COVID-19 vaccines arrive in Roanoke Valley

Dr. Cynthia Morrow, director of the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts, said during her weekly media briefing that 1,700 new infections were reported during the past week and that 63 people became so ill they were admitted to a hospital.

“Fifteen percent of our cases were reported last week, which is really astonishing to me. Not that it’s unexpected, but nevertheless really disheartening,” she said.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. If everyone did what they needed to do our world would look different right now,” she said. “As tired as everyone is, as exhausting as this pandemic has been, we don’t want to go into the new year in the current positions we are in. I just implore people to do the right thing. Wear your mask, wash your hands, stay physically apart. The vaccine is here. It is being given, and that is such an extraordinary Christmas gift. But it’s going to take time to get people vaccinated.”

Both Carilion Clinic and LewisGale have the ultra-cold freezers required to hold the Pfizer vaccine. Carilion said it would begin Wednesday administering the vaccine to frontline staff at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital and on Thursday at its community hospitals.

“We are very hopeful we will get sufficient does during the first shipment to cover our entire priority group 1a,” Dr. Paul Skolnik, Carilion chair of medicine, said in a video released Tuesday. “If that’s not the case, we will prioritize those with the most risky exposure.”

Carilion said 4,000 doses arrived about 1 p.m. at Roanoke Memorial.

The vaccine requires two doses, 21 days apart, to provide immunity to the coronavirus.

LewisGale Regional Health System plans Wednesday to begin vaccinating staff at all four of its facilities.

“We are following guidance by the CDC in accordance with the federal government and in partnership with state governments to distribute the vaccines. With that, we have worked out a ‘tiering’ system to ensure that those at greatest risk of exposure to COVID-19 have access to the vaccine first. For example, emergency room clinicians and ICU clinicians will be part of a first tier,” spokeswoman Nancy May said in an email.

The Salem VA Medical Center is expected to receive vaccines through the federal system but is not on the initial distribution list posted Tuesday by the Veterans Administration.

“While we do not have a -70 freezer, we do have dry ice capacity and storage that would allow us to successfully accommodate the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Currently, we are waiting confirmation and approval of the Moderna vaccine and are making plans to begin vaccinations upon receipt,” spokesman Rosaire Bushey said in an email.

Ballad Health also received its shipments and began to vaccinate hospital workers at Johnston Memorial Hospital in Abingdon. It plans Wednesday to give the vaccine at Norton Community Hospital. The first shot was given to nurse Emily Boucher in Abingdon, who on Monday was on a video conference call with Sen. Tim Kaine to talk about the difficulties of caring for so many dying patients.

Morrow said that there won’t be enough doses in the first shipments to vaccinate health care workers outside of the hospitals, but that shipments are expected to arrive each week.

“Fortunately, at this time, we are also projecting that Virginia, by the end of the month, will have enough vaccine to cover everyone in the first priority group, and that’s health care workers and long-term care residents and staff,” she said. “We will get as much vaccine as possible into arms by the end of the year.”

Morrow said the health departments are also working with the area’s fire chiefs to schedule a vaccination clinic next week for first responders with priority given to EMS workers who are in the back of the ambulance with patients.

The central clinic is expected to administer 300 vaccines and will double as a training drill on logistics for the large-scale public events that are expected in the spring.

The health departments are also compiling lists of health care workers who do not work for the health systems. Morrow said 90 organizations, representing about 3,000 workers, had so far completed surveys for the vaccine.

But she acknowledged that not all health care workers and long-term care residents want the vaccine.

“In an ideal world, we would get as close to 100% vaccination rates in our health care workers as possible, and hopefully over time people will see it is a safe and effective vaccine, and we will achieve those rates,” she said. “What we heard is there are variations. One part of our district might have a high level of interest where another part of our district might have a low interest in getting the vaccine.”

She said that local leadership plays a role in how their staff feels about vaccines and that the health departments would continue to partner with community leaders to make sure people have information to make decisions.

“We know how devastating COVID-19 is. We know how devastating this pandemic has been on our community. The numbers don’t lie. We have a vaccine that has been proven to be highly effective and safe. It’s really important that everybody gets vaccinated,” she said.

The health care systems are not mandating employees get the vaccine, as they do with seasonal flu shots. The COVID vaccines are being approved under the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency-use authorization. Full approval isn’t expected until spring.

In clinical trials of 44,000 people, the Pfizer vaccine was shown to be highly effective against the coronavirus and to have mild to moderate side effects similar to flu shots. The Moderna vaccine using the same technology is expected to be approved soon, and others are nearing that stage.