29 Virginia healthcare organizations urge residents to be vaccinated against COVID-19

Twenty-nine Virginia healthcare organizations Wednesday issued an urgent vaccination plea to state residents who are eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19 but who so far have not been.

The organizations warned that while more than 4.5 million Virginians (more than half the state’s population) have been fully vaccinated, many others who are eligible have not been, which is placing them and others who can’t be vaccinated in danger, as the highly contagious delta variant of the virus becomes more dominant.

“That’s why it’s so important for unvaccinated Virginians to make a plan to be vaccinated against COVID-19, particularly as Virginia and other states have begun to experience a rise in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations,” the statement read. “Those developments are coinciding with more people venturing back in public and the emerging prominence of viral mutations such as the delta variant that is now said to be responsible for the majority of new infections.”

New COVID cases in Virginia have been on the upswing most of this month, nearly quadrupling from an average of 176 per day July 1 to 678 per day July 21.

New cases in Henrico appeared to spike July 20 and 21 – with 50 and 35 reported, respectively – following two days with only three new cases in total and nearly two weeks when more than 20 new cases were reported on only three days.

It wasn’t immediately known, however, whether the 85 cases reported as new actually represented new cases or were older cases just recently attributed to Henrico citizens. Earlier this month, cases in the county appeared to spike for several days, but it turned out to be simply a data adjustment from cases weeks or months earlier, prompted by a statewide review and update of case data.

As of Wednesday, the Virginia Department of Health reported that Henrico was averaging 35 new daily cases, up from -4 per day just a week earlier (a number that resulted from another data correction that moved prior cases that had been attributed to Henrico into other localities).

“COVID-19 continues to pose the greatest health risks to people who have not been vaccinated, with officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now describing it as a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated,’” the 29 organizations wrote in their statement Wednesday. “Virginia Department of Health data likewise shows that since late January when vaccines first became available to the general public in the Commonwealth, the vast majority of cases (99.4 percent), hospitalizations (99 percent), and deaths (99.3 percent) have occurred among people who have not been vaccinated.”

“Being vaccinated against COVID-19 represents a path to a healthier post-pandemic world by offering the best available protection for people against serious illness, the spread of infection, hospitalization, or worse health outcomes. Getting vaccinated offers protection to those who have been inoculated as well as the people around them in their personal and professional lives.”

Among the organizations that issued the statement: the Medical Society of Virginia, the Richmond Academy of Medicine, the Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Virginia Chapter of the American College of Surgeons, the Virginia Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the Virginia College of Emergency Physicians and the Virginia Community Healthcare Association.

Also Wednesday, the state’s departments of education and health issued a joint statement indicating that although a state mandate requiring students five and older in public and private school settings to wear masks will be allowed to expire July 25, they’re still encouraging localities to require masks for all students and teachers – regardless of their vaccination status – for the coming school year.

To learn more about COVID-19 vaccination opportunities, visit https://vaccinate.virginia.gov/.