Low federal supplies remain the biggest obstacle to Virginia’s vaccination plan, according to the state’s vaccine distribution director on Friday.
Virginia is making progress to place doses of COVID-19 vaccines in residents’ arms, but low federal supplies remain the biggest obstacle, according to the state’s director of vaccine distribution on Friday.
Dr. Danny TK Avula, who was appointed to oversee Virginia’s vaccination efforts by Governor Ralph Northam, told reporters on Friday afternoon that the state was currently receiving about 100,000 doses of vaccines per week.
When Avula was first appointed, he said Virginia’s goal was to reach 50,000 doses distributed daily at mass vaccination sites with members of the National Guard.
Establishing this infrastructure remains important, said Avula, but it would be a waste without a larger supply of vaccines coming from the federal government.
Virginia is currently distributing approximately 20,000 doses per day to residents in Phases 1a and 1b on the community’s priority vaccine list. Avula said that, at the current rate, it would take two to three months to overcome these two groups, which represent about half of Virginia’s population.
Virginia is not the only one facing the national supply shortage. The Associated Press reported that some states canceled vaccination appointments due to a shortage of supplies, and others received vaccine quantities inconsistent with what they should expect.
Maryland also faced a supply problem, as the state has received about 10,000 doses of the vaccine per day since the initial shipment and administers more than 15,000 doses per day. Despite this delay in supply, Governor Larry Hogan authorized Maryland to move to vaccinate Phase 1b residents last week, and scheduled Phase 1c to begin on Monday.
DC is similarly advancing its vaccination efforts, despite a shortage of supplies. On Tuesday, the District announced that teachers and police officers will be eligible to receive the vaccine starting next week. Still, DC’s desperation to get more doses was apparent in the same ad, which ended with a capitalized message that read “DC NEEDS MORE VACCINE”.
Abigail Constantino, Jack Pointer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More news about Coronavirus
Looking for more information? DC, Maryland and Virginia are rolling out more data every day. Visit their official websites here: Virginia | Maryland | A.D
Like the WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to chat about this article and others.
Get breaking news and daily headlines in your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2021 WTOP. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located in the European Economic Area.