The following press release is from the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association. Bottom line: we need to crank this up, big time, to Gov. Northam’s goal of 50k shots per day, if we ever want to defeat this pandemic.
Virginia Hospitals Announce More Than 175,000 COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Have Been Administered During First Month of Vaccination Program
More Than 73,000 Vaccine Doses Have Been Administered by Hospitals and Health Systems in the Past Week; Hospitals Account for the Majority of Doses Administered So Far in Virginia
RICHMOND, VA – Virginia hospitals have administered more than 175,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in the four weeks since the Commonwealth received the first shipment of doses in mid-December. That figure reflects doses administered by hospitals as of Tuesday, Jan. 12. As Virginia Governor Ralph Northam noted at a Thursday afternoon news conference, “Virginia’s hospitals and health systems have administered the majority of shots in arms so far in Virginia.” Last week, VHHA announced more than 102,900 vaccine doses had been administered by hospitals during the first three weeks of the program. VHHA will continue to provide weekly vaccination updates, which will be available on the Virginia Hospital COVID-19 Dashboard.
Progress on vaccine administration in Virginia is contingent on a steady, predictable supply of doses available to hospitals and other providers. A recent announcement by the federal government that additional vaccine doses will be released to states is an encouraging sign, and one that can help build on the vaccination progress achieved so far. Another positive sign is the Commonwealth’s move into phase 1b of the vaccination process even as work continues to vaccinate health care professionals in the phase 1a priority population.
Individuals covered in the phase 1b and 1c priority populations include essential workers such as police officers, firefighters, educators and childcare workers, grocery store and food processing plant employees, as well as older adults such as those in high-risk and vulnerable populations, and construction, utility, transportation, and food service workers. Governor Northam has also announced that Virginians 65 and older and those ages 16-64 with a co-morbidity (which represents about half of Virginia’s population) are included in the phase 1b population. This designation can help further expedite vaccination progress.
Virginia hospitals stand ready to continue to support these efforts alongside its partners in the public and private sector. With a steady supply of vaccine doses, it is estimated that Virginia’s hospitals can administer close to 100,000 doses of vaccine each week and have the capacity to expand that if additional doses and funding are available.
The sharing of weekly vaccination totals is a continuation of Virginia hospitals’ commitment to transparency. Other examples of this include publication of the Virginia Hospital COVID-19 Dashboard, the Virginia Licensed Nursing Facility COVID-19 Dashboard, the Virginia Hospital Patient Experience Data Dashboard, the Community Health Legislative Dashboards, the interactive Virginia Hospital Quality and Patient Safety Scorecard, and the Virginia Hospital Media Dashboard. Each of these data-informed tools are public facing and presented with the support of VHHA member hospitals and health systems to help advance community understanding about the health care delivery system in Virginia.
About VHHA: The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association is an alliance of 110 hospitals and 26 health delivery systems that develops and advocates for sound health care policy in the Commonwealth. Its mission is to achieve excellence in both health care and health. Its vision is through the power of collaboration to be recognized as a driving force behind making Virginia the healthiest state in the nation. Connect with VHHA through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram. ###
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