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Tag: Virginia Department of Health

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 vaccination campaign, which at the time was lagging behind the rest of the nation due to extreme demand and low supplies of vaccine doses. Avula became a familiar face at then-Gov. Ralph Northam’s press conferences, providing updates on the efforts to get Virginians vaccinated against the coronavirus. As of October 2021, the state was 10th in the nation for percentage of population vaccinated.

“I’m incredibly excited to serve Virginia in this new capacity with the Department of Social Services; so much of the support that ultimately impacts families’ health and resilience lies within DSS,” Avula said in a statement Friday. “That said, it’s bittersweet to close out my time with Richmond and Henrico Health Districts. It’s been life-giving to see the dedication of my team and all they’ve been able to accomplish; I’m in awe of them and am proud to have worked alongside them. Richmond and Henrico communities are left in capable and caring hands.”

Avula stepped down as vaccine coordinator just before the end of Northam’s term in January, returning to his position as director of the health districts, which he has led since 2016. He has previously served as a member of the State Board of Social Services and as chair from 2017 to 2019. Avula received degrees in medicine and public health from Virginia Commonwealth University and Johns Hopkins University, and he completed his undergraduate education at the University of Virginia.

He replaces Duke Storen as commissioner of social services, which oversees child welfare, workforce programs, licensing of child care and adult living facilities, refugee assistance, benefit programs and other initiatives focused on easing poverty, abuse and neglect. Dr. Melissa Viray will be the acting director of the Richmond and Henrico Health Districts, having served as deputy director since 2017.

 

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 initial $5 million in funding will come from VDH, which is seeking FEMA funding to reimburse the expenses and continue testing.

The testing locations will be near or on the same property as existing VDH community vaccination centers in Charlottesville, Chesterfield County, Fairfax County, Fredericksburg, Newport News, Norfolk, Prince William County, Richmond and Roanoke that have been operating since October.

The new centers will administer more than 50,000 tests in January and operate four to six days per week, open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., depending on the location. The first one will open Saturday at the Richmond International Raceway (Gate 7, on Carolina Avenue) with eight additional sites open in the coming weeks.

Results will be sent via text or email.

VDH urges anyone with symptoms or who has been in contact with someone with COVID-19 to be tested.

As of Thursday, 1.2 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Virginia, with more than 15,000 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, according to VDH. More than 11.3 million Virginians have been tested via PCR tests and the current 7-day positivity rate is 33.6%.

 

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 months now. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the two boosters. The CDC also said that people can choose any of the three boosters now authorized, regardless of which vaccine they received originally.

Pfizer Inc.’s booster was approved several weeks ago for those who received Pfizer vaccine doses earlier this year.

VDH issued these guidelines Friday: “For individuals who received either a Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, a single booster is recommended at least six months after completion of their initial series for those populations who are 65 years of age and older, those living in long-term care facilities and those 18 years of age and up who are at increased risk due to underlying medical conditions or where they work or live. A single booster is recommended at least two months after completion of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccines for those 18 years of age and up.”

In addition to pharmacies and health care providers, the state also has community vaccination centers set up across the commonwealth, Avula said.

“If you decide to get a booster dose by mixing and matching, VDH urges you to consult with your doctor or health care provider who can assist you in making the best decision for your own situation,” he said. “We also stress that all three vaccines authorized for administration in the United States are highly effective in preventing severe COVID-19 illness, hospitalization and death.”

Currently, everyone ages 12 or older is eligible for vaccination, although vaccines for children ages 5 to 11 are expected to be approved soon by the CDC. More information, including where free vaccines can be located, is available at vaccinate.virginia.gov.

As of Friday, 5.9 million Virginians have received at least one vaccine dose, and 74% of the adult population is fully vaccinated, while 334,081 people have received a third dose, according to VDH.

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 can download a free verification app to scan codes.

