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Richmond water crisis shuts down many restaurants, businesses
Jan. 9 update: Richmond starts water testing, but city remains under boil water advisory “Dry January” became all too literal in Richmond, where most city residents and businesses were struggling with a water outage that started Monday afternoon and was still leaving much of a city with a population of more than 225,000 people without […]
Avula tapped as Va. social services commissioner
Dr. Danny Avula, the director of Richmond and Henrico County‘s health districts and the state’s former COVID vaccine coordinator, has accepted Gov. Glenn Youngkin‘s appointment to become commissioner of the state’s Department of Social Services, the health districts announced Friday. In January 2021, Avula was given responsibility for organizing the state’s COVID-19 v[...]
VDH funds $5 million for new COVID-19 testing centers
As COVID infection rates reach record numbers from the omicron variant, the Virginia Department of Health will open nine new COVID-19 community testing centers across the state to increase testing availability, Gov. Ralph Northam’s office announced Thursday. The centers will offer polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, considered the most reliable type of COVID-19 test. The […]
Moderna, J&J booster shots now available in Va.
Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 booster shots are now available in Virginia, the Virginia Department of Health announced Friday. Dr. Danny Avula, the state’s vaccination liaison, said in a statement that pharmacies, doctors’ offices, hospitals and other providers are prepared for the rollout of the booster shots, which has been in the works for […]
Va. rolls out digital proof for vaccinations
The Virginia Department of Health has started adding scannable QR codes to COVID-19 vaccination records, digitizing the proof-of-vaccination process, the state announced Thursday. VDH said QR codes available now cannot be altered or forged, and health information is available from the codes only if and when a person chooses to share it. Businesses or organizations […]
Statewide COVID vaccine registration site launched
The Virginia Department of Health launched its COVID-19 vaccine registration system Tuesday, available at vaccinate.virginia.gov. A phone hotline will open Wednesday, allowing Virginians who don’t have reliable internet access to register for the vaccine. The site comes after local health districts had set up local sites for residents to register for vaccines, which are currently […]
Virginia has administered 50K+ COVID-19 vaccine doses so far
Having received 285,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses from two manufacturers, Virginia has distributed more than 54,000 doses in the past two weeks. Nationally, there’s been frustration with the vaccine rollout, which has been slower than expected. The Trump administration had pledged that 20 million doses of the vaccine would be administered across the country by the […]
First batch of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine distributed in Va.
Virginia health districts and health care facilities statewide began receiving the newly approved Moderna COVID-19 vaccine this week, Virginia Department of Health announced Tuesday. About 140,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine were expected to arrive by Wednesday, as well as 50,000 more doses of the Pfizer Inc. vaccine, which will be distributed to 96 sites […]
Virginia leads nation in COVID-19 app use
Amid grim headlines related to the coronavirus, Virginia has one piece of bright news — the commonwealth leads the nation in the percentage of citizens who have downloaded a COVID-19 app to alert users about possible instances of exposure to the coronavirus. According to a Dec. 7 report from The New York Times, a higher […]
Three Va. labs selected for OneLab Network
The state Department of General Services and Virginia Department of Health awarded three Virginia laboratories contracts to participate in the state’s new OneLab Network, aimed to expand the commonwealth’s COVID-19 testing capacity, the departments announced Tuesday. The OneLab Network, established by DGS’ Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services (DCLS) and VDH, formalizes a [...]
Northam directs $22M to future COVID vaccine program
While COVID-19 vaccines have yet to be approved in the United States, Gov. Ralph Northam announced Friday that the state government has earmarked $22 million in federal CARES Act to establish a statewide program to distribute vaccines once they’re ready. The commonwealth submitted its draft vaccination plan to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention […]
