Fairfax County is committing to expanding COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to all adults by April 18, as long as there is sufficient supply, county officials tell Tysons Reporter.
This comes on the heels of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s announcement earlier today (April 1) that all individuals in the Commonwealth over the age of 16 should be eligible for the vaccine starting Sunday, April 18.
“I know that our residents are looking forward to getting vaccinated and to be able to again spend time with their loved ones,” Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said in a statement to Tysons Reporter. “Fairfax County is ready and prepared to move forward to meet the Governor’s and President Biden’s deadlines. I’m excited that we can continue to open eligibility and vaccinate even more people.”
The April 18 goal is ahead of the May 1 deadline set by President Joe Biden in mid-March for making all American adults eligible for the vaccine.
Governor Northam’s press release notes that this is because the state is making solid progress on delivering the vaccine to currently eligible populations.
“Nearly every Virginian in the highest risk groups who has pre-registered for a vaccination appointment has received one, and those still on the pre-registration list will receive appointment invitations within the next two weeks,” the governor’s office said.
The release also says that nearly 4 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in the Commonwealth. More than one in three adults have gotten at least one dose, and one in five are fully vaccinated.
21 out of 35 Virginia’s health districts have also moved to Phase 1c, which encompasses additional essential workers like food servers and construction workers.
After opening eligibility for all people in Phase 1b earlier this week, Fairfax County officials now say that the plan is to move to Phase 1c sometime next week to meet Northam’s target date as well as Biden’s expectation that 90% of adults in the U.S. will be eligible to get vaccinated by April 19.
“To meet these goals, Fairfax County plans to open registration for Phase 1c early next week and transition to Phase 2 by the governor’s deadline,” the Fairfax County Health Department said in a newly published blog post.
The health department previously predicted that the county would enter Phase 1c in mid-April.
According to the county dashboard, 363,601 people have been vaccinated by the county health department or one of its partners — a nearly 10% jump from two weeks ago.
That’s approximately 32% of the county’s population, which is slightly lower than the overall percentage of Virginia residents who have been vaccinated based on the governor’s release.
As for when those eligible to register will get appointments and actual shots, that remains to be seen. The health department is currently making appointments for people who registered on March 24 and has gotten its waitlist down to less than 30,000 people.
Earlier in March, Virginia’s Vaccine Coordinator Dr. Danny Avula said that everyone who wants the vaccine should be able to get their first dose by May 31.
However, Fairfax County could not commit to that goal at the time. A health department spokesperson Reston Now on Tuesday that the pace of vaccine administration will depend on “many factors,” including the number of doses that the county gets from the Virginia Department of Health.
Photo via Fairfax County Health Department/Twitter
Drivers passing through Vienna might notice a different kind of banner hanging over Maple Avenue near the Town Green.
In place of the usual advertisements for upcoming town events is a directive: “Protect Yourself and Our Community. When you are eligible, register for an appointment for your COVID shot.”
The banner went up last month as part of a “Vaccinate Vienna” campaign that officially launched on Tuesday (March 30). Organized by the Town of Vienna and Rotary Club of Vienna, the campaign aims to raise awareness about the ongoing, nationwide COVID-19 vaccine rollout and encourage residents to make an appointment when their turn comes.
“As Vienna’s mayor, my top priority always is our residents’ safety,” Vienna Mayor Linda Colbert said. “In an effort to mitigate this ongoing global pandemic and to reach the 75% mark to achieve herd community, I want to encourage as many people as possible to get vaccinated.”
For residents who aren’t eligible yet, the opportunity to get vaccinated may arrive sooner than anticipated. Gov. Ralph Northam announced today that all Virginia residents 16 and older will be able to register for the COVID-19 vaccine starting on April 18 — almost two weeks ahead of the state’s May 1 target date.
Fairfax County is currently permitting everyone in phase 1b to register for the vaccine. The health department has said registration will open to phase 1c essential workers in mid-April and to all adults on May 1, though Northam’s declaration suggests eligibility could potentially expand sooner.
According to its vaccine dashboard, the Fairfax County Health Department is now making appointments for people who registered on March 23. 30,052 people remain on the waitlist, just 8% of the 368,676 individuals who have registered overall.
While there’s no Vienna-specific data on how many people have been vaccinated or plan to get the vaccine, town officials and the Vienna Rotary Club hope the “Vaccinate Vienna” campaign will convince any concerned or skeptical residents that the available vaccines are safe and effective.
“I understand that there are some individuals who don’t feel comfortable getting a coronavirus vaccine, but if you do, please get vaccinated for yourself and for our community,” Colbert said.