Previously, people vaccinated in Virginia had to show paper cards when asked to provide proof of their vaccination status, but QR — short for “quick response” — codes commonly used in retail and logistics sectors let anyone to show proof of vaccination with a digital or printed code. Virginia is the fifth state in the nation to use the SMART Health format for QR codes. Starting Thursday, any person vaccinated in the state can visit vaccinate.virginia.gov to obtain their free vaccination record with QR code, which can then be saved to a phone gallery, printed on paper or stored in a compatible account, according to VDH.

Many employers and universities have required workers and students be vaccinated with few exceptions, and Gov. Ralph Northam mandated that the 122,000 state executive branch employees get vaccinated by Sept. 1 or be required to show proof of negative COVID tests weekly.

Similarly, President Joe Biden has ordered federal employees to be vaccinated or be tested weekly for the coronavirus, as well as a White House-mandated emergency rule requiring private sector businesses with 100 or more employees to make their workers get vaccinated or be tested regularly. Republican governors, however, have pushed back against the strategy, which would affect about 100 million Americans in total, and some have threatened to sue.

Virginia’s QR codes are available to anyone whose vaccination record includes a working phone number and is entered in the Virginia Immunization Information System, which tracks nearly all doses of the three vaccines administered in Virginia, with the exception of shots administered by certain federal agencies or Virginians who got vaccinated outside the state. Anyone whose record cannot be retrieved automatically can call 877-VAX-IN-VA (877-829-4682, TTY users call 7-1-1) for assistance.

As of Thursday, 58% of Virginia’s population is fully vaccinated, and more than 10.2 million vaccine doses have been administered in the state. Everyone age 12 or older is eligible to be vaccinated.

 

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 available to people age 65 and older, as well as others in high-priority groups such as teachers, medical responders, transportation and grocery store workers. Those local registration sites — with the exception of the Fairfax Health Department, which is maintaining its own system — are now closed, although VDH officials say that people on local health department waiting lists do not need to re-register on the new statewide site.

“Data migration is continuing throughout the week and it may take several days for your name to appear in the centralized system,” VDH reports. “Everyone who has previously registered is still on the list, and their status will not be affected.”

Virginians age 65 and older who want to register for a vaccine dose available through CVS pharmacies must still register for an appointment through CVS’ national appointment system because of technological limits.

VDH anticipates high traffic on the new registration site Tuesday and encouraged anyone who isn’t able to enter their information to try again later. On the site, there are a series of questions seeking the following information: name, address, type of residence (including long-term care facilities), type of job (including professions at higher risk), underlying health conditions, race, age and ethnicity. English and Spanish are both available.

Registrants can select automated updates by phone, email or text that will occur weekly as long as they are on the list to be vaccinated; they can also check their status at vaccinate.virginia.gov and click “Check the List” at the top of the page. VDH says that migration of information from local health districts is still taking place Tuesday and that information may not yet be available on the site.

Although about half of Virginia’s population is now eligible for vaccination, demand for doses far outstrips supply. The state is receiving about 140,000 doses per week from the federal government, and as of Tuesday, 1,047,780 people have received at least one dose of the two-shot vaccine, or 12.3% of the population.

Gov. Ralph Northam will provide an update Wednesday on the new site and the VDH hotline, which will be manned by a 700-person call center, according to earlier reports.

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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 end of the year. As of early Dec. 30, only 11 million doses had been shipped and less than three million had been reportedly administered. Virginia was expecting to receive a total of 370,000 doses before the end of the year.

Asked about Virginia’s efforts during a press briefing Wednesday, Christy Gray, the Virginia Department of Health’s immunization division director, said that there was likely a lag in the commonwealth’s reporting of its administered doses due to logistical issues, and that VDH had been working with health care providers to troubleshoot issues around the new program.

“We do expect that the number of doses administered is actually higher,” she said. “47,000 doses in two weeks is not a small number, and we are proud of our Virginia providers for accomplishing that.”

Gray also fielded questions about Virginia receiving fewer vaccine doses than originally promised. Initially, VDH had been told it would receive 480,000 doses by the year’s end; the number was later changed to 370,000. “The number did decrease [by] approximately 100,000 doses, so we have had to update our strategy,” she said.

