Fairfax County Challenged By COVID-19 Vaccine Availability

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — As Fairfax County works to make sure it has the delivery system in place to meet the growing demand for the COVID-19 vaccine among residents, one obstacle remains — the limited availability of vaccine doses coming from the state and the federal government.

"We have all the infrastructure we could possibly want in place at the county level ready to ramp up and vaccinate as many people as we can get vaccines for," Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said on Tuesday. "Our challenge is availability of vaccine. Our challenge is not having the county resources in place to help as many people as we can as quickly as we can."

McKay was addressing representatives of the Fairfax County Health Department who had come together Tuesday morning to provide supervisors with a status update of the county's current vaccination distribution system.

As of Tuesday morning, 59,960 people in Fairfax County have tested positive for COVID-19, the illness associated with the new coronavirus, and 788 have died of the disease, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

"Nationally and locally, our goal is to vaccinate everyone who chooses to be vaccinated, but because of supply constraints, vaccination is initially being targeted to specific groups," said Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, FCHD medical epidemiologist.

In its vaccine distribution plan, Fairfax County is prioritizing the following target groups as established by CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices:

• Phase 1a: Long-term care facility residents and healthcare personnel
• Phase 1b: Persons 75 and older, persons 65-74; persons with high-risk medical conditions; and frontline essential workers.
• Phase 1c: (Persons 47-65 with high-risk medical conditions have been moved to 1b) and other essential workers.

These groups are being vaccinated first in order to prevent serious disease and death, as well as maintaining critical societal functions, according to Schwartz. FCHD is currently vaccinating persons in Phases 1a and 1b.

"While these guidelines are national from the CDC, they are implemented differently in different states," he said. "In Virginia, the governor has moved up people who are 65-47 and those with high-risk medical conditions from Phase 1c to Phase 1b."

Frontline essential workers include:

• Police, fire, and hazmat
• Corrections and homeless shelters
• Childcare/K-12 teachers and staff
• Food and agriculture
• Manufacturing
• Grocery Store workers
• Mail carriers
• Officials needed for the continuity of government.

Other essential workers include: transportation and logistics; food service; housing and construction; finance; IT and communications; energy; media; legal; public safety engineers; and water and wastewater.

FCHD is currently vaccinating the following groups in Phase 1b: police, fire, and hazmat; corrections and homeless shelters; and childcare/K-12 teachers and staff.

"As we work through the groups currently in the queue for vaccination, we're then going to add the other occupational priority groups in 1b," Schwartz said. "But given the large number of people who are 65 years and older, and those with underlying conditions, and their higher risk of severe illness and death if they get COVID, we're going to continue targeting our current populations before adding these occupational groups."

Once FCHD is ready to add new groups, Schwartz said strategies will be in place that may include vaccinations through the workers' employers or at their worksite.

"Consistent with the governor's guidance, we are currently targeting about half the vaccine administered in the county to older adults and about half to occupational groups," Schwartz said. "This balance is likely to skew toward the older adult population and those with underlying disease because of their greater risk of severe illness, as well as the very large size of these population."

So far, Fairfax County has received 225,125 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and 102,337 of those does have been administered, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

Currently, Virginia is receiving about 105,000 doses of vaccine per week. The Biden administration recently announced its intent to increase that total by 16 percent. Fairfax is currently receiving 13,600 doses a week. Second doses are allocated separately and are not included in the 13,600 total.

After receiving vaccine from the Virginia Department of Health, FCHD either administers it or shares it with its partners to administer. These partners include Inova Health System, Kaiser Permanente, local pharmacies, George Mason University, FQHC/Safety net providers, occupational health centers, detention centers, and other healthcare providers.

As of Tuesday morning, FCHD has already administered 45,238 doses of the COVID vaccine and its partners have administered 16,368, for a total of 61,606 doses.

In addition, 2,936 residents and 3,133 staff have been vaccinated at 54 skilled nursing and assisted living facilities in the county. Fourteen additional facilities will be vaccinating by mid-February. Inova has also administered about 75,000 doses of vaccines of its employees and other healthcare workers, along with patients, teachers, and childcare center staff.

According to the latest census data, there are almost 64,000 people who are 75 and older, and 96,000 people who are 65-74 in Fairfax County. On top of that, CDC estimates that 30 percent of the adult population falls within the group having underlying illnesses. In Fairfax County, this would be 273,000, according to Schwartz.

"When vaccine supply is sufficient, and hopefully that day will come soon, perhaps with additional vaccine options, we will be administering vaccine by private provides, pharmacies, occupational health clinics, and other sites that is similar to how we cover influenza," Schwartz said.

Many people eligible to be vaccinated who have already registered on the FCHD website can expect a long wait before they are notified of a vaccination appointment. As of Monday, 186,602 people are currently on FCHD vaccination waiting list.

"Given the number of people in the queue and the fact that currently we are getting 13,600 doses per week, it will take a long time to work through the number who have already signed up, and there are more signing up every day," Schwartz said.