Virginia could receive 431,000 COVID vaccine doses week of March 1

March begins Monday, and it could bring with it a boatload of COVID-19 vaccine doses in Virginia.

The state could receive as many as 431,000 or more total doses of vaccine, state vaccine coordinator and Henrico Health Department Director Danny Avula said during a press briefing Friday afternoon.

Those doses would break down thusly:

• 180,000 total first doses from Moderna and Pfizer;

• 130,000 total second doses from the two companies;

• 52,000 first doses for use by CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Kroger, Food Lion and a number of other partner pharmacies statewide;

•  69,000 doses of the new one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which earned emergency-use approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Friday.

In addition, several community health centers in the state also are expected to receive an unknown quantity of doses, Avula said.

The supply of Johnson & Johnson doses is expected to drop off during the second and third weeks of March, Avula said, but should pick up again and return to next week’s anticipated level by the last week of March.

Nearly all of the new pharmacy and grocery store partners, except for Albertson’s (which has no Richmond-area locations) are able to work with the Virginia Department of Health to register people who have already pre-registered with their local health departments or through the state’s new pre-registration list, Avula said.

State officials anticipate that they'll be able to complete vaccination efforts for all portions of Phase 1B by mid-April.