Presently, Virginia is in what VDH calls “Phase 1a” of the vaccine rollout, during which only health care workers, employees who work in similar settings and residents of long-term care facilities will be receiving the vaccine. Gray said that long-term care facilities will begin receiving vaccinations in the coming weeks. The recommendations for the criteria for Phase 1b and Phase 1c are currently being finalized. Phase 2 will be comprised of the general public. Gray said no timeline could be provided for the other phases of vaccinations.

Last week, Virginia established a vaccine dashboard, allowing the public to see how many vaccine doses have been administered so far. The two vaccines approved in the United States so far are manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna; both require two rounds of vaccine doses.

Gray said that those who received vaccinations would be entered into Virginia’s free statewide vaccine database, which would help ensure that Virginians receive a correct and timely second dose, and serve as proof of vaccination.

In spite of skepticism about the speedy production of the coronavirus vaccines, Gray said all scientific protocols had been upheld, and that the vaccines had been approved “without corners being cut.”

“We have not heard any serious adverse effects in Virginia with either of these vaccines,” she said.

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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 across the state. Last week, an initial shipment of 72,000 Pfizer vaccine doses was distributed to 18 hospitals in Virginia, with the first shots going to frontline medical workers caring directly for COVID-19 patients.

The additional batch of the Moderna vaccine, which doesn’t require the same special ultra-cold storage as Pfizer, will allow long-term care facility (LTCF) workers and residents to be vaccinated. Most Virginia nursing homes are taking part in the federal LTCF Pharmacy Partnership Program, which brings teams from CVS and Walgreens to administer shots onsite at the facilities, beginning the week of Dec. 28, according to VDH.

The federal vaccine task force, Operation Warp Speed, is expected to send about 100,000 vaccine doses each week (50,000 of each vaccine) to Virginia for the next few weeks, but VDH cautions that the actual amount of vaccine received here is “a moving target and is dependent on when and how quickly vaccination doses are manufactured.” At the start of the month, VDH officials announced that the state would get 480,000 doses by the end of the year, but revised the estimate to 370,650 doses.

Health care providers and workers at hospitals in COVID units, followed by long-term care facility residents and employees, are on the top priority lists for vaccinations in Virginia and in other states; in the commonwealth, the populations number about 500,000. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance this week from a panel of doctors and public health experts, setting priority vaccinations. After frontline care givers and long-term care facility residents and workers receive the vaccine, the next populations in line for COVID-19 vaccinations would be people ages 75 and older and about 30 million “frontline essential workers,” including grocery store workers, teachers and emergency responders. Others — including people age 65 to 74 and those with serious health conditions — will follow these groups, and Virginia public health officials expect the vaccines to be broadly available by summer 2021.

Roanoke Fire Chief David Hoback gets his COVID-19 vaccine shot on Dec. 23.

“Vaccines are our way out of this pandemic. With Pfizer-BioNTech and now Moderna vaccines available, more Virginians are able to get vaccinated,” State Health Commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver said in a statement. “The interest we are seeing from community members on when they can get vaccinated indicates people want this protection. We are working hard to get vaccines to people as quickly as possible. In the meantime, please continue to wear a face mask, practice social distancing and wash your hands frequently.”

The Richmond region — including the Richmond, Henrico, Chickahominy and Chesterfield health districts — received its first shipment of vaccine doses Tuesday. Local health districts will offer closed vaccination events and clinics into the new year, health officials said, but cautioned Virginians to “remain vigilant in COVID-19 prevention practices.”

Roanoke city and Alleghany health districts held their first vaccination event for up to 300 EMS workers in the region, as well as fire chiefs from Allegheny, Botetourt, Craig and Roanoke counties and the cities of Roanoke and Salem. Roanoke Fire Chief David Hoback called it “a monumental day.”

“It’s been hard on not only this community and but on our nation. This is another step in slowing the process and ending the pandemic,” he says. “Fire and EMS personnel are often on the front line.”

