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Northam outlines plan, 25K goal for COVID-19 vaccination initiative

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Posted at 5:41 PM, Jan 06, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-06 20:05:42-05

RICHMOND, Va. -- Gov. Ralph Northam said Virginia is aiming to eventually vaccinate 25,000 people per day as the state's vaccination efforts enters a third week.

Northam and other health officials outlined where Virginia stands with the vaccination effort, where improvements are needed, and gave us a better look at who comes next.

Virginia's vaccinations dashboard showed over 116,000 people have been vaccinated or about 24% of the more than 481,000 over that have been distributed around the state.

Officials blamed reporting delays partly due in part to technology, and not having data from the CDC on long-term care facilities. That is an issue officials said they hope to fix in the coming days.

Officials said they think there are between 35,000 to 55,000 vaccinations not reported in the database at the moment.

Northam said the state is deploying about 9,000, but we are working towards 14,000 doses a day, which is the max they can do with the amount of vaccines they have received from the federal government.

Northam called on hospitals to roll the vaccines out as fast as they can and not hold on to any doses. He promised they will get more if needed.

Future goals, as more doses are available, are 25,000 to 50,000 a day, which would get everyone offered a vaccine by the summertime.

Northam said he hoped to get Phase 1A of healthcare workers and long-term care residents completed by the end of the month.

Once that is completed, Phase 1B will begin, with some areas getting started earlier than others, Northam sad.

Officials also revealed the next two groups to get vaccinated will be Phases 1B and 1C.

Northam said 1B will be made up of about 1.2-million essential workers who have to be out and about to do their job.