RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Virginia has administered 594,828 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine which is a little more than half of the vaccines distributed to the state, according to CDC data. As Virginians anxiously await their chance to get their doses, there are concerns that the Commonwealth may be falling behind other states.
8News in Richmond dove into the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data for vaccine distribution and administration to see where Virginia falls in comparison to other states and territories.
People across the commonwealth are starting to get their second dose of the vaccine, but the state has a long way to go. Virginia ranks below a majority of states when comparing how many residents have received two shots per 100,000 people.
According to CDC data, Virginia is ranked 41 out of 59 states and territories. For every 100,000 people in the Commonwealth, only 851 people are fully vaccinated, meaning they have received both shots of the vaccine.
The total number of people fully vaccinated in Virginia is 72,628.
According to the most recent Census data, there are 8,535,519 people living in the state. Using the figures provided by the CDC, about 0.85% of Virginians have been fully vaccinated from COVID-19.
However, Virginia is not totally in the back of the pack and is making strides towards upping the amount of vaccines administered daily.
According to the most recently available CDC data, Virginia is sitting right in the middle when looking at vaccines administered per 100,000 people. Out of the 59 states and territories providing rates per 100,000, Virginia is No. 30 with 6,969 vaccines administered per 100,000 people.
Sitting at the top of the list are Republic of Palau, Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa which all have small populations and have administered less than 10,000 vaccines total.
Rounding up the end of the list are the Virgin Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Alabama.
The amount of vaccines administered in Virginia each day has been rising for weeks. According to VDH, an average of 24,790 vaccine doses are administered each day, compared to 7,589 on the first of the year.
Virginia ranks slightly higher when just looking at distribution per 100,000 people, falling in as 18th among the 59 states and territories providing these rates. This is a huge jump upwards in the rankings, which becomes more understandable when seeing the large gap between doses administered and distributed in the state.
Right now according to the CDC, the state has received 1,172,375 vaccine doses from the federal government but only 594,828 have made it into the arms of Virginians. Both of these numbers are slightly higher than what the Virginia Department of Health is currently reporting.
This means that just under 51% of the vaccines distributed have been used so far.
In a press briefing last week, Dr. Danny Avula explained that there will always be a gap of at least 170,00 to 200,000 between the number of doses distributed by the federal government and administered by the state as some vaccines are set aside for different days.