Vaccination FAQ

When it is your turn to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, you will be contacted to schedule an appointment using the email or phone number you provided when you pre-registered.

You may be contacted by your Local Health District or by the Virginia COVID Information Center (VCIC). Localities are working to vaccinate as many people as possible and are using a small number of different systems to manage this process. If you receive a communication from one of their tools or systems (such as VAMS), you will need to contact them for further assistance.

When contacted by the Virginia COVID Information Center (VCIC), you will – if you provided an email or mobile phone number – receive an email or text with a link from the VASE system to self-schedule your appointment. In some cases, the VCIC is also directly calling customers to schedule appointments and to assist with the scheduling process for Community Vaccination Clinics across Virginia (managed by the VDH). If you need assistance with this process at any time, you can reach out to the VCIC to assist.

Because each person may have a different level of eligibility and each clinic has a limited number of appointments, it is unlikely that spouses, partners, or family members will be scheduled at the same time. If two people are invited to make appointments for the same clinic, they can choose times near each other if available.​

No. You will be contacted to schedule your second dose appointment at the appropriate time, and you do not have to pre-register again. Some clinics will schedule your second dose appointment at the time of your first dose, and some will contact you a week or two before the second dose is due.​

No. While there is more than one vaccine brand available, local health departments, healthcare providers, pharmacies, and clinics likely will have only one brand available. Vaccine supplies are limited, and you should take whichever COVID-19 vaccine is available to you. Each available brand of COVID-19 vaccine has been proven to protect against serious illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19.

For ‘outbound retail pharmacy’ appointments scheduled – these are at Walmart and Wegman’s locations ONLY. There is no ability to manage, reschedule, or cancel appointments. If you have scheduled an appointment and cannot make it, the pharmacy will note you as absent or a ‘no-show’ and you will be contacted again to re-book the appointment. Residents / workers that have scheduled vaccination appointments are strongly encouraged to maintain the appointment. Do not call the Virginia COVID Information Center, Virginia Department of Health, or the pharmacy in regards to vaccination appointments – they are not able to manage changes to appointments. Please note that vaccination appointments are being scheduled in the very near-term (for example, within a few days), so it is important to note your appointment time, date, and location. The appointments are happening very quickly – this is why rescheduling and appointment management is not being conducted by the VCIC.

For ‘Vaccinate Virginia’ or Community Vaccination Clinic (CVC) appointments scheduled using the VASE system – you should have 1) received an email or text message from the Vaccinate Virginia team (vaccinatevirginia@info.vdh.viginia.gov); or, 2) received a call from the VCIC specifically regarding a Community Vaccination Clinic. You can cancel or attempt to reschedule their vaccination appointment themselves by using the link provided from the VDH or can call the VCIC with inquiries about their appointment, including to make, reschedule, or cancel.

If you are contacted to schedule an appointment for a vaccine and you do not want the brand of vaccine you are offered, you can choose instead to remain on the waiting list in case another opportunity becomes available with your desired vaccine. However, there is no guarantee that you will be able to receive the brand of vaccine you want.

The vaccine is currently available for Phases 1a and 1b in all areas of Virginia. Some districts have moved to Phase 1c. Some districts will move to Phase 2 beginning on April 4, and all of Virginia will move to Phase 2 by April 18.  

Phase 1a: Healthcare Personnel and Long-Term Care Residents

Phase 1b: Frontline Essential Workers, People Aged 65 years and Older, People aged 16 through 64 years with a High Risk Medical Condition or Disability that Increases Their Risk of Severe Illness from COVID-19, and People Living in Correctional Facilities, Homeless Shelters and Migrant Labor Camps 

Phase 1c: Other Essential Workers

Phase 2: Anyone Aged 16 years and Older who Lives or Works in Virginia

While vaccine supply is increasing, it remains limited. When Virginia moves to Phase 2, you will be able to schedule an appointment. That appointment could be a few weeks out. 

Children under the age of 16 will be offered vaccines only after the vaccine is tested and authorized by FDA for use in children. 

Everyone aged 16 years and older who lives or works in Virginia should pre-register. In some communities, it could be days, not weeks, until you are contacted to schedule an appointment for your vaccine. Pre-registration is available through vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). After you pre-register, you will be contacted when it is your turn to receive a vaccine. VDH has also developed these online tools:

• An interactive map to enable Virginians to determine which COVID-19 vaccine phase their local health district is in. 
• An eligibility tool to enable Virginians to find out which vaccination phase they fall under.

Vaccines are being offered at a variety of locations, including health systems, pharmacies, healthcare providers’ offices, Community Vaccination Centers, and other local clinics. 

More than 300 retail pharmacy locations in Virginia are providing vaccination appointments to anyone eligible in Phase 1b, which includes people age 65 and older, people with high-risk medical conditions, and frontline essential workers. Pharmacies may expand to Phase 1c on April 11 and Phase 2 (general public) on April 18. Individuals interested in getting vaccinated at a local pharmacy may visit VaccineFinder.org to find eligible pharmacy locations, hours, phone numbers, and scheduling links where available. While many pharmacies have continued to work directly with local health districts to vaccinate vulnerable populations, some pharmacies have online scheduling for vaccine appointments.

The vaccine is currently available for Phases 1a and 1b in all areas of Virginia. Many districts have moved to Phase 1c. Some districts will move to Phase 2 beginning on April 4, and all of Virginia will move to Phase 2 by April 18.

