Even as COVID-19 numbers continued to climb, vaccinations in Southwest Virginia appeared to hit a snag over the weekend.
On Saturday, the Mount Rogers Health District reported that expanded populations wouldn’t be served in the coming week due to there not being enough vaccines.
The district said that its partners – including Food City, which along with hospitals in most counties, is helping expedite shots throughout the region – wouldn’t be able to vaccinate the expanded Group 1b this week because the vaccine allotment didn’t arrive. The department said there would be limited to no additional appointments made available until the week of Jan. 25.
On its Facebook page, the district said, “This is outside the control of both the health district and the community partners,” adding that those who are 75 and older will continue to be prioritized due to limited availability.
Earlier, Mount Rogers Health District said that while it was working with its partners to expand vaccines of the Phase 1b groups, by the governor’s directive, that there is not additional vaccines available for it. The district said that it would not be scheduling appointments for those in the 65 to 74-year-old age group or those from 16 to 64 with underlying medical conditions until the vaccine is available.
So far, the state has fully vaccinated 32,059 people with at least one dose given to 263,143 people.
In Bland County, 189 people have received at least one dose of the vaccine and six have been fully vaccinated. Galax on Saturday reported 112 people fully vaccinated and 864 who have received at least one dose. Grayson County has 460 who have received at least the first dose and 51 who have been fully vaccinated. Smyth County is showing 1,996 people with at least one dose and 96 who have been fully vaccinated. In Wythe County, 1,181 have received the first dose and 41 have been fully vaccinated.
As of Saturday, the Health Department was reporting 564 cumulative cases in Bland County. Those resulted in 17 hospitalizations and seven deaths. Galax has had 920 cases, 65 hospitalizations and 38 deaths. Grayson has reported 935 cases, 57 hospitalizations and 25 deaths. In Smyth, there have been a total of 2,202 cases, 148 hospitalizations and 62 deaths. Wythe County has 1,587 cases reported with 79 hospitalizations and 30 deaths. Seventeen new cases were reported in Wythe County as of Saturday. In Smyth, 23 new cases had been reported. Grayson County reported 10 new cases and Galax reported four new cases. Bland had five new COVID-19 cases reported as of Saturday morning.
So far, Mount Rogers Health District has reported 40 outbreaks.
According to Health Department data, Mount Rogers has administered 80,089 cumulative COVID tests with a 20.6% positivity rate over the past seven days.
