PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — Still not sure which COVID-19 vaccination phase you fall under in Virginia? The Virginia Department of Health created an online quiz to help.
You answer where you live, your profession, age and more, and a couple more quick questions.
Once you’ve figured out which phase you’re in, figuring out when exactly you’ll get your first dose is the tricky part.
Low supplies of vaccines and logistics issues so far had kept Virginia from being able to expand its vaccinations to other groups on a large scale, outside of some cases in which people in non-priority groups were given doses that were getting ready to go bad. Experts say poor planning and lack of help from the federal level is main source of the issues, saying states just don’t have the resources.
Long-term care residents and staff, as well as health care workers were first in line for the vaccine, in the 1a category. Vaccinations in this group started in December.
1b includes frontline essential workers, people age 75 and older, and people living in correctional facilities, homeless shelters or migrant labor camps. Teachers are also included in this group, something Gov. Ralph Northam said was critical to getting schools back open for in-person learning.
All Virginia health districts had moved into Phase 1b by the end of January.
Phase 1b could take months, with the next phase, 1c, taking “well into the spring” to vaccinate, Gov. Ralph Northam said last week.
The general public was expected to be able to receive vaccines by early to mid-summer, but Northam’s office told the Virginia Mercury that’s now expected to be about mid-summer to fall. That’s if Virginia gets up to its goal of at least 50,000 doses administered a day, which could be helped through plans from the Biden administration to stop withholding second doses from Pfizer and Moderna shipments.
Still many things remain under about when, where and how Virginians will get their vaccinations. The Virginia Department of Health says it will have more information in the coming weeks. To visit their vaccination page, click here.
