RICHMOND, Va. – The Virginia State Vaccine Coordinator said the Virginia Department of Health will change the way it allocates doses of COVID-19 vaccine due to the continuing shortage of the vaccine and that if supply does not increase, it could take between two and three months to finish vaccinating those eligible in phase 1A and 1B of the release.
“For now, most recipients should know that they will reliably get what they get in the next four weeks or so,” Dr. Danny Avula said during a telebriefing Friday. “We have to manage and moderate expectations, because with only several hundred, or in some cases a couple of thousands of doses reaching each community, there won’t be as many slots for people to get vaccinated. And so people that they are in 1B and we want to get vaccinated, we have to realize that probably, without a significant change in the supply of the vaccine, we wait two or three months to work this population ”.
As of Friday, the Virginia Department of Health’s COVID-19 vaccine board said 1,010,150 doses had been distributed in the state, with 424,857 doses administered or just over 42%. According to Bloomberg’s national immunization tracker, the national average at the beginning of Saturday is 49.7%. The average of seven days of daily shots administered from Virginia is 19,405.
During the briefing, Avula said his role, which began two weeks ago, in improving the deployment of Virginia vaccines, is organized into three phases: addressing the reporting gap, addressing the issue of supply and demand and build the state’s vaccination infrastructure. prepared for an increase in supply.
WTVR
Gap in reports
Avula said much of his work since he began work has been explaining where Virginia’s vaccine shipments go and are quickly reported when they are administered.
“Right now, if you look at the data, you’ll see that there are just under 600,000 doses that are not taken into account,” Avula said. “We really need to understand why it is, where these doses are and how the public understands the current state of vaccine supply in Virginia.”
Avula reiterated what he and other state leaders have said in the past about the gap between distributed and administered traits and said they will never close that gap completely as shipments arrive each week. He said the gap will range from 170,000 to 200,000 depending on the number of first and second doses given each week.
“The second extra doses we get vary. Sometimes it’s 60,000. Sometimes a little more,” Avula added.
Avula had said Thursday that there were approximately 90,000 doses that had been administered to Virginians, but that had not been entered into the state database. He said a new team of ten people has been deployed this week to help fix the problem.
He also said most of the Virginia doses reserved for the federal association with Walgreens and CVS pharmacies to vaccinate residents and staff at long-term care facilities have not yet been used.
“226,000 doses were allocated and reserved for CVS and Walgreens. Now, not all doses have been administered, not all have been lowered, but they are set aside,” said Avula, who added that from on Thursday they already had about 66,000 doses administered. “There are a large number of cases, probably around 100,000 at the moment, that have been distributed in Virginia, but that have not yet been administered.”
Avula said they have been talking to the state leadership for these two pharmacies and said they are working to speed up their vaccination rate and aim to go through all nursing homes and assisted living facilities by the end. January. He said some of the challenges they face are outbreaks at the facilities, which push back when vaccinators can arrive, and that the willingness of people at these facilities to receive the vaccine has been low.
“We have heard anecdotally different figures that it seems that residents, the elderly residents of these facilities have a higher participation (from 70 to 80%. But the staff is lower. Down, from 30 to 40 % “, said Avula. He added that some staff members will be willing to get vaccinated after seeing it with their colleagues. Avula said they are also discussing with CVS and Walgreens to reassign some of these vaccines intended for other pharmacies to help speed up the process. “They are seeing their projections on the amount of vaccine they will need to get in their three phases … and that they will be willing to allow them to be reassigned to other pharmacies. I will know on Monday more or less what that figure is and how we would approach that. “
Paul Sancya / AP
Demand is greater than supply
Avula said Virginia received 105,000 doses last week, while it had statewide requests for nearly 300,000 doses and expect to face a similar discrepancy over the next few weeks, so VDH will begin allocating doses based on only of the percentage of population.
“So for each community we know what percentage of the population it has and we assign them that percentage of this week’s allocation,” Avula said. “What we also did was we really relied on our local health departments like the ESF [Emergency Support Functions]… leads your community to coordinate the response. “
Avula said local health departments have been informed of the amount of vaccine their districts would receive and have worked with their partners to determine how doses would be allocated to their districts.
“So this seems different from district to district. In some cases, health departments and hospitals work hand in hand to make POD on a large scale. [point of dispensing]”Avula added.” In different areas, you will have different vaccine channels. Some of this will go through large-scale vaccinations, others will go through collaboration with pharmacies that focus on segments of the population.
“The health departments are really working hard to figure out how to prioritize this vaccine. We continue to prioritize 1A people who didn’t, who may not have been vaccinated in the first round, and therefore will work in clinics when they are available, ”Avula said. “And then we have this very large group 1B. And I think the challenge of that is when you only get a couple of thousands of doses a week to distribute among hospitals, health systems, health departments, providers and pharmacies. Do you do it in a way that even comes close to meeting the demand? And the answer is no. You can’t. And understandably, this has caused a great deal of confusion and frustration on the part of our audience who say, I’m in 1B.Why can’t I find a place to get vaccinated? ‘ “
Avula said health departments and their partners should provide capacity each week for the more than 65 million 1B portion and at the same time provide vaccination opportunities to key frontline workers.
Avula was asked whether in the future, due to the limited supply of vaccines, health districts should stop the practice of allowing people outside their jurisdiction to attend open POD events to get the vaccine. Avula said he would watch to see how this problem arises.
“If there are situations where this seems to be abused or it is creating big inequalities, because people in a neighboring district have more capacity to drive across the country line,” Avula said. “Then we’ll have to check it out and visit again … are we more restrictive about the place of residence?”
WTVR
Preparation for mass vaccination clinics
Finally, Avula said the third phase of VDH planning is to build the infrastructure for mass vaccination clinics that will be needed to meet Governor Ralph Northam’s goal of 50,000 vaccines a day and inoculate 70% to 80%. of the population and achieve herd immunity.
Avula said there is also a large capacity in the state’s health systems and health departments, but they also have about 2,000 provider groups and 400 pharmacies that have been approved for vaccination.
“I don’t care that we can reach 50,000 doses a day,” Avula said. “Unless we have the vaccine.”
Rely on CBS 6 News and WTVR.com for full coverage of this important developing story.
Precautions against covid19
Most patients with COVID-19 have mild to moderate symptoms. However, in a small proportion of patients, COVID-19 can cause more serious illnesses, including death, especially among those who are older or with chronic illnesses.
COVID-19 is spread mainly through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
Symptoms include fever, cough, and difficulty breathing. Symptoms appear after 14 days of exposure to an infected person.
Virginia health officials urged the following precautions:
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
- Use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer only if no soap and water is available.
- Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or sleeve (not your hands) when you cough or sneeze.
- Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.
- Stay home when you are sick.
- Avoid contact with sick people.
- Avoid non-essential travel.