Northam Visits Tysons Vaccination Site After Eligibility Expands

TYSONS, VA — On Monday, Gov. Ralph Northam and other officials visited the Community Vaccination Center opening Tuesday at Tysons Corner Center and encouraged eligible residents to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Northam held his first news conference at the Tysons site after vaccine eligibility expanded to everyone 16 and older on Sunday. Other speakers included Dr. Danny Avula, the state's vaccination coordinator, Sen. Mark Warner, Rep. Don Beyer, who represents Virginia's 8th congressional district, and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay. Cecilia Williams of the Virginia Latino Advisory Board and Kevin Han of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium provided Spanish and Korean translations, respectively, encouraging people to get vaccinated.

Northam recalled how the state began vaccinations with priority groups such as people in nursing homes and health care workers, people 65 and over, people with underlying conditions and essential workers. Now he said it's time for all other adults to sign up for vaccinations, which will include options like the Tysons Community Vaccination Center.

"However you're able to get an appointment, please get vaccinated," Northam said on Monday. "It will keep you safer, it will keep your family safer, and it will keep your community safer. Vaccinations are the only way we can end this pandemic and get back to normal. The risk of getting seriously ill if you get COVID, they're just too high. We need to stop the circulation of this virus and stop its chances to mutate."

The mass vaccination site is located in the former Lord & Taylor store at 1961 Chain Bridge Road and can vaccinate up to 3,000 people per day as long as the site is needed. The site is organized by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and the Virginia Department of Health in cooperation with the Fairfax County Health Department and the Fairfax County Office of Emergency Management and is run by Ashbritt/IEM as part of a contract with VDEM. It will be initially available by appointment.

The Community Vaccination Center is within Fairfax County, the state's most populous county and one of the places with the highest vaccine demand. McKay said the goal is to open as many vaccination locations as possible and make them easily available to residents.

"We know that we still have challenges with supply," said McKay. "What we don't have a challenge with in Fairfax County is having centers like this that no matter how many vaccines we get on a weekly basis, we can ensure the logistics are in place to get them into the arms of people in Fairfax County, to again, get us back to a level of normal."

The governor estimated around 3 million Virginians are eligible for the vaccine in the new phase. McKay said in Fairfax County alone, around 500,000 people are newly eligible.

"Everyone age 16 and older statewide is now eligible to be vaccinated, and I hope and I recommend that everyone take advantage of that," said Northam. "Now it may take a few weeks to get appointments for everyone....Not everyone can get a shot today or even this week. And while demand still outstrips supply, our supply is much larger than what it used to be."

With expanded eligibility, the state is changing the way people can get appointments. Rather than using a preregistration system like in phase 1, Virginia is now directing residents to find appointments through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccinefinder.org.

In Fairfax County, the health department is still working on the phase 1 waitlist despite the move to phase 2. Anyone 16 and older can find appointments through VaccineFinder, but the health department's clinics are still working on vaccinating the phase 1 waitlist until it is gone. McKay said once the waitlist is cleared, the Fairfax County Health Department's clinics will be available as an option on VaccineFinder.

Northam believes any eligible person who wants the vaccine will be able to get at least the first dose by the end of May.

About half of adults in Virginia have received at least their first vaccine dose, according to Northam. He estimated herd immunity can be achieved with 70 percent to 75 percent of the entire population. To date, 25 percent of Virginia's estimated 8.5 million people are fully vaccinated, and 39.9 percent have at least one dose.

Northam added that undocumented people should not be turned away from clinics and should report any incidents to the vaccine hotline at 877-829-4682.

The governor believes achieving herd immunity will depend on Virginia's children to be vaccinated as well. Pfizer and BioNTech are seeking FDA authorization for vaccine use in children 12 to 15, and clinical trials are underway for younger children.

Virginians can visit vaccinefinder.org to find vaccination providers near their ZIP code. Those needing help finding appointments or with language barriers can call the state's vaccine hotline at 877-829-4682.

Health metrics and restrictions

Northam said Virginia's health metrics dropped significantly earlier this year before reaching a plateau in the last month or so. On Monday, the state reported less than 1,000 new cases for just the second time this year. The state's positive average of tests remains steady at 6.1 percent.

"This has been a very tough year for everyone. Virginians have done an outstanding job following the guidelines to keeps our cases and deaths lower than almost all other states in this country," said Northam.

The governor eased some restrictions on social gathering sizes and capacity limits on April 1. He plans to make another announcement on easing restrictions in the coming weeks. For example, the governor will increase the number of cross country runners allowed at the starting line from 50 to 68. In addition, performance events like school musicals will be allowed to have 100 people indoors or 30 percent of capacity. Outdoor events will be allowed to have 500 people, or 30 percent of capacity.

Northam said Virginians shouldn't ease up on precautions, particularly with the presence of more contagious variants.

"We all need to keep wearing a mask in public, we need to keep our distance, we need to keep washing our hands, and if we feel sick we need to stay at home," said Northam. "We need to do that to give more time for people to get vaccinated. We're on the right track, we just need to keep being careful and vigilant."