RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Ralph Northam announced during Wednesday's press conference the state’s goals in vaccinating as many Virginia residents in a timely manner.
Northam also addressed a possible post-holiday surge of COVID-19 cases but said he would not implement restrictions. That could change if the numbers continue to increase.
The Governor and Virginia Department of Health leaders acknowledged the state has lagged in its vaccination distribution but said Virginia is doing better than 38 other states.
So far, all vaccines have been distributed to 100 sites across the Commonwealth. That includes hospitals and health departments.
As of Jan. 5, the health department distributed 481,550 vaccine doses in Virginia. The department's vaccine dashboard showed 21% of those doses have been administered to health care workers and people in senior homes.
At the press conference, Northam said VDH estimates hospitals have actually given out between 30,000 and 50,000 more shots than what is reported in the dashboard.
Local health departments are estimated to have given 9,000 more than what was reported.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Lilian Peake said they are having problems with reporting systems and getting vaccination numbers updated. Wednesday’s vaccine dashboard should reflect the actual number of vaccines administered, which is about 12,000 doses in the last 24 hour reporting period, Peake said.
Administration vaccine goals
Currently, the marker is 14,000 shots per day but the state eventually wants to hit a goal of 25,000 shots. But that number outpaces the current vaccine supply. Northam’s administration is hopeful supply shipments will increase.
The state is expecting 100,000 doses shipped per week to Virginia.
In the long run, it will take about 50,000 shots per day to get 8.5 million Virginia residents in a timely manner, Northam said.
Next group to be vaccinated
Gov. Northam said the next group 1B will include essential workers and people over the age of 75. Vaccinations for that group will begin by the end of January.
Essential workers include teachers, daycare providers, first responders, and workers in the food, agriculture, manufacturing, grocery and public transit industries.
The Virginia National Guard will be mobilized in the future to help health providers, including mass vaccination sites.
The administration is also implementing a “use it or lose it” policy on vaccines. If providers aren’t giving out the vaccine in a timely manner, they will lose the remaining doses and the state will move them to another site.