In today’s subscriber-sponsored public service announcement, the Albemarle County Solid Waste Alternatives Committee, or SWAAC, wants you to join the effort to clear up litter from the landscape as part of the Keep Virginia Beautiful initiative. SWAAC wants you to put on some gloves, grab a bag, take a walk, and pick up items that people have discarded. When you’re done, they want you to tell them how much you picked up, and where. Visit keepvirginiabeautiful.org to help SWAAC and other groups across the Commonwealth better address litter in our community.
In today’s show:
Highlights from Governor Ralph Northam’s March 23 press conference
The Blue Ridge Health District explains why they don’t want you to travel to another one for a dose
More information from the University of Virginia Health System
Today’s show focuses solely on the pandemic, and where we are as we continue through the 13th month of this experience. On Tuesday, Governor Ralph Northam announced the easing of some restrictions on human gatherings. (watch on YouTube)
“I’m optimistic about our numbers in Virginia,” Northam said.
Today the Virginia Department of Health reported 1,799 new cases of COVID-19, and the seven-day average for new cases is 1,411. The seven-day average for positive new tests is 5.6 percent, which is where it’s been for the last three weeks.
In Virginia, 14.2 percent of the population if fully vaccinated. Northam and First Lady Pam Northam are among that number, having received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine earlier this month.
“We were vaccinated a week ago Monday and we’re feeling great,” Northam said. “It’s exciting that our country now has three safe and effective vaccines and as we know, more may be coming.”
Northam said the federal government is increasing supply of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and more doses are on the way. On Tuesday he said mass vaccination centers have entered operations across the state, including one in Danville that we’ll hear about later in the program.
Northam touted their efficiency.
“If you’ve seen one of these mass clinics, you’ve probably been amazed at how well they’re run,” Northam said. “People guiding you where to park, where to check in, where to go next. The clinics I have seen and heard about have been well-oiled machines, and that is all do the hard work of thousands of people determined to get their fellow Virginians vaccinated as quickly as possible.”
Northam said Virginia is on track to open vaccinations to everybody by May 1.
“And I’m confident that we will exceed it,” Northam said. “When our country sets clear goals, we meet and exceed them. In fact, President Biden set a goal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days and our country met that goal in 58 days.”
Northam said the numbers are positive enough to begin to ease restrictions, beginning with the number of people who can gather at events. Beginning on April 1, changes will be made to the Forward Virginia plan.
“Starting on April 1, social gatherings may have up to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors,” Northam said.
That includes weddings.
“Entertainment venues will be able to operate at 30 percent of capacity and up to 500 people indoors. Outdoor venues can have up to 30 percent but won’t have a numeric cap,” he said.
Northam used the example of the Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball team, who play in a stadium that can hold up 9,500 people. The new rules would allow attendance of just over 3,000 people. The rules for sporting events are a little different, though.
“The number of spectators allowed for recreational sports will increase to 100 indoors, and to 500 outdoors,” Northam said. “Recreational sporting events indoors and outside will be limited to 30 percent of capacity.”
Northam said other measures are still in place, including the number of people who can gather as well as required face coverings.
Last week, leaders in Northern Virginia sent a letter to Northam asking why they weren’t getting more vaccines given that acceptance rates have not been as high in some areas of the Commonwealth. Dr. Danny Avula, the state’s vaccine coordinator, explained changes that are being made.
“This is certainly something we’ve been monitoring since the beginning of January,” Dr. Avula said. “We’ve primarily started the allocation process based on population and then made some tweaks here and there based on the number of people living in a community who are 65 and over, or with underlying conditions, or the concentration of Black and Latino residents in different communities. So we are now getting to a phase of the vaccination roll-out where we are seeing demand start to wane and I think that is happening more so in rural communities. We’ve seen uptake slow down and those communities are starting to move from 1B to 1C and in response we and we have been for the last couple of weeks kind of shifting allocations to places that have more 1B demand.”
But what about people who do not plan to get the vaccine when their time comes?
“We realize that and I continue to encourage folks that these are safe, they are effective, and that we need as a community, as a society to get to about 70 to 75 percent of individuals receiving the vaccine to get to that herd immunity,” Northam said.
Northam said another challenge will be how to get children vaccinated as they will need to be included in order to reach that goal.
“The clinical trials taking a look at the messenger RNA vaccines, the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines, have been started in children,” said Dr. Costi Sifri, the director of hospital epidemiology taking questions at a press briefing this morning.
“The clinical trials are really going to be looking in addition to this marker of immune response and antibody response, they’re really going to be designed to take a look at safety questions,” Dr. Sifri said.
