Virginia is now tenth among U.S. states for percentage of population fully-vaccinated against COVID-19, Governor Ralph Northam announced Wednesday.
“We’ve reached the top ten because so many Virginians have worked so hard for so long,” Northam said in a press release. “It’s something we can all be proud of. Vaccines will soon be available for children, and thousands of adults are getting boosters. This is all great news.”
More than 82 percent of adults have received one dose of the vaccine, and 74 percent of adults are fully vaccinated. Although vaccines have been approved for older children, the federal government has not yet approved the vaccines for ages five to 11.
That’s an improvement from ten months ago.
In January as Virginia was beginning its phased rollout of the then-scarce vaccine to priority groups, Virginia struggled to distribute its share of doses received. Republicans responded with daily speeches in the General Assembly about the administration’s failures in the rollout. Some local officials also complained about the slow distribution, highlighting a need for better communications and more vaccination sites.
At one point the state ranked last for percentage of vaccines distributed, although The Virginian-Pilot later reported that was partially due to misreported data. After that error was corrected, Virginia moved up to 37th out of 50 states. Eventually, availability caught up with demand, and officials have switched their focus to efforts to get more Virginians to choose the vaccines.
“The three available vaccines have proven to be enormously effective in reducing cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Cases have declined to 1,500 per day as of October 26—a drop of 40 percent over the last two weeks and significantly lower than January’s peak of over 6,000 daily cases. Hospitalizations have fallen 42 percent over the last four weeks and are nearly two-thirds lower than pre-vaccine levels,” Northam’s press release states.
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Eric Burk is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
