More vaccines for Hampton Roads — but more help is needed to administer them
The demand for coronavirus vaccines has never waned in Hampton Roads. Since the first doses started flowing to the state a few months ago, the region has been clamoring for them.
The supply is finally about to start meeting that demand. Virginia expects to start getting between 500,000 and 650,000 doses a week by next month, and the newer Johnson & Johnson vaccine has begun to augment existing supply.
Some local health officials, however, say they will need more hands to be able to put those shots in arms.
“The concern at this point is we may have more vaccine than we’ll have the people to administer it,” said Cindy Williams, chief pharmacy officer at Riverside Health System.
State officials have acknowledged that ramping up staffing to meet the incoming supply will be a key challenge.
Gov. Ralph Northam last month expanded eligibility for who can administer vaccines, including veterinarians, dentists and retired medical professionals whose license is in good standing.
In a press call in early March, the state’s vaccine coordinator, Dr. Danny Avula, said the health department itself “cannot at all staff up to meet the supply that will be coming by the end of March.”
They’d need to start by getting more pharmacies, health practices, hospitals and the like to help.
Mary Morin, a longtime nurse and head of Sentara Healthcare’s COVID-19 vaccine task force, said on a call a few weeks ago that state health department officials told local officials they were going to need more help.
Public health departments aren’t known for having robust staffs, she noted. One that she dealt with recently had two full-time employees.
“VDH said to the cities, ‘we can’t do all this vaccine,’ ” Morin said. “‘Everybody’s getting tired.’ So it came back to, now they’re going to rely on health systems as well as cities.”
There’s a patchwork of vaccination efforts happening in Hampton Roads, from small events focused on minority and underserved populations to mass clinics such as one that opened at Portsmouth’s Sportsplex last week.
Depending who runs them, these events are often staffed with a mix of volunteers, public health staff, health care professionals and public safety employees. The Medical Reserve Corps — a national volunteer force started in the wake of the 9/11 attacks — has played a key role in Virginia, sending medical volunteers around the state.
When Sentara helps staff vaccination clinics, Morin said it’s mostly nurses who have agreed to work in addition to their normal shifts — and are compensated.
She said when they need volunteers, people usually step up right away: “‘You tell us when and where.’ We’re hearing that a lot.”
Until now, the supply of vaccines has not always been steady.
On a weekly basis, Sentara reaches out to the state to see how much they’re getting, and that doesn’t leave a lot of lead time to plan, Morin said. Having an increased and reliable supply coming in will help.
Earlier this week, Virginia Beach put out a public plea for volunteer vaccinators, saying medical professionals who could help deliver shots are “urgently needed.”
Tom Green, deputy chief of Virginia Beach EMS, which helps run the city’s vaccination site at the Virginia Beach Convention Center, said the call-out was a preemptive measure.
“At this point we’re at good capacity, but if vaccines start to flow as the governor thinks they’re going to, we’re going to need to ramp up volunteers,” he said. “We’re really trying to get ahead of it.”
The convention center is moving from four to five days a week of vaccinations, he said, which means there are more shifts to be covered.
What that looks like: about 80 volunteers are needed to vaccinate every day.
Most are on the floor, with a few dozen behind the scenes dealing with the pharmacy aspect of the vaccine. (With Pfizer’s, which can only be stored at ultracold temperatures, that can be intensive.)
Some volunteers apply through EMS, while others come through the Medical Reserve Corps. All are trained to handle the vaccine.
Dozens more do non-medical work such as checking people in and ushering them through the center, said Bob Engle, emergency coordinator with the Virginia Beach public health department. They’re aiming to vaccinate about 3,000 people a day, but need to maximize the number of vaccinators to do so.
About 30 National Guard members are also in Virginia Beach, helping with nonclinical duties. Engle said the department recently asked to keep them there through June.
Though the volunteer work is intensive, Green said it’s very rewarding.
“People leave tired but happy,” he said. “It’s almost like being on war footing. We’re going to get it done. It’s a no-fail mindset.”
Chesapeake’s health department similarly uses 70 Medical Reserve Corps volunteers, 25 of whom have been converted to contractors for working clinics, according to nurse manager Marian Vollmer.
The department also brought on a significant number of contract administrative staff who help with duties like data input and reception at clinic sites.
All of those measures, as well as support from others such as the Virginia Air National Guard, has “given us a very stable system that we feel can be sustained for the near future,” Vollmer said in an emailed statement.
Across the water, concern over staffing was a driving factor behind a new effort announced this week called Operation Vaccinate the Peninsula, said Williams of Riverside Health.
It’ s a vaccination initiative that brings together the Peninsula and Hampton health districts, six Peninsula localities and the Bon Secours, Riverside and Sentara health systems, to create a unified group sharing resources to speed up the vaccination process.
It takes the same amount of effort to hold a clinic that gives out 500 doses as it does to hold one for several thousand, Williams said.
“It makes more sense to join efforts together to coordinate those large activities so we can have staffing from multiple organizations to support it.”
Finding staff to vaccinate on top of their normal duties has been challenging from the beginning, Williams said, “but with the larger amount of vaccine, it just escalates.”
Everyone she’s met volunteering feels committed to the cause, though.
“We’re rushing to get vaccines into arms,” Williams said.
“We know this isn’t a forever event, and hopefully by the time we get to summer we’re in a better place.”
“People leave tired but happy. It’s almost like being on war footing. We’re going to get it done. It’s a no-fail mindset.”
— Tom Green, deputy chief of Virginia Beach EMS