Henrico begins mass vaccination efforts at Richmond Raceway

About 4,000 educators and public safety officials from Henrico, Hanover, Richmond and Goochland are receiving their first of two COVID-19 vaccination doses this week at Richmond Raceway, as part of a three-day mass vaccination event hosted by the Henrico County.

It started Wednesday at 8 a.m., a day after the Virginia Department of Health had hosted its own vaccination event at the raceway, and will continue though Friday.

The events underscored the start this week of Phase 1B of vaccinations in the region and are the beginning of what county officials anticipate being a long-term effort to inoculate large numbers of people as quickly as possible.

The one unknown, however, is a big one: How many doses of vaccine will the county receive week by week?

Henrico officials originally were planning for a total of 13,000 doses to be administered this week at the raceway, between county-run and VDH-run events. That number was cut by more than half, however, after the state adopted new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control to include those 65-74 in the second phase, thereby necessitating that available doses be spread statewide in greater numbers than anticipated. (Previously it had only included those 75 and older, in addition to nine groups of frontline workers.)

County officials had requested 6,000 doses of vaccine for their own three-day effort this week but ended up with 4,000, Henrico Chief of Emergency Management and Workplace Safety Jackson Baynard told the Citizen Wednesday afternoon. They are prepared to administer as many as 18,000 doses at the raceway during six days next week (Tuesday through Sunday), he said, but have asked for 12,000 and are hopeful they’ll receive at least 8,000.

“We’re showing regional cooperation and collaboration,” Baynard said, “so hopefully that’s recognized.”

[maxgallery id="50526"]

Despite an initial slip-up last week – a registration link for the raceway events intended only for those eligible was instead shared widely online, allowing 6,000 ineligible people to register – the process since has been a smooth one, Baynard said. County officials erred on the conservative side, initially registering only 4,000 people this week, figuring they could register more if additional doses of vaccine arrived.

Vaccinations are scheduled in 15-minute time slots, Baynard said. Those arriving to be vaccinated enter the main gate at the raceway, where officials confirm their appointment times and direct them to a staging area. When their time slot is near, a staff member directs all people in that slot to exit their vehicles and walk inside the Old Dominion Building, which officials are using to conduct all vaccinations.

There, staffers again confirm their identities and appointment times and either direct them to holding areas or send them immediately to vaccination tables. Afterwards, most people are directed to sit in their vehicles for 15 minutes to ensure they don’t have any negative reactions, while those who may be at greater risk for such responses are taken to an observation area within the building for 30 minutes, Baynard said.

During the first seven hours or so of inoculations Wednesday, no one had presented with an adverse reaction, he said.

Henrico Public Relations Director Ben Sheppard told the Citizen that he timed the process today at just six minutes for one person from the time of entrance to the building to exit.

Henrico officials opted to divide the number of registrants from the four localities proportionally each day based upon the population size of each one, Baynard said, to be as equitable as possible in determining who would be inoculated when.

Henrico County Public Schools employs more than 10,000 people, and the county’s police, fire and sheriff’s office employee several thousand more, though Baynard didn’t know exactly how many in total from those four groups had elected to receive vaccinations.

Factoring in the employees from the same groups in Richmond, Hanover and Goochland, he said it likely would take at least a third week of mass vaccinations at the raceway to finish the first round of shots for all those among those groups who chose to receive them.

State officials are requesting upwards of 300,000 new doses of vaccine each week but have been telling localities this week that they anticipate receiving only 100,000 weekly for at least the next several weeks.