300K COVID Vaccine Milestone Recorded At Inova Health System

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Inova Health System has surpassed 300,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses administered and is willing to vaccinate children when they become eligible.

The health system announced the milestone, reached three and a half months after vaccinations began. Since health care workers were the first eligible group, Inova Health System was one of the first places to administer vaccines when they first became available in December. As reported by the Virginia Department of Health, hospitals across the state have administered 886,285 doses.

Inova was able to reach 300,000 vaccinations in part due to the recently-opened Inova Stonebridge Vaccination Center, a mass vaccination site in Alexandria. The mass vaccination site opened in March to serve as a scheduling option to people on waitlists of the Alexandria Health Department and Fairfax County Health Department. That mass vaccination site is administering doses to 4,500 people per day, and that number is expected to grow as supplies and eligibility expand.

Inova is also working with local health departments and community partners to ensure at-risk populations in Northern Virginia can access the vaccine.

Vaccine eligibility will be open to all Virginians 16 and up by April 18, but Inova is preparing for even younger groups to be eligible. The health system stated it is ready to vaccinate children once the FDA authorizes the vaccine for the younger ages.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is only authorized for people 16 and up, while the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are only for people 18 and up. After Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine study determined the vaccine is 100 percent effective in children ages 12 to 15, the vaccine makers are seeking approval from the FDA for these ages.

Until the FDA authorizes use in children 12 to 15 and the state expands eligibility to those ages, Inova is looking into ways to accommodate new groups, such as opening existing clinics after the school day and on weekends and answering health questions specific to these ages.

"Inova’s strong relationship with many of our local school districts puts us in the unique position to help them quickly vaccinate their student bodies, particularly after vaccinating tens of thousands of their teachers earlier this year," said Dr. J. Stephen Jones, president and CEO of Inova Health System.

Inova is vaccinating eligible groups who have registered with their health departments. Residents in the Fairfax Health District (Fairfax County, towns of Vienna, Herndon and Clifton, and cities of Falls Church and Fairfax) register through the Fairfax County Health Department; all other Virginians can register at vaccinate.virginia.gov.