Yesterday, the Virginia Department of Health confirmed that two COVID variants that originated in California have been identified in the Commonwealth. Dr. Sifri said the best ways to prevent them from spreading is to get vaccinated when the time comes, and to also continue to follow all of the protocols. As I said earlier, the percent positivity has been around 5.5 for the past several weeks.
“There’s a steady level of new COVID cases right now so we’re no longer decreasing in many locations and that’s true here in Virginia as well,” Dr. Sifri said. “I think it is accurate to describe it a race between variants and vaccines. I think the great news is that we have great vaccines and we’re set to push those out rapidly and what we’re waiting for right now is just more supply.”
Now we wait to see if the number of new cases begins dropping again, or whether a “spring surge” happens as large gatherings begin again. Dr. Reid Adams is UVA’s Chief Medical Officer. He said the reduced capacity at those large venues allows for people to be spaced out.
“It doesn’t get away from the fact that people need to continue to social distance, wash their hands, wear their mask, and do all of the things that we’ve been doing for the past year,” Dr. Adams said.
As spring does it thing, the beauty of blossoms cause many area residents to experience allergies, which share some of the same symptoms of COVID-19. Dr. Sifri recommended that people get tested for COVID to be on the safe side.
“I think it is important as you’re starting to have those symptoms to make sure that you know exactly what’s going on,” Dr. Sifri said. “So, if you are having typical allergy symptoms and it is the flowering tree that you’re used to reacting to, maybe it’s a reasonable presumption that is that but it also does not hurt to also just be tested to make sure.”
The Blue Ridge Health District held a press briefing on Thursday to explain why they do not want people who live here to travel to another health district to get vaccinations. But first, Dr. Denise Bonds gave a status update on vaccine availability. Remember that in February the health district was only getting about 3,000 doses a week. (watch the briefing)
“The Health Department received 1,300 first doses of Moderna and 1,100 second doses,” Dr. Bonds said. “Additionally we received 2,340 first doses of Pfizer and we have a little bit of Johnson and Johnson that is available to use for some vaccination this week but it’s not a sustained amount.”
Dr. Bonds said it is likely that increased allocations of vaccine will come in the form of the Johnson and Johnson shot.
Another change is that the UVA Health is once again receiving doses directly from the Virginia Department of Health.
“And UVA at Seminole Square will have 2,510 first doses of Pfizer, 1,170 second doses of Pfizer and 1,110 Moderna second doses,” Dr. Bonds said.
Ryan McKay, the operations director for the District, asked people to register now, regardless of where you are in the queue.
“Why this is important, one we want to understand and know who wants to get vaccinated but this helps determine allocation of vaccine to health districts across Virginia,” McKay said. “And so that data that is pulled from the state database helps inform the actual number of doses we may receive from one week to the next.”
Earlier this week, a social media post prompted a wave of people who live here driving elsewhere as part of a phenomenon known as “vaccine tourism.” Kathryn Goodman is the communications director for the Blue Ridge Health District.
“We’ve heard of a lot of different community members and students driving to Danville to get their first dose of the vaccine, and we’ve also heard from folks who are requesting that they can get their second dose here in Charlottesville,” Goodman said.
However, the statewide system does not work that way.
“Given the limited vaccine supply, we are unable to provide second doses for individuals who are going to these larger vaccination center clinics and that’s because our second doses relies on how many first doses are administered in our health district,” Goodman said. “So unfortunately we’re not able to provide those second doses and want to make sure people are aware of that.”
Goodman said she was aware many have claimed they went because they thought doses were not being used. She said the Virginia Department of Health is working to address allocation issues.
If people continue going outside of the district to get an unscheduled appointment, that could affect the supply that comes to the Blue Ridge Health District.
“If we have a large number of individuals that got their first dose elsewhere but come to us for their second dose, that’s going to reduce the number of first doses that we will have available for that period of time,” Dr. Bonds said.
For more on this specific issue, take a look at a press release sent out on Wednesday.
Near the end of the briefing, Goodman said she understood people’s frustration.
“The important piece behind this is that we everyone to be vaccinated,” Goodman said. “It’s just a matter of when everybody will be vaccinated, not if. If you want a vaccine, we will make sure you get one. It just has to take a little bit of time as it relies on our supply and the vaccine roll-out for vaccinating those who are at the greatest risk for death and disease first.”
And to put that in perspective for today, 70 percent of cases in the Blue Ridge Health District have been in people under the age of 50. Ninety-nine percent of the 200 fatalities have been in people over the age of 50.
March 26, 2021: Vaccinations in Virginia, caution against going to Danville