Founded in 1965, the Rotary Club of Vienna is the town’s chapter of Rotary International, a global service organization dedicated to promoting peace, supporting education, providing clean water and sanitation, and addressing other issues.
The Vienna Rotary Club says its parent organization has “a long history” supporting successful vaccination efforts, including campaigns to eradicate polio and smallpox.
“By partnering with the town, we hope that this history will alleviate some people’s reluctance to get vaccinated,” said Vienna Rotary Club President Yasmine Bonilla, who got her first shot earlier this week.
In addition to hanging the banner over Maple Avenue, the rotary club is promoting “Vaccinate Vienna” by gathering videos of Vienna community members sharing their experiences of getting the COVID-19 vaccine. The videos will come in multiple languages and are being posted to the organization’s Facebook page.
(Updated at 1:35 p.m.) Everyone who lives or works in the Fairfax Health District and falls under a phase 1b category can now register for an appointment to get a COVID-19 vaccination.
The Fairfax County Health Department announced this morning (Tuesday) that, starting today, it is opening eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine to essential government workers, clergy and faith leaders, and janitorial and cleaning staff — the last three priority groups in phase 1b of Virginia’s vaccine rollout.
Approximately half of the Fairfax Health District’s population — which includes the county, the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, and the towns of Vienna, Herndon, and Clifton — is now eligible to register for the vaccine, according to Fairfax County Director of Epidemiology and Population Health Dr. Benjamin Schwartz.
“We anticipate those who’ve registered today will get an appointment in a few weeks,” FCHD spokesperson Tina Dale told Reston Now, Tysons Reporter’s affiliate site.
This is the third time Fairfax County has expanded eligibility for vaccine appointments this month, a pace that the health department says reflects a growing supply of vaccine doses.
The county received 55,470 doses from the Virginia Department of Health during the week of March 22-28. Its weekly shipments have been increasing by more than 10,000 doses per week over the past couple of weeks.
“We are moving through our current waitlist at a faster pace,” FCHD said in its blog post. “We expect to move into Phase 1c by mid-April and move into Phase 2 by May 1 in accordance with VDH guidance.”
Phase 1c covers remaining essential workers, including food service workers, housing and construction workers, water and waste removal workers, and media. Reaching phase 2 by May 1 would mean making vaccine appointments available to all adults, a stated goal of Gov. Ralph Northam and President Joe Biden.
Fairfax County remains cautious about committing to a timeline for when all adults will actually get at least one vaccine dose. Virginia’s vaccine coordinator, Dr. Danny Avula, has suggested that everyone who wants to get vaccinated could receive their first dose by May 31.
“We continue to add more county vaccination partners and continue to receive more doses of vaccine,” Dale said. “But whether or not everyone will have their first dose by May 31 is dependent on many factors.”
In addition to advocating for more doses, Fairfax County has been working to expand its capacity to administer the vaccines. Inova opened a mass vaccination site in Alexandria yesterday (Monday) that could accommodate at least 6,000 people per day.
According to the FCHD vaccine dashboard, which updates roughly every hour, Fairfax County is now making appointments for people who registered on March 16, when 4,412 individuals signed up. There are currently about 40,000 people on the waitlist, 11% of the 355,438 people that have registered for an appointment through the health department.
Newly eligible individuals can register to get vaccinated in Fairfax County, which is still operating its own registration system separate from the state, by filling out the health department’s online questionnaire or contacting its call center at 703-324-7404.
More than 300,000 people in Fairfax County have now gotten at least one dose of vaccine. According to VDH data, providers in the county have administered at least one dose to 309,338 people and fully vaccinated 158,541 people.
3.7 million total vaccine doses have been administered in Virginia, and 1.3 million people have been fully vaccinated — 15.5% of the state’s total population.
Photo via Fairfax County Health Department/Twitter
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The trajectory of COVID-19 cases in Fairfax County is starting to trend upward again after a roughly two-month decline.
The Fairfax Health District, which also includes the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, reported 154 new cases today (Monday), bringing the total to 72,111 cases over the course of the pandemic. The district has now recorded 3,752 hospitalizations and 1,066 deaths due to the novel coronavirus.
Now at 174.4 cases per day, the county’s weekly average has hovered around 160 to 170 cases since hitting a low for 2021 of 133.6 cases on March 15. That mark followed a two-month-long drop from an all-time high seven-day average of 696.7 cases on Jan. 17.
Fairfax County still has yet to return to the relative lull in the pandemic that came last summer, when the county had weekly averages of 40 to 50 cases.
The county’s plateauing case levels aligns closely with what is happening statewide. Virginia is currently averaging 1,506 cases over the past seven days, and like in Fairfax County, cases have been slightly but clearly increasing since mid-March, a potentially worrying sign as the Commonwealth prepares to further loosen public health restrictions.
