Medical professionals ‘urgently needed’ to administer shots in Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach health officials are looking for medical professionals who can help ease the burden of volunteers who have been doling out COVID-19 vaccine shots for months.
Licensed doctors, physician assistants, nurses and paramedics are “urgently needed,” the city said in a news release Monday.
Public health officials are working to vaccinate Virginia Beach residents four to six days a week, they said. “This more intensive schedule is taking a toll on volunteers who comprise about half of the vaccination clinic’s operational staff,” the city wrote in the statement. “Additionally, as vaccine supply increases, more vaccinators will be required to continue to quickly and efficiently inoculate Virginia Beach residents.”
Virginia Beach Emergency Medical Services is handling the recruitment of the volunteer vaccinators. Those interested will have to provide proper credentials, consent to a free background check and complete an online application, brief phone orientation and online training courses totaling a few hours.
Volunteers should be able to commit to a minimum of two shifts per month, mostly at clinics that run Monday through Friday.
The call-out for more hands comes as Virginia’s vaccine supply continues to drastically expand.
The state is receiving about 196,000 doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines per week, Virginia’s vaccine coordinator Dr. Danny Avula recently told The Pilot. That’s up nearly 90% from its allocation when the vaccines were rolled out in December. Virginia officials also got an initial 69,000 shipment of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine and will get nearly 10,000 more this week. Several pharmacies in Virginia are also getting a combined 52,000 doses a week through a federal program.
On a press call earlier this month, Avula acknowledged that health officials will not immediately have enough staff to meet the supply. “We know that we’ve got to give our public health folks a reprieve,” he said. Getting more private providers and pharmacies involved, as well as people through the Medical Reserve Corps and National Guard, will be key to helping, he said.
“The giving spirit of these people during this difficult time has been tremendous, but we can’t ask them to keep up the current pace over the next several months, and more hands will help make our clinic sustainable in the long term,” Virginia Beach EMS Chief Ed Brazle said in the Monday news release.
People interested in volunteering in Virginia Beach can sign up at VBEMS.com/Volunteer-Vaccinator and should email questions to vaccinators@ VBgov.com.