This story was last updated at 6:03 p.m.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced Friday that the state will direct $246 million in funds to long-term care facilities to support their response to COVID-19.

“The lockdowns of long-term care facilities to protect residents and staff from the spread of COVID-19 have been hard on residents and their families,” Northam said in a press release. “These actions will help support long-term care facilities as they ease those restrictions, while keeping their residents safe and ensuring that the public gets accurate information on the spread of this virus in these facilities.”

The money will come primarily from federal coronavirus aid and CARES Act funding, and will help nursing homes and assisted living facilities address staffing shortages, purchase personal protective equipment (PPE), and increase infection control measures.

Most of the money will go to nursing homes, which receive Medicaid payments.

Northam also announced that the Virginia Department of Health will now be required to release facility-specific COVID-19 case and fatality data.

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities have seen some of the state’s worst outbreaks, but the officials previously declined to share the names of facilities, citing privacy concerns, despite calls to do so from state legislators.

Virginia House Republican Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) criticized the move following Northam’s announcement.

“If it is legal to release the information now, it was legal to release it when it was first requested,” he said in a statement. “Perhaps, had the Governor not been distracted by his political rehabilitation, he could have realized this earlier and lives could have been saved.”

Given the rapid spread of cases across the commonwealth, Northam’s office said in the release Friday that “it is now unlikely that releasing facility information would compromise anonymity or discourage facilities from participating in a public health investigation.”

According to new VDH data, there are currently 17 “outbreaks in progress” at nursing homes, assisted living, and multi-care facilities in Fairfax County, in addition to three in Arlington County, and two each in Alexandria, Loudon County, and Prince William County.

The federal government began sharing facility-specific data a couple weeks ago, but Northam’s office said the data had been inconsistent and created “public confusion.”

Virginia is also later to report facility-specific data than other parts of the region. Maryland and D.C. have both been reporting the information for more than a month.

As of Friday, Virginia had reported 230 outbreaks at long-term care facilities across the state, with 6,519 cases and 1,000 deaths tied to those outbreaks. The latter number accounts for 62% of all COVID-19 deaths in Virginia.

Northam’s office also said in Friday’s release that VDH is working with the Virginia National Guard to conduct point prevalence surveys – testing all residents and staff in the same time period – of nursing homes, with a goal to complete them by July 15.

Northam’s announcement comes after he said Thursday that Virginia would not enter Phase Three of its reopening before June 26.

This story was updated to include additional information about facility-specific data in D.C. in Maryland.