Things are improving, but head of Virginia’s vaccines says some in Phase 1b are still a month away from getting shots

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — The rollout of Virginia’s COVID-19 vaccination program is improving, but the man leading the charge said people still must understand: it’s going to take a while.

Dr. Danny Avula, Virginia’s vaccine coordinator, sounded upbeat Friday afternoon as he told reporters that Virginia has currently used 57% of the vaccinations it has been given by the federal government. That places the commonwealth at 21st out of 50 states for how many vaccines it has administered, according to a ranking by Becker’s Hospital Review. It was just a week ago the state was lingering down near the bottom of the list.

On a conference call with reporters Friday, Avula said that the state’s strategy of taking doses that some hospitals and private providers set aside for second doses and using them as first doses appears to be paying off.

He says both doses a person receives are actually the same and believes there will be enough doses for a second shot when it’s needed.

“Hopefully that is reassuring to providers who have not been moving their inventory,” Avula said. “In some cases we have had places holding on to their inventory because they weren’t sure what they could count on from the federal government. They want to make sure they had second doses in stock to cover their patients and staff they provided the first dose to.”

Avula says for the 105,000 first doses the state is expected to receive for the coming week, they are on top of that receiving 62,000 second doses.

Demand remains high for the vaccine.

In Virginia Beach alone, 48,000 people in Phase 1b pre-registered for the vaccine on the city’s online portal since it launched Monday.

“The health districts can work with providers to really ensure that those priority groups are actually priority groups, that they actually get prioritized,” Avula said.

Within the Phase 1b priority group itself, there is a secondary priority ranking when it comes to careers.

Local health districts are supposed to reach out to essential workers in the following order:

1. Police, fire, and hazmat
2. Corrections and homeless shelter workers
3. Childcare/pre-K-12 teachers/staff (public and private)
4. Food and agriculture (including veterinarians)
5. Manufacturing
6. Grocery store workers
7. Public transit workers
8. Mail carriers (USPS and private)
9. Officials needed to maintain continuity of government (including judges and public-facing judicial workers)

“I think it’s going to be a month or longer before we get to the fourth or fifth tier. I’m trying my best to make sure people manage their expectations,” Avula said.

The ultimate goal is to vaccinate 70 to 80% of Virginia’s population in an effort to reach herd immunity.