BY DARRELL GLEASON
State Editor
Gov. Ralph Northam on Thursday said the state is expanding eligibility for COVID-19 vaccinations in ‘Phase 1b,’ which some health districts, including Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts, started this week.
The governor said the state is also placing an emphasis on opening schools, with discussions surrounding year-round schooling continuing as a long-term solution to make up for instruction lost during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The emphasis will change,” Northam said. “Instead of schools should be closed we’re going to approach it from the starting point of schools need to be open and here are the ways to do that safely.”
The Virginia Department of Education released updated guidelines to school boards on how to resume in-person learning safely.
Alleghany County students went back to school this week. Bath County and Covington schools are scheduled to reopen next week. School officials had decided a few weeks ago to switch to virtual learning out of concern for rising COVID-19 cases in the Alleghany Highlands.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. James Lane said the new guidance expands factors school boards should take into account. He said the community spread of COVID-19 will still be part of the equation but not the only indicator driving decision-making.
Since the Virginia Department of Health started tracking data at K-12 schools, there have been 637 cases, no deaths, and 109 outbreaks. Northam said schools are generally safe because they rigorously adhere to mitigation strategies developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the Virginia Department of Health.
“Schools are safe. It’s the communities that we worry about,” Northam said. “Children are hurting right now, families are hurting right now, we hear about it every day … we all need to collectively get our children back in school.”
Vaccine Eligibility
The governor said he received word on Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is encouraging the state to start vaccinating people ages 65 and up, as well as those between the ages of 16-64 with underlying “morbid” medical conditions in “Phase 1b” of its distribution plan.
The Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts, which includes Alleghany County and Covington on Monday after 11 health districts across the state were given permission to do so. Phase 1b was originally designed to include certain frontline essential workers and persons 75 and older.
The entire state is scheduled to move into Phase 1b by the end of January. More than 40 localities are currently in the phase.
Northam said the expansion of Phase 1b to include people 65 and older “means about half of Virginia is now eligible to receive the vaccine.”
That’s a major logistical effort and it’s not going to happen overnight,” he said.
Dr. Danny Avula, who was recently named to leads Virginia’s COVID-19 vaccination program, said the state ultimately needs to administer 50,000 doses of vaccine per day. At present, the state is receiving enough doses to administer 110,000 vaccines per week.
As early as next week, Avula said there could be forward progress on plans for mass vaccination sites that will operate six to seven days a week and administer thousands of doses per day. He said these sites will likely be staffed by the Virginia National Guard and contracted vaccinations. Northam said the state is also appealing to its medical reserve corps for help.
“A better federal partnership and support will help all states get this done faster,” the governor said while expressing his hope that communication channels will improve with the incoming Biden Administration.
Health officials estimate that 60 to 70 percent of the approximately 330 million people will need to get vaccinated to build up the “herd immunity” that will be necessary to thwart the spread of the virus.
“We need people to get vaccinated,” Northam said. “Out only way to get out of this is this vaccine.”
Regional Vaccine Update
In her weekly press briefing on Tuesday, Dr. Cynthia Morrow said health officials in the Roanoke-Alleghany regions are working to develop partnerships with health care systems and pharmacies to handle the expansion of vaccine distribution to people 65 and older. Morrow is the medical director of the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts.
“It’s going to take time and it’s going to take vaccine. We have a limited amount of vaccine. It’s going to take time. It’s going to take patience and it’s going to take flexibility,” Morrow said.
“We are working around the clock, 24-7, to try to get as much of the vaccine out to people as we can,” she added.
For the week ending Jan. 8, the Roanoke City-Alleghany County received a total of 2,500 doses. Injections totaled 1,750.
The health districts allocated 160 doses of the vaccine to health care providers.
“All of this vaccine went into the arm of health care workers in the Phase 1a priority group,” Morrow said.
Orders for vaccine supplies are placed a week ahead of time.
“Next week, I am hopeful that we will get more, but every health district is in the same boat,” Morrow said.“All of us are very hopeful the vaccine supply will open up, but you can’t count the chickens until they hatch.”
On Friday, VDH reported that it had administered 594 doses of the vaccine in Alleghany County and Covington. Sixty-nine people in the county and city had been fully vaccinated, VDH said. The Phizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines required two injections at three-week intervals. In Bath County, VDH said 146 doses of vaccine had been administered — four people were fully vaccinated.
Morrow said her office was flooded with telephone calls and emails earlier in the week after it was announced that the districts she oversees entered Phase 1b of vaccine distribution.
“The good news is that people are interested in the vaccines,” she said.
Case Numbers
While details surrounding the expansion of vaccines under Phase 1b are still being developed, the cumulative COVID-19 case count in the Alleghany Highlands continues to trend upward. Cumulative cases reflect cases that have been confirmed since the pandemic began in March.
On Friday, the Virginia Department of Health was reporting 1,671 cumulative cases in the localities that comprise the Alleghany Highlands. VDH said the cumulative case count in Alleghany County was 947, followed by Covington at 507, and Bath County at 217.
The VDH website listed an active outbreak involving 42 people at the Springs Nursing Center in Bath County. The outbreak was first reported on Dec. 29.
VDH has attributed 40 deaths in the Highlands to COVID-19 — 27 in Alleghany County and 13 in Covington. Those numbers are based on figures posted on the VDH website on Friday.
Optimistic Outlook
Morrow is hopeful that overall cases in the Roanoke City and Alleghany Health Districts are beginning to stabilize. Health officials were fearing that a major spike would occur following the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, due to travel and social gatherings.
“Hospitalization numbers give us a good story. Hospitalizations have been stable over the past few weeks. I am hopeful that means we are nearing a peak or at least a stable point. We don’t have any evidence we are skyrocketing,” she said.
On Monday, hospitalizations in the Roanoke-Alleghany region stood at 93, with 70 representing new admissions from the previous week.
The Roanoke-City and Alleghany Health Districts are seeing a total of 100 to 200 new cases per day.
“We are seeing a very stable, but very elevated level of activity. We are hopeful to see a decline, but that is not a reality yet,” Morrow said.
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