VDH announced Wednesday that its COVID-19 dashboard will include data on how many people have been administered the vaccines, as well as which localities have received vaccine doses and how many. According to the Dec. 23 update, 227,425 total doses have been distributed throughout the state, and 19,943 people have been vaccinated with one dose. Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are completed with two shots, so no one has yet been fully vaccinated, according to VDH.

Despite vaccines becoming available, Virginia is under increased restrictions due to a significant rise in the number of cases and deaths, especially in Southwest Virginia. As of Wednesday, the state has recorded 314,481 total cases and 4,705 deaths, and the average number of daily new cases is 3,842 per day over the past week, while 610.6 new cases per 100,000 people have been reported in the last two weeks, according to VDH. The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association reported 2,586 people are currently hospitalized with COVID or are awaiting test results throughout the state, while 33% of ventilators are in use and 81% of ICU beds are occupied by people with COVID and without the virus.

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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 percentage of Virginians have downloaded the state’s COVIDWISE coronavirus exposure app, compared with apps offered by other states. As of Dec. 10, nearly 900,000 people had downloaded Virginia’s free mobile app.

Developed by the Virginia Department of Health in partnership with California-based tech company SpringML Inc., COVIDWISE notifies app users if they have been in close proximity with another individual who has tested positive for COVID-19. COVIDWISE launched on Aug. 5, making Virginia the first state to unveil a coronavirus app using a contact tracing system jointly developed by Apple Inc. and Google LLC using Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) technology.

Once someone downloads the app and opts into its notification system, COVIDWISE generates an anonymous token for the user’s Android or iOS device. These anonymous tokens change every 10 to 20 minutes to ensure that they can’t be used to identify a user’s location. Devices that come in proximity with each other exchange tokens via Bluetooth LE technology. Twice a day, the app checks these tokens against those associated with COVID-19 cases over the past 14 days.

COVIDWISE cost $229,000 to develop and has a maintenance and operation fee of $29,000 to keep it working over the next year.

Even after the “honeymoon period” of the initial launch, Jeff Stover, executive adviser to Virginia’s health commissioner, says downloads of the app have been steady, usually averaging between 2,000 and 5,000 new downloads per day. As of Dec. 10, 10,643 notifications had gone out warning users of potential exposures.

Though The New York Times estimated that nearly 10% of Virginians had downloaded COVIDWISE, Stover says VDH puts its own figure higher. Looking specifically at the age group of Virginians who would mostly likely have a smartphone — 18- to 65-year-olds — and estimating that about 20% of people in that age group don’t have a smartphone, Stover says 21% of all probable Virginians have downloaded the app.

Stover says the fact that Virginia got its app developed so quickly has helped.

“We were first in the country to do this, so we were fortunate in that regard,” he says. “One of the pros in going first was we got a fair amount of media coverage from that, and that’s been good for marketing.”

Virginia has also spent $1.5 million marketing COVIDWISE, including promotions via social media, traditional media, billboards, bus wraps, ads in Metro stations and through TV and radio commercials.

“We needed to blanket the state with marketing so that they would know what it is and how to get it,” Stover says.

Still, he notes that some people may be reticent to download an app out of surveillance fears.

“We knew that exposure notification apps, particularly ones put together by the government, were not going to be an easy sell to the general public,” Stover says.

The public health benefits of downloading the app are real. Citing a modeling paper by Google, Stanford and Oxford that hasn’t been peer-reviewed, Stover says that if a locality has a 15% app adoption rate, infections can be reduced by about approximately 8% and deaths can be reduced by approximately 6%. The higher the app adoption rate, the greater the benefits.

COVIDWISE has also had some recent developments. On Dec. 9, it joined the Association of Public Health Laboratories’ National Key Server, allowing for notifications across Washington, D.C., and all 15 states that have similar apps.

“Most states that have followed [Virginia’s lead] with Apple and Google notification apps are on this national key server,” Stover explains. “Virginia was not, because we were the first to go live and there was no such thing when we started.”

There’s also an express version on the horizon that will issue a simple push notification on iPhones.

