COVID-19 vaccinations in Virginia have now expanded further than front-line health workers.
COVID-19 vaccinations in Virginia have now expanded further than front-line health workers.
“Our long-term care facilities have just started this week,” Christy Gray, director of the immunization department, Virginia, immunization department, said Wednesday during a conference call with reporters.
“It will take about three to four weeks to complete the first dose with the competent nursing facilities, and we will also start the assistance facilities in the next three to four weeks,” she said.
Vaccinations in long-term care facilities are administered through a federal partnership program that makes the pharmacies of CVS and Walgreens solely responsible for coordinating vaccinations. Noting that arrangements are being made with 1 442 facilities for each three visits, VDH’s director of communications, Maria Reppas, asked the facilities for their patience.
As of Wednesday, more than 54,200 people have received the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in Virginia, which experience only common reactions such as injection site soreness, fatigue, headaches and a short-term fever that reflects that the body is working. to develop immunity.
“We have not yet heard of any serious side effects that have occurred in Virginia with any of these vaccines,” Gray said.
Who is going to pre-empt Phase 1b (essential workers) and Phase 1c (high-risk adults)?
Virginia is now reviewing recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and expects to release details by the end of the week.
With the promise of a total of 370,000 doses by the end of the year, vaccines begin in mid-December in Virginia and about 285,000 were in the state on Wednesday, with additional shipments expected weekly.
However, getting shots in people’s arms is happening more slowly than expected.
Gray attributed this to logistical challenges and the timing of vaccine availability. “It was two weeks, but we had Christmas there, we had weekends there,” she said.
The situation may also look worse due to delay time and issues related to the information posted on the Virginia vaccine dashboard.
“There may be technical issues we are dealing with with the vaccinations to enter the data into the registry,” Gray said.
Overall, Gray said she is pleased with the progress, but acknowledges that there is still a long way to go.
“We’ve been planning for so long to get all these moving pieces in place, and now that it’s working and everyone’s in place, we’re becoming more efficient about it, we’re getting used to all these systems intertwining,” Gray said. “At first it is expected to be slower, but I think it will get much faster as we move further.”
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