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DC, Maryland and Virginia will receive shipments of their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine by mid-December, and they have plans for who will receive the vaccine when it arrives.
The deadline for U.S. states to draft plans to determine who will receive the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine once it becomes available is Friday, and with coronavirus cases soaring, officials in the region have revealed their plans.
DC, Maryland and Virginia will receive shipments of their first doses of Pfizer vaccine by mid-December, and they have plans for who will receive the vaccine when it arrives.
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DC
The district will receive 6,800 doses of Pfizer, which will first be distributed to health workers.
But the city’s health workforce numbers more than 80,000, so the allowance would cover less than 10% of that workforce. The federal government has assigned doses of the vaccine to the residential population, but most of DC’s healthcare workers do not live in the city itself.
“About 75% of our more than 80,000 healthcare workers are residents of Maryland and Virginia, not the district,” said DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. “So we will continue to push further to get the resources we need.”
On Thursday, Bowser sent a letter to the Operation Warp Speed team, asking them to reconsider the allocation of DC vaccines taking into account the working population rather than the residential population.
Maryland
Maryland will receive 150,000 doses during its first distribution of the Pfizer vaccine.
The plan, released by Gov. Larry Hogan, says these doses will go to health workers and nursing home workers.
Those 150,000 doses they receive in mid-December will only cover half of the state’s health workers, according to Hogan.
The first phase of vaccine distribution will cover frontline responders and healthcare workers caring for patients with COVID-19. Nursing home staff and residents and essential workers, such as those in public safety and education, also fall under the phase one plan.
Phase two of the vaccine distribution will be aimed at the general public. Health officials have said the state will likely start vaccinating the general public this spring.
Virginia
In an update Friday, Virginia said she was preparing to receive an estimated 480,000 vaccine doses from Pfizer and Moderna by the end of the month.
That estimate is based on new information from Operation Warp Speed Thursday, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
Priority will be given to essential workers and those whose health would put them at greater risk. Healthcare workers and residents of long-term care homes will be vaccinated first.
State epidemiologist Dr Lilian Peake said there are around 500,000 people who fit the description of the first phase.
The 480,000 doses are estimated for the month of December. “The following weekly shipments are expected to begin after the initial shipment” and will continue to be directed to healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities, the health department said.
The CVS and Walgreens teams will assist with the vaccination of residents of long-term care facilities.
The first delivery of Pfizer vaccine is scheduled for mid-December; more than 70,000 initial doses will be distributed to health workers, with those caring for patients with COVID-19 receiving top priority.
“The actual amount of vaccine received in Virginia is a moving target and depends on when and how quickly immunization doses are made,” the health department said.
“We hope to have enough vaccines for everyone,” Gov. Ralph Northam said at a press conference earlier this week, “but it will take time.”
Northam predicted that all Virginians would be able to get the vaccine in late spring or early summer.
WTOP’s Teta Alim and Kristi King contributed to this report.
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