton acknowledged in her email as she thanked the staff for their “continued work for Virginians.”
Assistant News Editor Sean McGoey contributed reporting to this article.
Copyright 2025 VPM
