State vaccination coordinator Dr. Danny Avula applauded the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to grant full licensure to the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine for those 16 and older.
“As a result, over 200 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been administered in the United States, with 5,479,907 Pfizer doses administered in Virginia since the vaccination campaign began in late December 2020. The science is clear that this is a safe and effective vaccine that is highly effective in preventing infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and subsequent variants, and in preventing serious illness that could result in hospitalization and/or death.”
“The Pfizer vaccine, which has been referred to as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, will now be marketed under the brand name “Comirnaty.” The vaccine will continue to be available under emergency use authorization (EUA) for individuals 12 to 15 years of age, and for the administration of a third dose in immunocompromised individuals.”
The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) updated its COVID-19 Cases by Vaccination Status dashboard on Monday, Aug. 23, 2021, to more accurately represent the impact of vaccinations on infection rates in the Commonwealth.
The primary change will be reporting rates of infection, hospitalizations, and deaths by vaccination status — fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated, and unvaccinated. The new dashboard will allow comparison of the rate of persons with COVID-19 who are fully, partially, and not vaccinated. Counts of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths of people who are fully vaccinated, called vaccine breakthrough, will also be available at the state and health region levels.
Between Jan. 17 and Aug. 14, 252,938 people developed COVID-19 symptoms or tested positive. Almost all of these were among unvaccinated people; only 10,712 infections have been reported during the same time among the 4.7 million Virginians who have been fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated people developed COVID-19 at a rate 12.5 times higher than fully vaccinated people.
VDH will be reporting an increase in vaccine breakthrough infections, hospitalizations, and deaths this week because of an improvement in data processing. This improvement now allows for COVID-19 cases from the Virginia Electronic Disease Surveillance System (VEDSS, where COVID-19 cases including hospitalizations and deaths are collected) to be automatically matched with immunization records in the Virginia Immunization Information System (VIIS, where all COVID-19 vaccinations are recorded). Previously, VDH staff were performing the match by hand to determine vaccination status, which took additional time. Please note, all COVID-19 data are preliminary and subject to change and will be updated as quality assurance activities are completed.
