As a life long resident of 54 years of Virginia and a representative of working folks I am proud to say Virginia was the first to pass and implement the Emergency Temporary Standards that mandated health and safety workplace regulations to protect workers against COVID 19.

This terrible pandemic has taken a toll on many workers including myself as my 83 year old mother somehow contracted the COVID 19 virus before Christmas and has been quarantining since and as of now is in very bad shape and will be lucky to survive. This happened with restricted social interactions and while following COVID 19 CDC rules like going to the grocery store. I also have a 2 college daughters that have had to have multiple COVID tests done and one older daughter that all work in the food industry that interact with the public everyday and they need all the required protections and public requirements as possible to try to keep them safe.

So, in conclusion I would say the least we need to do in Virginia is to extend the Emergency Temporary Standards to make them permanent to protect the workers that have constant interaction with the public just as a result of them preforming their jobs everyday.

I hope that the folks making this decision have the fortitude, intelligence, common sense and passion for working folks risking their lives everyday to keep society functioning.