“We’re hoping to have it by the end of the year, so that anyone who does not already have COVIDWISE would then have the ability to activate COVIDWISE Express on an iPhone.”

These developments come against some bleak pandemic news.

On Dec. 10, the number of Americans dead from COVID-19 surpassed the number of American combat deaths during World War II.

Four of the 10 deadliest days in American history took place last week, ranking among the likes of the Battle of Antietam and the September 11 attacks, according to CBS News. On Dec. 9, Virginia reported a record daily increase of 4,398 new cases.

America has averaged more than 200,000 new cases per day during the last two weeks; by comparison, September saw roughly 30,000 new cases per day.

For those who haven’t downloaded the app, Stover has a message: “It’s more than just about you. It’s about protecting you and your community, and it’s a really simple way to do that.”

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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 coordinated COVID-19 laboratory testing system. Contracts have been awarded to Virginia Tech, University of Virginia Medical Center and Norfolk-based Sentara Healthcare. Labs were selected by geographic location and ability to provide rapid test results in their regions. DCLS serves as the primary laboratory in partnership with the Fairfax County Health Department Lab.

“We have said all along that it will take everyone working together to control the spread of COVID-19, and the OneLab Network does that by bringing together Virginia’s strong public health system with our clinical hospital and university lab partners to provide priority testing across the commonwealth,” Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement. “We have come a long way in increasing our COVID-19 testing capabilities over the past several months, and the new OneLab Network will help ensure public health has continued access to high-quality testing and prompt results.”

“Developing a novel, accurate genetic test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus and establishing a fully operational testing facility in a matter of weeks was a critical part of our plan to protect our campus and communities,” Virginia Tech President Tim Sands said in a statement. “As a Virginia land-grant university, we’re proud to have the opportunity to expand this vital service through our partnership with the commonwealth.”

With a goal of performing 7,000 more tests per day by the end of 2020, the network will work to increase testing capabilities through  outbreak investigations, community testing events and testing in congregate settings. State Health Commissioner Dr. Norman Oliver said at Northam’s COVID-19 public briefing Tuesday that the state health department is conducting about 19,000 to 20,000 tests a day currently, and a focus now, Northam added, is to have faster test results available, particularly for health care providers.  

The state currently uses multiple private vendors to assist with laboratory capacity. The three contracted labs will offer several U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostic tests. Each lab will receive funding for purchasing testing instrumentation. 

“Public health laboratories serve as the backbone of a national network that responds quickly to novel diseases, natural disasters, foodborne outbreaks, and other public health emergencies; however, they are not designed to provide the levels of testing needed to control the spread of a disease such as COVID-19,” DCLS Director Denise Toney said in a statement. “That’s what makes the OneLab Network such a unique and beneficial concept, where public health is working in collaboration with hospital and university partners to provide the level of testing needed to meet the public health challenges of today and tomorrow.”

 

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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 (CDC) earlier this month. Several global and U.S. pharmaceutical companies are working on vaccines, which are expected to be finalized and approved for distribution in “the coming months,” according to Northam’s office.

“We look forward to the day that a safe vaccine for COVID-19 is available for public use, so that we can get closer to living normal lives,” Northam said in a statement. “We want to be ready to help Virginians get that vaccine as quickly, efficiently and safely as possible. This funding will support the Virginia Department of Health’s vaccine preparations, so distribution will go more smoothly when a vaccine becomes available.” 

The $22 million CARES Act allocation will support the vaccination program the Virginia Department of Health estimates will cost a total of approximately $120 million. Programming costs include equipment purchases, local health district support, staffing, warehousing medical supplies and public communication.

The plan also outlines components for preparing and implementing the vaccination program, including safety and storage guidelines, training measures and establishing vaccine priority groups. Since VDH does not yet know which vaccine will be distributed, it must have several plans in place. Some vaccines may require more than one dose and may have to be stored differently. VDH is also planning for ways to vaccinate large groups of people while social distancing, according to Northam’s office.

“I encourage Virginians to get this vaccine when it is available — that is our best way to end this pandemic,” Northam said in a statement.

 

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