1-Dose Coronavirus Vaccine To Be Offered This Week In Virginia

VIRGINIA — The one-dose COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson will be offered in Virginia starting this week, according to the state's health department.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved an emergency use authorization for the vaccine on Saturday, making it the third available in the U.S. It's the first one-dose vaccine approved for use in the U.S., as Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines require two doses.

According to the Virginia Department of Health, all three vaccines have shown effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 related serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths. During a news conference last week, Gov. Ralph Northam advised Virginians the best vaccine to get is whichever vaccine they are offered.

The state will receive 69,000 doses in the first weekly shipment of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. These initial doses will be prioritized for mass vaccination clinics across the state. VDH will encourage vaccine providers to inform residents of which vaccine they will receive when scheduling the appointments.

VDH encourages all providers who schedule vaccine appointments to advise individuals which vaccine they will receive, because the Johnson & Johnson vaccine differs from those available from Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna in that it requires only one dose, rather than two. All three vaccines have been proven to be effective at preventing COVID-19-related hospitalization and death.

Virginia is also expecting an increase in the federal allocation of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine, Dr. Danny Avula, the state vaccine coordinator, told reporters Friday. That will bring the weekly allocation of the two vaccines to 180,000.

An additional allocation of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is expected to go to pharmacies in the federal pharmacy partnership. CVS is already receiving 26,000 weekly doses of Moderna and Pfizer in Virginia, and other participating pharmacies are sharing an additional 26,000 weekly doses. Pharmacies in the federal program are vaccinating people 65 and older, one of the groups eligible in Virginia's phase 1b.

COVID-19 data

As of Sunday, 1,933,953 vaccine doses have been administered in Virginia. There are 1,266,983 people with at least one dose (14.8 percent of the population) and 666,970 people fully vaccinated (7.8 percent of the population). The state is averaging 34,744 doses administered per day.

New vaccine demographics data is available on a locality level. Residents can see the vaccine count and rate per 100,000 for age groups and race and ethnicity groups. However, race and ethnicity data remains missing for 363,566 doses statewide.

On Sunday, VDH reported 1,736 new cases, and the latest seven-day average of daily cases is 1,705. At a peak, the average was 6,166 on Jan. 18. Northern Virginia had 499 new cases on Sunday and a seven-day average of 428. The cumulative total of cases is 576,050.

An additional 170 deaths were reported on Sunday, bringing the total of deaths associated with COVID-19 to 8,552. Northern Virginia had 34 of these new deaths. VDH continues to add a large number of deaths as it processes 2021 death certificates associated with the post-holiday surge of cases.

Hospitalizations overall have been trending down since mid-January. As of Sunday, there are 1,372 current COVID-19 patients, including 303 in the intensive care units and 185 on ventilators. Northern Virginia has 272 current patients.

As reported by the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association, ICU occupancy among all hospital patients is at 77 percent, and ventilator use was at 31 percent.

Virginia's seven-day average of positive tests stood at 7.2 percent as of Feb. 24. The average has been trending down since reaching a winter peak of 17.4 percent on Jan. 3. Northern Virginia's average is 6.7 percent on Feb. 24, compared to a winter peak of 16.6 percent on Jan. 2.

The average number of daily PCR testing encounters continues to trend down since peaking at 35,027 on Jan. 14. The latest average is 20,704.

Below are the latest coronavirus data updates for our coverage area from Saturday to Sunday:

• Alexandria: 10,328 cases, 507 hospitalizations, 118 deaths; increase of 29 cases and four deaths
• Arlington County: 13,151 cases, 769 hospitalizations, 227 deaths; increase of 39 cases and four deaths
• Fairfax County: 66,573 cases, 3,499 hospitalizations, 930 deaths; increase of 219 cases and 10 deaths
• Fairfax City: 490 cases, 37 hospitalizations, 13 deaths; increase of one case
• Falls Church: 352 cases, 20 hospitalizations, seven deaths; increase of one case
• Loudoun County: 23,076 cases, 863 hospitalizations, 229 deaths; increase of 79 cases, one hospitalization and eight deaths
• Manassas: 4,002 cases, 162 hospitalizations, 39 deaths; increase of eight cases and two deaths
• Manassas Park: 1,124 cases, 66 hospitalizations, 11 deaths; increase of one case
• Prince William County: 39,333 cases, 1,389 hospitalizations, 404 deaths; increase of 122 cases and six deaths
• Fredericksburg: 1,780 cases, 93 hospitalizations, 19 deaths; increase of 13 cases
• Spotsylvania County: 8,281 cases, 280 hospitalizations, 99 deaths; increase of 11 cases and one death
• Stafford County: 9,555 cases, 309 hospitalizations, 67 deaths; increase of 63 cases and one death