Effective April 1, Virginia will increase the number of people permitted at both indoor and outdoor social gatherings and recreational sporting events, while removing caps on the number of attendees at entertainment and amusement venues, though a 30% capacity limit will remain in place.
Gov. Ralph Northam cited rising COVID-19 vaccination rates when announcing those changes on March 23, reporting that approximately one in four Virginians had received at least one dose of vaccine at that point.
While the upward trend in cases might be cause for concern, the pace of vaccinations continues to accelerate in Fairfax County as well.
The Fairfax County Health Department got 55,470 doses from the Virginia Department of Health during the week of March 22-28, the largest supply yet.
Last week, several Northern Virginia leaders urged the state to increase the region’s allocation of vaccine to match its capacity, which will further expand today with the opening of a mass vaccination site run by Inova Health Systems to serve Fairfax County and the City of Alexandria.
Inova's new mass vaccine site opens today in the City of Alexandria- This is a new option for Fairfax County residents in addition to our 150 others . Remember, to get in the vaccine queue, please register with the Fairfax County Health Department: https://t.co/sej7N0M4To pic.twitter.com/81qyHQwQLE
— Jeff McKay (@JeffreyCMcKay) March 29, 2021
According to its vaccine data dashboard, the county health department is now making appointments for people who registered on March 16. As of 10 a.m. today, the county has whittled its waitlist down to 37,837 individuals — 11% of the 350,429 people who have registered since the COVID-19 vaccines became available in December.
VDH data indicates that 296,241 people in Fairfax County have gotten at least one vaccine dose, and 151,223 of them have been fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve received both shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Virginia has now administered more than 3.5 million vaccine doses. 1.2 million people — 15% of the state’s population — have been fully vaccinated.
Like the state as a whole, Fairfax County hopes to open registration for vaccine appointments to all adults by May 1, and after expanding eligibility to additional phase 1b priority groups, the health department anticipates reaching phase 1c by mid-April.
Images via CDC on Unsplash, VDH
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Public transit workers and mail carriers can now register for a COVID-19 vaccine appointment after the Fairfax County Health Department announced another expansion of eligibility, effective today (Tuesday).
Eligible workers include bus drivers, rideshare drivers, and people who work in school and employee bus transportation and special needs transportation. Mail carriers for the U.S. Postal Service and private companies, such as Amazon, FedEx, and UPS, are also now eligible to get vaccinated.
“Employees should be prepared to show some form of work-related identification or paystub as the vaccine appointment could be offered by one of our vaccine partners that may require ID,” the county health department said.
In the past, Fairfax County has organized clinics for specific workers, including working with Inova Health Systems to vaccinate public school employees, but a health department spokesperson says the county is “not planning occupational clinics at this time.”
Newly eligible individuals can join the waitlist for an appointment by registering through the health department website or contacting the department’s call center at 703-324-7404.
After seeing no change for nearly two months, Fairfax County has now opened up appointments to additional essential workers twice in the past week. Grocery store employees and workers in the food, agriculture, and manufacturing sectors became eligible last Wednesday (March 17).
With this latest expansion, eight out of the Virginia Department of Health’s 11 priority groups in phase 1b can sign up to get vaccinated in Fairfax County. The three remaining groups are government officials, religious leaders, and janitorial and cleaning staff.
As it did last week, the county health department says that increases in supply have enabled it to move through its existing waitlist at a faster pace, keeping the Fairfax Health District on track to enter phase 1c by mid-April and to expand vaccine availability to the general population in phase 2 by May 1.
According to the health department’s vaccine dashboard, Fairfax County received 43,454 doses during the week of March 15-21, which is over 10,000 more doses than it got the previous week and more than double its supply from just three weeks ago.
As of 10 a.m. today, the health department had 89,673 people on its waitlist, about 25% of the 361,619 people who have registered for an appointment with Fairfax County. The county is currently scheduling appointments for people who registered on March 2.
So far, the county health department and its partners have adminstered 322,961 vaccine doses. VDH data shows that 250,585 people in Fairfax County have gotten at least one dose, and 133,978 people have been fully vaccinated — roughly 15% of the county’s adult population.
Even with supplies increasing, jurisdictions in Northern Virginia say they have the capacity to deliver more doses. With additional supplies from the state, Fairfax County could administer 34,000 doses per week, on top of an additional 84,000 doses per week from a mass vaccination facility that Inova is preparing to open in Alexandria by the end of March, according to a letter that the Northern Virginia Regional Commission sent to Gov. Ralph Northam.
