Phase 1B vaccinations could last into April, Henrico official says

Unless the amount of available COVID-19 vaccine increases significantly, it could be March or April before Henrico County completes inoculations in Phase 1B of the process, Henrico Deputy Manager for Public Safety Tony McDowell told the Henrico Board of Supervisors Tuesday night.

The Richmond and Henrico health districts are receiving a total of just 6,400 doses weekly for the foreseeable future to cover both of the two localities. Of those doses, about half are going to seniors 65 and older, 40% to frontline workers (public safety employees, child care and education workers) and 10% to residents and employees of shelters and jails.

But more than 60,000 people in the Henrico and Richmond health districts who qualify for Phase 1B have either registered for vaccinations or submitted an interest form through the districts’ website at http://vax.rchd.com, according to Richmond and Henrico health districts’ Nurse Manager Amy Popovich.

The website remains open for people who qualify for the first portion of Phase 1B to express an interest in being vaccinated; others who qualify for a later segment of the phase (including anyone 16 to 64 with pre-existing conditions) will be able to complete the form as more doses become available, RHHD spokesperson Cat Long told the Citizen Wednesday.

Also Wednesday, Henrico officials began their second week of mass vaccinations at Richmond Raceway, where they anticipate administering about 4,000 total doses to frontline workers from Henrico, Richmond, Hanover and Goochland, according to Henrico Chief of Emergency Management and Workplace Safety Jackson Baynard.

The doses for Henrico and Richmond employees are coming from their joint health districts’ allotment, while those for Hanover and Goochland employees are coming from the allotment provided to the Chickahominy Health District, which includes both of those localities, Baynard said.

Henrico officials are following the direction of the Virginia Department of Health and local health districts in determining who to vaccinate, he said.

“We’ll defer to Health if they say to focus on a different health category,” he said.

Some people who had originally been scheduled for vaccinations this week had to be bumped back to next week because of the limited allotment, he said, without specifying the exact number.

Officials intend to operate the raceway events each Wednesday through Friday going forward, Baynard said, unless the supply of vaccine changes.

At last night’s meeting, Henrico supervisors thanked the county employees who have been working to organize vaccination efforts in the county. Henrico is Virginia’s seventh-largest locality but has vaccinated more people (23,650) than every other locality in the state except for Fairfax County (the largest).

“Give us the vaccine. Give us as much of it as possible and we’ll show you that we can. . . get as many shots in arms as possible,” Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson said, directing his comments to any state officials who might hear them. “I know we’re chomping at the bit waiting for. . . the vaccines to show up in mass quantity, and once it does, Henrico will do what we can to get as many people vaccinated.”

Added board chair and Brookland Supervisor Dan Schmitt: “I believe we can prove that we can get a ton of people vaccinated when we get those doses.”

Within the Richmond and Henrico health districts, officials have established connections with 15 medical practices that are ready to administer vaccine doses, according to Amy Popovich, the nurse manager for the districts. Given the dearth of available vaccine, however, plans to use those locations are on hold, but officials are working to add other practices to the group in the meantime, in preparation for the day when more doses are available.

Officials with the health districts are prioritizing people for vaccinations not on a first-come, first-served basis, Popovich said, but rather according to who faces the highest risk of COVID-19 infection.

“We are taking an equitable approach,” she said.

The Virginia Department of Health offers a vaccine portal through which state residents can determine the vaccination phase for which they’re eligible. Initially, that portal also offered them the chance to submit their personal information to register for the process, but the agency shut down that portion of the site recently.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced that it would increase the weekly supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses to states from 8.6 million to 10 million – an average of 28,000 more doses per state per week, though doses won't be distributed evenly state by state.

Virginia is receiving just 105,000 doses weekly, or about 1.2% of the weekly national doses. If the new doses are allocated at the same rate, the state would receive about 17,100 more doses.

If the state also distributes those extra doses at the same rate it’s doing so currently (based upon population levels), the Henrico and Richmond health districts would receive about 1,036 additional doses each week.

The Biden administration also announced that it had placed orders for a total of 200 million additional doses of vaccine from Pfizer and Moderna and expected to have enough doses to fully vaccinate 300 million people by late summer.