It’s been a tough week for state and local health departments, scrambling to meet demand for COVID vaccine. Today, they took time out to tell reporters about the challenges ahead.
On Wednesday, Blue Ridge Health Department Director Denise Bonds was telling people there was enough vaccine to meet demand, but late that afternoon she and other districts learned that – in fact – supplies were being cut.
“There are five million Virginians that are currently eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine," she said. "Virginia gets, each week, 105,000 doses for the whole state, so you can see there is considerable demand and not much supply.”
The state’s vaccine coordinator, Danny Avula, said that situation would change.
“We are hearing from the federal government that this is likely what we can expect for the next few weeks at least. The Biden administration has come in and said we’re going to get to 100 million doses in 100 days," Avula explained. "Some of that will happen because of the entry of new vaccines, some of it may happen with increased production of Moderna and Pfizer.”
But, for now, departments are getting supplies based on their populations.
People in group 1A, healthcare professionals, and 1B, folks over 65, those with certain health conditions and frontline professionals like police, teachers and paramedics are eligible for vaccination, but Bonds and Avula agreed it could be three or four months before people in that group are vaccinated. Bond said her department would be reaching out to those who had registered on the Blue Ridge website, claimed a special hotline was now fully staffed to answer questions and urged the public to be patient.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
