Henrico officials to state: 'Give us the shots – period'

Henrico officials are frustrated that state health leaders apparently are prioritizing COVID-19 vaccine doses for four new, strategically located state-run mass-vaccination sites ahead of the one the county has been operating itself for months at Richmond Raceway.

They’re also upset that localities that already have entered Phase 1C of the vaccination process are receiving more doses proportionate to their populations than Henrico is receiving in relation to its – even as Henrico continues to lead the state’s 10 largest localities in vaccine doses administered (more than 25,000 per every 100,000 citizens).

Their frustrations became evident in a public way Tuesday during a Henrico Board of Supervisors meeting, hours after county officials conveyed similar concerns in interviews with the Citizen.

Their chief complaint: that the two actions will delay the county’s vaccination process needlessly, making it more difficult to inoculate the tens of thousands of Henricoans who remain in Phases 1A and 1B and cause more delays advancing to Phases 1C and 2.

Henrico, officials said, already has proven that it can manage the vaccination process more effectively than any other state locality. The raceway was Virginia’s first mass-vaccination site, is its longest-running one and has administered more doses in a single day (just more than 7,000) than any other in Virginia.

Yet, state officials – who have held press conferences at the raceway several times to highlight its efficiencies – didn’t include the site in their initial group of community vaccination centers, which are designed to quickly and efficiently vaccinate large numbers of people in areas most affected by the virus. Four CVCs – in Petersburg, Prince William, Danville and Portsmouth opened recently, funded by the state and manned by contractors. Each is receiving as many as 18,000 weekly doses now.

Meanwhile, Henrico is paying for the operations at the raceway itself and vaccinating not only county residents there but those from several neighboring jurisdictions as well (using doses provided by those localities).

“We have shown we can do it,” Three Chopt Supervisor Tommy Branin said during Tuesday’s meeting, of the county’s vaccination efforts. “We have the capability to do it. We’re not asking for state funds to do it. Give us the shots – period. I don’t understand where the state gets confused with that.”

Said Board Chair Dan Schmitt, of the Brookland District: “The infrastructure that we have set up is there. To recreate a wheel that is ready to spin. . . like, it’s spinning. . . send ‘em there. It’s ready. If the state wants to make a quick impact for Commonwealth of Virginia residents, use the infrastructure that already exists. You have [a wheel] ready to spin – spin it."

'No doubt' raceway site could perform more daily vaccinations

Henrico officials now have formally asked the state to declare the raceway site a CVC so that it, too, can receive more doses.

Henrico Chief of Staff Cari Tretina told the Citizen Tuesday that the site could perform 10,000 vaccinations per day if it had the available doses.

“There’s no doubt in my mind,” she said.

Henrico Deputy County Manager for Public Safety Tony McDowell echoed those comments during the board meeting Tuesday night.

“We feel that we’re uniquely positioned to be a regional vaccination site because we have the proven capability to provide as many as 700 vaccinations per hour," McDowell said.

Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson said that while the understood the need for greater emphasis on vaccinations in places like Petersburg, which has a higher percentage of minorities, it shouldn’t be prioritized over Henrico, which also still has great needs – and which has proven it can meet them, if given a sufficient number of doses.

“So pretty much we are being short-changed so that these vaccination centers get the shots," Nelson said. "But that’s also hurting other communities.

“There are low-income Black and brown people who still haven't gotten shots in the Richmond Henrico Health Districts. We can't take less – we need more, because we've got the capacity. Why go backwards and not forward?"

Separately, the state’s other recent decision – to allow local health districts to enter Phase 1C of the vaccination process as they determine they’re able to do so – is having a negative ripple effect on available vaccine quantities in Henrico, too.

The Richmond and Henrico Health Districts operate as one for vaccination purposes, and they have received just more than 12,000 first doses of vaccine the past two weeks. That’s the same quantity they’ll receive next week, they learned Tuesday, because they aren’t yet in Phase 1C.

But other localities that have entered that phase are now receiving more doses, proportionate to the number of their citizens eligible.

The RHHD, however, still has tens of thousands of people eligible to be vaccinated in Phases 1A and 1B, meaning it can’t move to 1C until sometime in April, according to RHHD Nurse Manager Amy Popovich. And it can’t simply look at the number who have pre-registered, she said – it must account for a portion of others who may not have access to the internet to pre-register or who simply may not have done so yet for any number of other reasons.

A total of 11,800 doses of vaccine will be administered at the raceway during the next four days – first doses Wednesday and Saturday, second doses Thursday and Friday, McDowell told the board. Workers there will "barely break a sweat" doing that number, he said, after Schmitt pointed out that based on its 7,000-dose day last week, 28,000 doses would be possible there during the next four days.

Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas told supervisors Tuesday that he would set up a call with state officials, including vaccine coordinator Danny Avula (Henrico's health director) in the coming days to discuss the county's concerns.