Inova cancels COVID vaccination appointments
Many people lucky enough to get an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccination in Fairfax County –including teachers who registered with Inova – are disappointed to find their appointments have been canceled. That’s because Fairfax County is getting fewer doses than anticipated.
On Jan. 25, Inova announced it’s canceling all first-dose appointments “for the foreseeable future” due to the shortage of the COVID vaccine. “Those who received a first dose from Inova and are scheduled for a second dose appointment with us will be prioritized at this time and their appointments will be honored.”
“When we receive more supply inventory, we will first prioritize patients who had an appointment scheduled and then focus on opening further appointments up to eligible groups,” Inova states. “If you are a patient whose appointment is canceled, rest assured we are working diligently to identify new supply and will reach out to reschedule your appointment as soon as we are confident we have a vaccine for you.”
Related story: Health officials urge patience in waiting for COVID vaccinations
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Jeffrey McKay blames the shortage on a change in how the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) is allocating vaccine doses. VDH is now basing distribution on per capita, rather than on the amounts counties and hospitals have ordered, which means Fairfax County is getting much less than anticipated.
In a Jan. 25 email to residents, McKay said the Fairfax County Health Department received about 22,000 doses from VDH last week for the 168,000 residents eligible for a vaccine.
“We will work with Inova to help them honor commitments made to individuals who had already been given appointments with them but have since been canceled,” McKay said. “We will also continue to work through our registration queue and offer appointments in the order in which people have registered.”
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“Taking a first-come first-serve approach for appointments to the over 50,000 people aged 75 and up who were registered and in the queue prior to the expansion of 1b, will still result in the prioritization of the elderly, while honoring our commitment to ensuring that schools are ready for opening,” he said.
Fairfax County will also continue to vaccinate public safety personnel and people living in correctional facilities and homeless shelters through special vaccination clinics.
Virginia is dead last among the 50 states in the percentage of COVID vaccines administered as of Jan. 25, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.
Virginia has received 1,069,725 doses and administered 451,668, for a percentage of 42.22. States with the highest percentage of distributed vaccines that have been administered are North Dakota (84.35 percent), West Virginia (83.46 percent), and New Mexico (77.85 percent).
as of 1/26, we are now rated 49th in the country. That is just plain embarrassing and disappointing.
And of course the logical question (given that only 42 percent of the available dosages have been given to Virginians) is why would Virginia not give more doses to Inova Fairfax who could surely vaccinate many people efficiently and effectively? Where are those doses going?
I guess, the good news is, we can't be doing any worse?
It's truly disappointing that VA is doing so badly with the administration of the vaccine especially since the state seemed to escape the fate of states like NY, FL and Calif early on given the governor's restrictions. Mckay's point as to allocation has some truth, but it's not about distribution based on per capita. Virginia Hospital did a similar move with Arlington residents as Inova by cancelling several first-dose appointments, but it apparently has to do with a new way in which the fed gov is allocating vaccines. Instead of going directly to hospitals, the vaccines now go to the State Health dept, who then allocates vaccines. That is why hospitals have had to cancel first-dose appointments since they no longer get the vaccines directly but have to wait on the State Health Dept to allocate them. Bottom line – the State has to do better in securing more supply and in fair distribution through the state health dept. I mean why cancel appts already made; instead honor them and then move on to the new way of allocating vaccines – the goal is to vaccinate isn't it?
Is this a Joe Biden choice – to send it to the State Health Dept. ilo to the hospitals?
LOL
Like you'd expect anything better from these useless place.
I think all the Trumpsters should be declined on a vaccine until everyone else is vaccinated.
Yeah, let's not go down that road.
We all need to thank the folks who have jumped the line for sucking up all of the available resources