“We’re grateful for the increase these last few wks, but we still have over 300K in the region on the waitlist,” Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said in a tweet. “We have the capacity to vaccinate equitably/efficiently and are working to get doses to meet demand.”
Photo via Fairfax County Health Department/Twitter
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Photo courtesy Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project
The number of COVID-19 cases in Fairfax County has remained relatively stable, mimicking case rates first reported in May of last year.
The stabilization of cases comes as Fairfax County picks up the pace of vaccinations. The county reported 119 new cases today (Monday) — a number that has remained relatively constant over the last week. Last May, daily case rates hovered in the 100s, similar to case rates that have occurred this March.
The county has said it can meet a deadline of May 1 for expanding eligibility for vaccine appointments to all adults, but officials remains noncommittal on whether or not every Fairfax County resident will receive a vaccine by May 31.
But the push for more vaccines continues. In a March 19 letter to Gov. Ralph Northam, the Northern Virginia Regional Commission urged the state health department to provide more vaccines.
“With additional doses allocated to our health districts immediately, we can put that capacity to work to quickly assist the Commonwealth in achieving its vaccination and equity goals,” the commission wrote.
Working w @GovernorVA and NoVA colleagues to up our vaccine doses. We're grateful for the increase these last few wks, but we still have over 300K in the region on the waitlist. We have the capacity to vaccinate equitably/efficiently and are working to get doses to meet demand. pic.twitter.com/p2N9EcH8rK
— Jeff McKay (@JeffreyCMcKay) March 19, 2021
Right now, the county is making appointments for people who registered on Feb. 18. 28 percent of the total people registered in the county still remain on a waiting list. That’s nearly 98,000 people of the 354,889 people registered.
132,307 people in Fairfax County are fully vaccinated and 248,323 people have received one dose. The county recently began administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which only requires one dose.
The county has also begun community vaccine clinics — which are not widely publicized — in order to target vulnerable populations.
The number of vaccinations has also picked up statewide. More than two million Virginians have received their first dose, and 1.1 million people are fully vaccinated.
The county also recently expanded eligibility criteria for vaccinations to include workers in manufacturing, grocery stores, and the food and agriculture industry.
As the pace of vaccinations picks up, the Centers for Disease Control has updated its policies on social distancing. Although the CDC still recommends universal masking, it now says students should maintain a distance of at least three feet in classroom settings, rather than the six-feet standard previously suggested.
Photo via Fairfax County Health Department/Twitter
Every Fairfax County resident should be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine appointment by May 1, but the timeline for when all those people will actually get the vaccine is less certain, according to a county official.
“We fully expect to meet the President’s deadline to open eligibility to every Fairfax County resident by May 1,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay wrote in a statement to Reston Now, Tysons Reporter’s affiliate site.
McKay credits the county’s growing supply of vaccine for giving it a chance to meet that ambitious target, which Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam says can be achieved statewide.
“Since the beginning, we have had the capacity to vaccinate tens of thousands of people a day. However, our vaccine supply didn’t match that,” he said. “Now that supply is ramping up, we will double down on our priority of getting shots in arms as quickly as possible.”
The Fairfax County Health Department announced yesterday (March 17) that it is now letting additional groups register for vaccine appointments. The department stated that it plans to move into phase 1c by mid-April before expanding eligibility to the general population in phase 2 on May 1.
Phase 1c includes other essential workers like those in energy, water and waste removal, housing and construction, and food service.
Virginia’s vaccination coordinator, Dr. Danny Avula, provided an even more optimistic timeline in an interview a week ago, saying that everyone who wants the vaccine should be able to get their first dose by May 31.
“We really think we will easily meet that May 1 marker and potentially even outpace it by a couple of weeks,” he said. “We’ll move into that open eligibility before the end of April and everybody who wants a vaccine should be able to be vaccinated by the end of May, at least with the first dose.”
McKay hesitated to commit to May 31 as an achievable deadline for everyone in Fairfax County to get at least one vaccine dose.
“We have no way to project that far out,” McKay told Reston Now. “But we’re certainly pushing for more doses, making tremendous progress, and working to meet to President’s charge to make everyone eligible by May 1.”
This week, the county is getting 43,000 vaccine doses from the state, an increase from last week’s 31,500 doses.
The pace of vaccinations is quickening in the county as private providers and retail pharmacies join the list of vaccine providers. A mass vaccination clinic run by Inova Health Systems is also expected to open by the end of the month.
Additionally, the county anticipates receiving doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by the end of the month, furthering increasing supply.
In total, the county has received 290,853 doses from the Commonwealth and has administered at least one dose to 270,213 people, approximately 23.5% of the county’s population.
