RICHMOND, Va. – The Virginia state vaccine coordinator said the Virginia Department of Health will change the way it allocates doses of the COVID-19 vaccine due to the persistent vaccine shortage and that if the supply does not increase, it will take two to three months to complete the vaccination of those eligible for phase 1A and 1B of the rollout.
“For now, most recipients should know that they will be getting what they are getting quite reliably for the next four weeks,” said Dr. Danny Avula during a telebriefing on Friday. “We have to control and temper expectations because with just a few hundred, or in some cases a few thousand doses coming to each community, there won’t be that many slots where people can get vaccinated. And so, people who are. in 1B and looking to get vaccinated, we need to realize that it will likely be, without a significant change in the vaccine supply, we expect two to three months to work through this population. ”
On Friday, the Virginia Department of Health’s COVID-19 vaccine dashboard said that 1,010,150 doses had been distributed across the state, with 424,857 doses administered or just over 42%. According to Bloomberg’s nationwide vaccination tracker, the national average as of early Saturday is 49.7%. The seven-day average of daily shots in Virginia is 19,405.
During the briefing, Avula said his role, which he began two weeks ago, to improve vaccine rollout in Virginia, is organized into three phases: addressing the reporting gap, dealing with supply and demand, and building of the state’s vaccination infrastructure. prepared for an increase in supply.
WTVR
Gap in reporting
Avula said much of his work since the start of the job has been taking care of where Virginia’s vaccine shipments go and that they, or not, are reported promptly when they are administered.
“If you look at the data now, you see that just under 600,000 doses are not accounted for,” said Avula. “It really needs to understand why that is, where those doses are, and how the public understands the current state of vaccine supply in Virginia.”
Avula echoed what he and other state leaders have said in the past about the gap between the divided and administered shots and said they will never fully close that gap with shipments coming in weekly. He said the difference will be between 170,000 and 200,000, depending on the number of first and second doses administered each week.
“The extra second doses we get vary. Sometimes it’s 60,000. Sometimes a little more,” added Avula.
Avula had said on Thursday that there were about 90,000 doses given to Virginians but not entered into the state database. He said a new team of ten people was deployed this week to address that issue.
He also said the majority of the doses of Virginia reserved for the federal partnership with Walgreens and CVS pharmacies to vaccinate residents and staff of long-term care facilities have yet to be used.
“226,000 doses were reserved and reserved for CVS and Walgreens. Now not all of those doses have been delivered, not all of them have gone down, but they have been set aside,” said Avula, adding that as of Thursday she will be administering about 66,000 doses. “There is a large number of cases, probably around 100,000 at this point, that have been distributed in Virginia but not yet treated.”
Avula said they have spoken to the state administration for those two pharmacies and that they are working to speed up their vaccination rates and aim to complete all nursing homes and assisted living facilities by the end of January. He said some of the challenges they face include outbreaks in facilities, pushing back when vaccinators can come in, and that the willingness of people in those facilities to get the vaccine is low.
“We have heard anecdotally different numbers that it seems like the residents, the older residents of these facilities have a higher uptake – 70 to 80%. But the staff is lower. Down from 30 to 40%,” Avula said. He added that some staff members are later willing to get vaccinated after seeing their colleagues do this. Avula said they are also in talks with CVS and Walgreens to reassign some of those federally earmarked vaccines to other pharmacies to speed up the process. “They are looking at their forecasts for how much vaccine they will need to go through their three phases … and that they will be willing to allow us to reassign to other pharmacies. So I will probably be Monday or Monday. so know what that number is and how we would approach it. “
Paul Sancya / AP
The demand is greater than the supply
Avula said Virginia has received 105,000 doses in the past week, while it had requests from around the state for nearly 300,000 doses and they expect to face a similar difference in the coming weeks, so VDH will start allocating doses based solely on the drug percentage of the population. .
“So for each community, we know what percentage of the population they have, and then we allocate that percentage of this week’s allotment to them,” Avula said. “What we also did was we really supported our local health departments as ESF [Emergency Support Functions]… Leads in their community to coordinate response. “
Avula said local health departments were told how much vaccine their districts would receive and worked with their partners to determine how the doses would be distributed within their districts.
“So that looks different from district to district. In some cases, health departments and hospitals work hand in hand to run large-scale PODs. [point of dispensing], “added Avula.” You have different vaccine channels in different areas. Part of this will be done through large-scale vaccinations, some will be done through collaboration with pharmacies targeting parts of the population.
“Health departments are really working hard to figure out how to prioritize that vaccine. We continue to prioritize 1A individuals who haven’t, who may not have been vaccinated on the first round, and so they will be processed in clinics. if they are available, “Avula said.” And then we have this very large 1B group. And I think the challenge of this is when you’re only getting a few thousand doses a week to divide between hospitals, health systems, health departments, healthcare providers, and pharmacies – how do you do that in a way that’s even close to meeting the question? And the answer is, it is not. That is not possible. And, understandably, that has led to a lot of confusion and frustration with our audience saying, ‘Hey, I’m in 1B. Why can’t I find a place to get vaccinated? ‘ ‘
Avula said health departments and their partners should provide capacity for the 65+ portion of 1B each week while providing vaccination options to key primary care workers.
Avula was asked whether, due to limited vaccine supplies, it was going to stop health districts from allowing people outside of their jurisdiction to attend the open POD events to receive the vaccine. Avula said he would look to see how that problem emerges.
“If there are situations where that seems to be abused or creates great inequalities, because people in a neighboring district have more opportunities to drive across the land border themselves,” Avula said. “Then we’ll have to look at it again and visit again … are we more restrictive on where to live?”
WTVR
Preparation for mass vaccination clinics
Finally, Avula said that the third phase of VDH’s planning is to build the infrastructure for massive vaccination clinics that will be needed to reach Governor Ralph Northam’s goal of 50,000 vaccinations per day and 70% to 80% of the population. inoculate and achieve herd immunity.
Avula said there is also a huge capacity in the state’s health systems and health departments, but they also have about 2,000 vendor groups and 400 pharmacies approved to provide vaccinations.
“I’m not worried that we can get to 50,000 doses per day,” said Avula. “Except we don’t have the vaccine.”
Rely on CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for full coverage of this important evolving story.
Precautions covid19
Most patients with COVID-19 have mild to moderate symptoms. However, in a small proportion of patients, COVID-19 can lead to more serious illnesses, including death, especially among the elderly or those with chronic medical conditions.
COVID-19 mainly spreads through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Symptoms include fever, cough, and difficulty breathing. Symptoms appear within 14 days of exposure to an infectious person.
Virginia health officials urged the following precautions:
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
- Only use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer if soap and water are not available.
- Do not touch your eyes, nose and mouth. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze.
- Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.
- Stay at home when you are sick.
- Avoid contact with sick people.
- Avoid non-essential travel.