RICHMOND, Va. (AP/WRIC) — The Virginia Department of Health is now planning to receive fewer COVID-19 vaccines than originally expected.
The state will now get 370,650 COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna by the end of December — this is down from the previously expected 480,000 doses. The health department was notified by Operation Warp Spread of the change late Thursday.
Virginia is one of more than a dozen states that were told by the federal government that next week’s shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine would be less than originally projected. Little explanation was offered.
Pfizer issued a statement late Thursday saying the company isn’t having issues in production or distribution.
“Pfizer is not having any production issues with our COVID-19 vaccine, and no shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed. This week, we successfully shipped all 2.9 million doses that we were asked to ship by the U.S. Government to the locations specified by them. We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses,” the company said in a statement.
Earlier this week, the state received 72,125 initial vaccine doses from Pfizer that were distributed to frontline healthcare workers.
VDH said the state has already placed an order for 146,400 doses of the Moderna vaccine, which if approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), will begin arriving the week of December 21.
Virginia’s healthcare workers and long term care facility residents remain top priority groups, state health officials said.
- The CDC said it is about 50% more contagious than the virus that is causing the bulk of cases in this country so far.
- New Jersey made millions of people eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine, including smokers, a move that prompted gripes about them skipping to the front of the inoculation line.
- Almost 3,000 people have signed a petition calling for Chesterfield County Public Schools to reconsider their decision to allow elementary schools to resume full-time in-person learning on Feb. 1. The petition, organized by parents, is a call to protect teachers.
- Today, Virginia State University welcomed students back to campus with new safety measures in place. The university is just one of several colleges implementing procedures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
- Thousands of registrations for the upcoming COVID-19 vaccine event at Richmond Raceway have been canceled after people who were not eligible for the event received a signup link in error and used it to register for the vaccine.
- The coronavirus vaccines have been rolled out unevenly across the U.S., but four states in the Deep South have had particularly dismal inoculation rates that have alarmed health experts and frustrated residents.
- Many states and counties ask people to make appointments online, but glitchy websites, overwhelmed phone lines and a patchwork of fast-changing rules are bedeviling older people who are often less tech-savvy, may live far from vaccination sites and are more likely to not have internet access at all, especially people of color and those who […]
- The global death toll from COIVID-19 topped 2 million Friday as vaccines developed at breakneck speed are being rolled out around the world in an all-out campaign to vanquish the threat.
- Some have complained that people from outside of the county are taking up appointment slots in Hillsborough County.
- COVID-19 related deaths in the Commonwealth have increased by 15, bringing the total number of Virginians who have lost their lives to 5,656.
