NORFOLK, Va. — Norfolk’s public health leaders say the city’s low supply of vaccine doses is limiting how quickly they can give out shots. Plus, an inconsistent supply of shots makes it difficult to plan appointments more than a week in advance.
As part of Phase 1B, Norfolk is now vaccinating city employees, some frontline workers and at-risk adults. About 30 Norfolk Fire and Rescue members are training to become vaccinators.
Public health leaders said they’re using every dose they have.
“Nothing goes in the garbage; it’s got to go into an arm," said Dr. Demetria Lindsay, District Health Director for Norfolk.
Currently, Norfolk receives about 2,000 to 3,000 vaccine doses each week from the state. At that rate, for a city of nearly 250,000 people – it would take many months, if not years, to provide vaccines to everyone eligible.
“If we had more, we’d be opening up more vaccination slots," Lindsay said.
Dr. Lindsay noted that the Virginia Department of Health is sending out shots to cities based on availability and population. That means fewer doses for smaller cities, more for the largest cities.
“That amount has to be divided across the state to all of the different jurisdictions and until that total increase, we’re all sharing that one size pie,” she explained.
Unlike other cities in Hampton Roads, Norfolk refuses to say where it’s providing shots for frontline workers now and where it could hold clinics in the future. Vaccines are available by appointment only.
"I’m not giving, I can’t give you that location, I don’t want to disappoint hundreds or thousands of people showing up looking for vaccines," Lindsay said.
Lindsay said Norfolk is looking at future vaccination sites around the city, possibly in neighborhoods or communities with vaccine priority groups. However, again, she did not say where these centers could be or what areas the Norfolk Public Health Department would like to support.
For this week only, according to Lindsay and other staff members, Norfolk received an additional 2,500 vaccine doses from Sentara Healthcare – a small boost to the vaccine efforts.