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

FAIRFAX CITY, VA — Fairfax County was one of five Northern Virginia localities who wrote to Virginia Governor Ralph Northam Friday requesting more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

As of Friday, Fairfax County Health Department reported having more than 102,000 people waiting to schedule a vaccination appointment. The county health department announced Monday it is hiring approximately 250 vaccinators to work at its COVID-19 vaccination sites as supply ramps up.

As of Sunday, the number of people in Virginia to receive the COVID-19 vaccine surpassed the 2 million mark, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

The state is averaging 49,912 doses administered per day. Local health departments lead the state with 650,504 total doses given, followed by hospitals with 464,050 total doses, medical practices with 302,981, other community health providers with 98,643 and pharmacies with 176,028

Fairfax City and Fairfax County officials are working hard to deliver coronavirus vaccines to as many residents as possible, but supply remains extremely limited.

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.

Fairfax County leads the state with 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. The age group with the highest vaccination rate includes people in their 60s. There are 58,826 people in this age group with at least one dose.

Where To Get The Vaccine In The Fairfax City Area

The Fairfax County Health Department is vaccinating people on its preregistration wait list at select locations around the county. People who receive an invitation to schedule an appointment will be able to choose what day, time, and location to receive their vaccine. Partners helping administer the vaccine to people on the health department's wait list include Inova, George Mason University, Trusted Doctors, MyDr.'s Pharmacy, and Giant. Giant has at least eight locations offered as an option to people scheduling through the health department.

Fairfax County is currently registering individuals in Phase 1a and Phase 1b. People in these groups 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.

VDH said some health districts will start phase 1c of vaccinations this week. Phase 1c, the last phase before the general public, includes certain essential worker groups (energy; water, wastewater, and waste removal workers; housing and construction; food service; transportation and logistics; institutions of higher education faculty and staff; finance; information technology and communication; media; legal services; public safety (engineers); and other public health workers).

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VDH expects all communities across Virginia will be able to offer vaccinations to Phase 1b essential workers within weeks. Before moving to 1c, local health departments must have shown strong efforts to reach all eligible populations in 1a and 1b, particularly disproportionately affected communities such as communities of color.

As more vaccine becomes available, Fairfax will offer registration opportunities for other county residents.

How To Register For The Vaccine

Virginia launched a statewide vaccine system and hotline, but Fairfax is the only health district operating its own system. Residents should continue using the local health department's preregistration form in order to register to receive the vaccine.

Fairfax County also recently launched a vaccine dashboard, which allows people who have registered to monitor where they are on the vaccine wait list. More information on the vaccine dashboard is available at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/health/novel-coronavirus/vaccine/data.

According to the dashboard, 94,343 people are on the wait list as of March 22. In all, 356,598 people have registered for the vaccine in the Fairfax Health District, which includes Fairfax County, towns of Vienna, Herndon and Clifton, and cities of Falls Church and Fairfax.
As of Monday, the county was making appointments for people who registered on Feb. 20.

Vaccine Supplies In Fairfax County

For the week of March 15-21, Fairfax County received 43,454 vaccine doses from the Virginia Health Department. Fairfax County Health Department administered 48,102 first doses of the vaccine and the county received 290,853 doses from the state health department.

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