UpdatedMon, Feb 8, 2021 at 1:39 pm ET
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As of Monday, 1,105,102 vaccine doses had been administered of the 1,580,800 doses distributed so far to Virginia. (Shutterstock)
VIRGINIA Virginia passed the 1 million COVID-19 vaccine mark over the weekend as the state slowly moves forward in getting its population vaccinated. As of Monday, 1,105,102 vaccine doses had been administered of the 1,580,800 doses distributed to the state, according to the Virginia Health Department.
As the nation nears the two-month anniversary of its vaccination program, 206,942 Virginians, or 2.4 percent of the state s population, have been fully vaccinated.
An estimated 10.5 percent of the state s population has received at least one dose of the vaccine. The first COVID-19 vaccines were given in the United States on Dec. 14.
As access to COVID-19 vaccines open to additional groups in the D.C. area, local leaders have been warned about challenges that might affect the equitable distribution of doses.
During a Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments briefing Wednesday, Loudoun County Health Department Director Dr. David Goodfriend admitted that the county could not handle the onslaught of demand when the vaccine eligibility transition to Phase 1b was announced late last week.
“All of our call centers have been overwhelmed, probably starting with Saturday, but definitely on Monday, with people calling, people emailing, trying to get in for vaccine and trying to figure out where they fit. That’s been a challenge for us in Loudoun, and probably has been throughout” the area, Goodfriend said.
Loudoun Government Lays Out Phase 1B Vaccination Plans loudounnow.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from loudounnow.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The District of Columbia and large portions of Virginia moved into their next phases of coronavirus vaccinations Monday, targeting older residents and other vulnerable populations as a post-holiday surge of new infections in the region continued to reach record highs.
Loudoun Now
In the early days of March, Loudoun leaders started gearing up the public response to a new virus that was sweeping the globe from its origins in a city in central China. While warning COVID-19 was a serious public health threat, few then could envision the life-changing impacts the battle would bring.
Most remarkable about those early days is what wasn’t known.
In the first public briefings on the new coronavirus, Loudoun’s Public Health director reported the latest direction from the national and international authorities, including that residents should not make a run on medical masks that would be needed by healthcare workers but would provide little protection to the general public. At the time, authorities believed the virus was primarily spread by contaminated surfaces, not through the air. There was no test available to know who had been infected and no treatment established.