COVID-19 vaccinations in Virginia have now expanded beyond frontline health workers.
COVID-19 vaccinations in Virginia have now expanded beyond front-line health professionals.
“Our long-term care facilities started this week,” said Christy Gray, director of the Virginia Department of Health’s Immunization Division, during a conference call with reporters on Wednesday.
“It will take about three to four weeks for the first dose to be made with qualified nursing facilities, and we will also start assisted living facilities in the next three to four weeks,” she said.
Vaccines in long-term care facilities are being administered through a federal partnership program that makes CVS and Walgreens pharmacies solely responsible for coordinating vaccinations. Noting that 1,442 installations are being carried out for three visits each, the Director of Communications of the HDR, Maria Reppas, asked for patience at these installations.
As of Wednesday, more than 54,200 people had received the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in Virginia, experiencing only common reactions such as pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache and a short-term fever that reflects the functioning of the body to develop immunity.
“We haven’t heard of any serious adverse events happening in Virginia with any of these vaccines,” said Gray.
So, who is next in line to be prioritized in Phase 1b (essential workers) and Phase 1c (high-risk adults)?
Virginia is now reviewing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations and hopes to announce details by the end of the week.
With the promise of a total of 370,000 doses by the end of the year, vaccines began arriving in Virginia in mid-December and approximately 285,000 were in the state on Wednesday, with additional shipments expected weekly.
Shooting people in the arms, however, has been happening more slowly than anticipated.
Gray attributed this to logistical challenges and the availability of the vaccine. “It’s been two weeks, but we spent Christmas there, we have weekends there,” she said.
The situation may also seem worse than it is because of the waiting time and problems related to information published in the Virginia vaccine data panel.
“There may be some technical problems that we are working with vaccinators to resolve in order to enter data into the registry,” said Gray.
Overall, Gray said he is pleased with the progress, but acknowledges that there is still a long way to go.
“We have been planning for a long time to put all these moving parts in place and now that it is working and they are all coming together, we are becoming more efficient in this regard, we are getting used to all these systems interacting with each other,” said Gray . “So at the beginning, it is expected to be slower, but I think it will be much faster as we go.”
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Looking for more information? DC, Maryland and Virginia are rolling out more data every day. Visit their official websites here: Virginia | Maryland | A.D
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