Reply June 30, 2021 The Community Foundation for Northern Virginia, in partnership with the newly formed Northern Virginia Minority-Owned Businesses Working Group, recently released a new report " Supporting Northern Virginia's minority-owned businesses " that examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the region's estimated 128,000 minority-owned businesses. The report finds the pandemic has had a complex effect on the region's local economy and on the wellbeing of its minority-owned businesses. Overall, area businesses saw both lost revenue (as measured by taxable sales) and reduced staff (as measured by workforce size and initial unemployment claims). Find out what's happening in Greater Alexandria with free, real-time updates from Patch.