COVID-19 Vaccination Wait Time About 20 Days In Fairfax County

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — People living in the Fairfax County Health District are waiting approximately 20 days between when they sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine and when the county contacts them to make appointment. That's what Fairfax City Manager Rob Stolzer told the Fairfax City Council at its Tuesday night meeting.

"Based on the information we got today, the health district reported that people who signed up as late as March 3, roughly 20 days ago, were being assigned appointments as of yesterday," said Stolzer, who receives regular updates along with City Fire Chief John O'Neal about the county's vaccination effort.

The city is in the Fairfax County Health District, which includes residents of the county, the towns of Clifton, Herndon, and Vienna, and the City of Falls Church.

Stolzer told council members the 20-day lag time between sign up and appointment opportunity was a significant improvement over two weeks ago when residents were waiting approximately six weeks for an appointment.

Fairfax County is one of the health districts in Virginia that is operating its own COVID-19 registration and vaccination system rather than having its residents register using the state-run system. Residents should continue using the local health department's preregistration form in order to register to receive the vaccine.

As of Monday, 8,991 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered in the City of Fairfax, with 5,827 people receiving one dose and 3,304 being fully vaccinated.

In Fairfax County, there were 372,787 vaccine doses administered, according to Virginia Department of Health data. There are 248,323 people with at least one dose and 132,307 fully vaccinated.

More: Fairfax City COVID-19 Update: Where To Get The Vaccine

"It is getting better," he said. "What we're seeing in terms of caseload, it's been relatively flat at 120 cases per day. Obviously, we want to continue to see the caseload continuing to drop."

On Wednesday, Fairfax County reported 137 new cases, while Fairfax City only saw one new case.

"Hopefully, as people continue to get vaccinated, we'll continue to see the actual number of new cases per day continue to drop," he said.

The Fairfax County Health District is currently receiving 48,000 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine a week, which Stolzer said was a significant increase over a month ago.

The county also recently expanded those eligible in Phase 1b to receive a vaccine to include public transit and postal works. People in Phase 1a and 1b eligible to register include:

• Health Care Personnel
• Long-Term Care Facility Residents and Staff
• Public Safety Workers
• Corrections and Homeless Shelter Workers
• Childcare/PreK-12 Teachers and Staff
• People 65 and Older
• People Living In Correctional Facilities and Homeless Shelters
• People 16-64 With A High-Risk Medical Condition Or Disablity
• Frontline Essential Workers.
• Postal Workers
• Public Transit Workers

"The health district is hoping to begin vaccinating in the 1c category by mid-April and to actually be into Phase 2 by May 1," Stolzer said.

Phase 1 c will make the remaining essential workers eligible and Phase 2 will open up eligibility to the general population.

For the week ending March 21, the Fairfax County Health Department vaccinated 48,102 people. As of Wednesday, 87,704 people are on the waiting list.

For more information on coronavirus vaccines in Virginia, see the Virginia Patch COVID-19 vaccination page and link to it: https://patch.com/virginia/across-va/topics/virginia-covid-19-vaccine-information-hub