Advertisement

Header Utility Menu

  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Events

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram Get Our App

Virginia Business

Mobile Menu

  • Issues
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finances
    • Business Law
    • Commercial Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Energy/Green
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels/Tourism
    • Insurance
    • Ports/Trade
    • Small Business
    • Technology
  • Regions
    • Central Virginia
    • Eastern Virginia
    • Northern Virginia
    • Roanoke/New River Valley
    • Shenandoah Valley
    • Southern Virginia
    • Southwest Virginia
  • Reports
    • Best Places to Work
    • Business Person of the Year
    • CEO Pay
    • Coronavirus 2020
    • Fantastic 50
    • Generous Virginians Project
    • Legal Elite
    • Maritime Guide
    • Site Locator
    • The Big Book
    • Virginia CFO Awards
  • Company News
    • For the Record
    • People
  • Opinion
  • Lists
  • Awards
    • Virginia 500
    • Legal Elite
    • CFO Awards
    • Big Book of Lists
    • 100 People To Meet
    • Best Places To Work
  • Virginia 500
    • Read the issue
    • Order a copy
    • Buy an award plaque
    • Nominate execs for 2021

Advertisement

Header Primary Menu

  • Issues
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • Issues Archive
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finances
    • Business Law
    • Commercial Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Energy/Green
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels/Tourism
    • Insurance
    • Ports/Trade
    • Small Business
    • Technology
  • Regions
    • Central Virginia
    • Eastern Virginia
    • Northern Virginia
    • Roanoke/New River Valley
    • Shenandoah Valley
    • Southern Virginia
    • Southwest Virginia
  • Reports
    • Best Places to Work
    • Business Person of the Year
    • CEO Pay
    • Coronavirus 2020
    • Fantastic 50
    • Generous Virginians Project
    • Legal Elite
    • Maritime Guide
    • Site Locator
    • The Big Book
    • Virginia CFO Awards
  • Company News
    • For the Record
    • People
  • Opinion
  • Lists
  • Awards
    • Virginia 500
    • Legal Elite
    • CFO Awards
    • Big Book of Lists
    • 100 People To Meet
    • Best Places To Work
  • Virginia 500
    • Read the issue
    • Order a copy
    • Buy an award plaque
    • Nominate execs for 2021

Home News Health Wagon says it hasn’t received COVID-19 vaccine doses

Health Wagon says it hasn’t received COVID-19 vaccine doses

Governor says state isn't receiving enough doses to send to free clinic system

Published February 4, 2021 by Kate Andrews

Registered Nurse Ethan Collins and Family Nurse Practitioners Tauna Gulley and Nicole France prep for mobile COVID-19 testing in Southwest Virginia. Photo courtesy The Health Wagon Inc.

The head of The Health Wagon, the Wise County-based free clinic system that serves more than 5,600 patients in Southwest Virginia, many with medical vulnerabilities, said in a Thursday interview on “CBS This Morning” that the clinic has not received any COVID-19 vaccine doses from the state government.

According to the Virginia Department of Health, the two regions served by Health Wagon — Lenowisco and Cumberland Plateau health districts — have received 33,425 doses so far out of a total of 1,392,275 doses distributed across the state, but CBS stated that the majority have gone to local hospitals, pharmacies and health departments.

One of Health Wagon Executive Director Teresa Tyson’s main complaints is that her patients often don’t have access to reliable transportation or gas money to get to hospitals or other locations for shots, which is why the clinic uses mobile units that travel to 13 locations in Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Scott and Wise counties. The clinic’s patients also are more likely to have underlying medical issues that can cause worse cases of COVID-19, she says, and the region’s poverty rate is the highest in the state.

“They actually live 10 years less than our counterparts on the Eastern Shore of Virginia,” Tyson said in the news report. “How can you be patient in a pandemic when people are dying?”

Gov. Ralph Northam and Dr. Danny Avula, the state’s vaccine coordinator, said Virginia isn’t receiving enough doses yet to send them to everyone who wants one. “A month or two months from now, as new vaccines come on the scene, we’ll be able to start feeding all of these channels of providers and pharmacies that can get out the vaccine at large scale,” Avula told CBS.

“Right now, we’re getting about 120,000 doses a week, and we need about 350,000,” Northam said in an interview.

The state has received about 100,000 to 110,000 doses a week from the federal government until this week, when the number reached 122,750. Virginia is allocating doses by population — so more vaccine doses are going to more populated locations in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and the Richmond area. Tyson says that medical vulnerability should be taken into account as well.

As of Thursday, VDH reports a COVID-19 positivity rate of 11.5% in Lenowisco, which includes Lee, Scott and Wise counties, and 8.6% in Cumberland Plateau, which includes Buchanan, Dickenson, Russell and Tazewell counties. For more information about vaccine availability in these regions, click here.

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

Related Stories

State opens COVID-19 vaccinations for Virginians 65 and older

With immediate expansion, half of Va. is now eligible for COVID-19 shot

State anticipates fewer COVID vaccine doses due to U.S. shortfall

Federal reserve exhausted; state is ‘scraping and clawing’ for doses

Virginia Business logo

Northam requests federal support to vaccinate federal employees

Maryland governor, D.C. mayor also sign letter to U.S. HHS, FEMA

Trending

Norfolk’s MacArthur Center may meet the wrecking ball

Heavy hitters

Virginia State Capitol. Photo by Conor Lobb, VCU Capital News Service

UPDATED: Va. becomes 2nd state with consumer data protection law

The Virginia Executive Mansion will be occupied by a new (or possibly returning) governor in January 2022. Photo by Kira Jenkins

Election 2021: Who’s running for governor?

University of Richmond names new president

Sponsored Stories

Supply Chains After a Year of Disruptions

The Jackson Ward Collective is equipping Black-owned small businesses with the tools for success

The Hottest Topic in 2021: Keeping People Connected

Advertisement

Advertisement

Trending

Norfolk’s MacArthur Center may meet the wrecking ball

Heavy hitters

Virginia State Capitol. Photo by Conor Lobb, VCU Capital News Service

UPDATED: Va. becomes 2nd state with consumer data protection law

The Virginia Executive Mansion will be occupied by a new (or possibly returning) governor in January 2022. Photo by Kira Jenkins

Election 2021: Who’s running for governor?

University of Richmond names new president

Sponsored Stories

Supply Chains After a Year of Disruptions

The Jackson Ward Collective is equipping Black-owned small businesses with the tools for success

The Hottest Topic in 2021: Keeping People Connected

Get Virginia Business directly on your tablet or in your mailbox!

Subscribe to Virginia Business

Advertisement

Advertisement

Footer Primary Menu

  • virginiabusiness.com
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Footer Secondary Menu

  • Industries
  • Regions
  • Reports
  • Company News
  • Events

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Sign Up

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram Get Our App

Privacy Policy Cookie Policy

Footer Utility Menu

Copyright © 2021 Virginia Business. All rights reserved.

Site Maintained by TechArk