RICHMOND, Va. — Vaccination efforts are moving along in Virginia.
Governor Ralph Northam called the COVID-19 vaccine a "light at the end of a long tunnel, and that light gets brighter every day."
Northam explained, “We are now in what we hope is the final phase of this pandemic and the future really does look hopeful.”
At Northam’s press conference on Tuesday, he said 18 percent of people in the Commonwealth have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
More than 850,000 Virginians are fully vaccinated and Virginia is averaging 51,000 shots a day. Northam said the goal is to have everyone in Virginia fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by summer.
“We are 11th in the country in terms of doses given and sixth in percent of doses used,” he said. “We had a very good week last week vaccinating Virginians and we are going to keep getting those numbers up.”
Northam also announced that VDH and FEMA will work together to hold a handful of mass vaccination clinics across the Commonwealth.
“You have seen massive clinics on TV, like at Dodgers stadium, ” Northam explained. “Virginia won't be that big, but these are intended to be large-scale events and able to vaccinate anywhere from several hundred to several thousand people in a day.”
Northam said the only community vaccination clinic in Hampton Roads will be in Portsmouth and it will happen sometime next week.
“We are scheduling for these clinics and the other vaccination events run by health departments in part from the pre-registration list, ” Northam said.
13News Now reached out to city leaders in Portsmouth to get more information about the mass vaccination clinic. We haven't yet received a response.