Henrico reaches 70% COVID vaccination threshold

Days before the Fourth of July – the target date set by President Joe Biden for at least 70% of adults 18 and older to have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine – Henrico County has reached that mark.

The county climbed past the 70% threshold on the first day of July, according to Richmond and Henrico Health Districts Nurse Manager Amy Popovich, who said Thursday that 70.2% of adults in the county now have had at least one dose. Just more than 61% of adults in Henrico are fully vaccinated.

In June, the number of Henricoans receiving their first dose of vaccine grew steadily by about 2,000 per week.

Many of those who are getting their vaccinations now are doing so at pharmacies, Popovich said, praising the number of accessible options available to the public.

In addition, the RHHD continues to conduct walk-up vaccination events at various community sites and remains available on an on-call basis with its “Cool Cube Crew” to bring a small refrigerator with vaccines to community gatherings by request. It also will offer vaccinations at Henrico's Red, White and Lights Fourth of July celebration.

And yesterday, the health districts partnered with Henrico County Public Schools to offer the first of four planned in-school vaccination events in Henrico middle schools for those 12 and older. (Other vaccination events, which also include required vaccinations for students returning to school this fall, are planned July 7, 21 and 28.)

Nearly half of Henrico children between the ages of 12 and 17 already have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, while nearly 35% are fully vaccinated, according to RHHD data.

News of the growing spread of the new delta variant of COVID – a much more transmissible version of the virus with origins in India – may be prompting people who hadn’t yet gotten a vaccine to do so now, Popovich said.

Although that variant isn’t currently presenting much of a threat in Central Virginia (where it’s believed to account for less than 4% of all COVID cases, according to Popovich), it accounts for more than 20% of all cases nationally, according to federal health officials, who expect that total to continue growing – especially in areas in which vaccination rates are lower than average.

As vaccination rates in Henrico have risen, COVID cases have dwindled steadily. Between May 1 and June 29, there were only five days on which at least 30 new cases were reported in the county.

But a total of 80 new cases were reported in Henrico during the past two days (36 on June 30 and 44 on July 1) – almost the same number of new cases reported during the previous seven days (83), according to the Virginia Department of Health

No virus-related deaths have been reported in the county since two were June 25.

Henrico’s seven-day positivity percentage among PCR testing encounters during the most recent seven-day period is just 1.3%, while the same percentage among rapid tests is 4%, according to the VDH.

Popovich expects that once the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines earn full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a number of people who are waiting for that to occur will get vaccinated. But even though both companies filed for full approval several weeks ago, they may not be granted it until the end of the year.

A study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation concluded that about one-third of people who are not yet vaccinated said they’d be more likely to get vaccinated if one of the vaccines earned full approval.

Though the start of July brought an end to Virginia’s state of emergency related to COVID, some restrictions do remain in place, such as the requirement that K-12 students and children 5 and older wear masks indoors at schools and daycare facilities.