A low federal offer remains the biggest obstacle to Virginia’s vaccination plan, according to the state’s director of vaccination Friday.
Virginia is making progress in getting doses of COVID-19 vaccines into the arms of residents, but the low stumbling block remains the biggest stumbling block, according to the director of state vaccination Friday.
Dr. Danny TK Avula, who was appointed by Governor Ralph Northam to oversee Virginia’s vaccination efforts, told reporters Friday afternoon that the state currently receives about 100,000 doses of vaccines a week.
When Avula was first appointed, he said Virginia’s goal was to distribute 50,000 doses a day through massive vaccination sites staffed by members of the National Guard.
Determining the infrastructure remains important, Avula said, but it will be wasted without a larger amount of vaccines coming from the federal government.
Currently, Virginia distributes approximately 20,000 doses per day to residents in Phases 1a and 1b of the country’s vaccine priority list. At the current rate, Avula will take two to three months to get through the two groups, which represent about half of Virginia’s population.
Virginia is not alone in the shortage of national supply. The Associated Press reported that some countries canceled the vaccinations for vaccinations due to lack of supplies, and others received amounts of vaccine contrary to their mandate.
Maryland has also faced a supply issue, as the state has received approximately 10,000 doses of the vaccine per day since its initial shipment and has administered more than 15,000 doses per day. Despite the weakening of supply, Governor Larry Hogan authorized Maryland to vaccinate residents in Phase 1b last week, and Phase 1c began Monday.
DC similarly continues its vaccination efforts despite a shortage of supply. The district announced Tuesday that teachers and police officers will be eligible to receive the vaccine from next week. Yet DC’s desperation to get more doses was evident in the same announcement, which ended in a message with all the captions that read: “DC NEEDS MORE VACCINATION.”
WTOP’s Abigail Constantino, Jack Pointer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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