Everyone aged 16 years and older who lives or works in Virginia should pre-register. In some communities, it could be days, not weeks, until you are contacted to schedule an appointment for your vaccine. You can pre-register at vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). After you pre-register, you will be contacted when it is your turn to receive the vaccine. 

Yes, healthcare systems and local health departments are working collaboratively to vaccinate healthcare personnel.

HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS are vaccinating their staff. Many are vaccinating non-health system staff as well.

LOCAL HEALTH DEPARTMENTS are identifying healthcare providers who are not affiliated with a hospital or health system in order to offer them vaccines as quickly as possible. Phase 1a primary caregivers who do not have access to the vaccine through their health system or healthcare providers should complete a pre-registration form through vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). You will be asked about your job when you pre-register. Employees whose employer may have previously submitted their information to their local health district should first check if they are already in the statewide system at vaccinate.virginia.gov before attempting to pre-register.

INFORMATION FOR HEALTHCARE EMPLOYERS 

Employees are no longer being pre-registered through employers. Employees should complete their own pre-registration forms through vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). Employees whose employer may have previously submitted their information to their local health district should first check if they are already in the statewide system at vaccinate.virginia.gov before attempting to pre-register. Employers are still encouraged to raise awareness among employees of the importance of getting vaccinated and how to pre-register, and to work with local health districts when it would make sense to hold on-site clinics for employees who are already pre-registered and eligible.

Healthcare Personnel include the following: 

• Behavioral health providers
• Community health workers
• Dental assistants, hygienists, dentists
• EMT/first responders serving as EMT extenders
• Environmental services staff
• Healthcare trainees
• Home health workers
• Human service providers
• Infection control and quality assurance personnel
• Laboratorians
• Mortuary service providers (e.g. morticians/funeral home staff)
• Nurses, nursing assistants
• Optometrists
• Personal care aides
• Pharmacists, pharmacy techs and staff
• Physicians, physician assistants
• Public-facing public health workers
• Radiological techs (and other diagnostic/therapeutic techs)
• Respiratory, physical, speech and occupational techs
• Social workers
• Primary caregivers for persons with severe chronic medical conditions  or with intellectual or developmental disabilities requiring a high level of daily care 

For more information on Phase 1a, please see here. 

Virginia’s Phase 1b includes frontline essential workers, people aged 65 years and older, people living in correctional facilities, homeless shelters, and migrant labor camps, and people aged 16-64 years with a high-risk medical condition or disability that increases their risk of severe illness from COVID-19.

Workers who are in sectors essential to the functioning of society, are at substantially higher risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2, and cannot work remotely. Frontline Essential Workers include:

• Police, Fire, and Hazmat
• Corrections and homeless shelter workers
• Childcare/Pre K-12 Teachers/Staff (Public and Private)
• Food and Agriculture (including veterinarians)
• Manufacturing
• Grocery store workers
• Public transit workers
• Mail carriers (USPS and private)
• Officials needed to maintain continuity of government (including judges and public-facing judicial workers)
• Clergy/Faith Leaders
• Janitorial/Cleaning

For definitions of the occupational groups of the frontline essential workers listed above, see pages 9-16 of Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce: Ensuring Community and National Resilience in COVID-19 Response.

Teachers and staff in pre-K-12 schools and child care workers are now eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccine in all areas of Virginia. 

The following teachers and staff are eligible:  

• Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade  
• Childcare centers and family childcare providers
• Head Start and Early Head Start
• Part C Early Intervention programs
• Licensed childcare providers, include center-based and family care providers and home visitors
• Pre-K through 12th grade classroom aides, bus drivers, janitors, counselors, administration staff, cafeteria workers, and substitute teachers.

Teachers, school staff, and childcare workers who are interested in getting vaccinated should:

• Visit the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program website to see which pharmacies are participating in Virginia. Most pharmacy partners are using online scheduling systems to schedule vaccination appointments for those eligible based on their limited vaccine supply. Check your local pharmacy’s website to sign up.
• Visit VaccineFinder.org to find out where vaccine is available in your community.

Complete a pre-registration form through vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). You will be asked about your job when you pre-register.

Adults of any age with certain underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19. Individuals with any underlying medical conditions (including those NOT on the list below) should consult with their healthcare provider about their own personal risk factors associated with illness from COVID-19. Healthcare providers may use clinical judgement to determine if a patient’s medical condition or disability warrants prioritization for vaccination.

Adults of any age with the following conditions can be more likely to get severely ill from the virus that causes COVID-19:

• Cancer
• Chronic kidney disease
• Chronic lung diseases, including COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), asthma (moderate to severe), interstitial lung disease, cystic fibrosis, and pulmonary hypertension 
• Dementia or other neurological conditions
• Diabetes (type 1 or type 2)
• Down Syndrome
• Heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathies, or hypertension
• HIV infection
• Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system)
• Liver disease
• Overweight and obesity 
• Pregnancy
• Sickle cell disease or thalassemia
• Smoking, current or former
• Solid organ or blood stem cell transplant
• Stroke or cerebrovascular disease, which affects blood flow to the brain
• Substance use disorders

For more information on this topic, please click here. 

No, proof of a high-risk medical condition or disability that increases risk of severe illness from COVID-19 is not needed.

Yes. On page 10 of the Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce: Ensuring Community and National Resilience in COVID-19 Response, convenience stores are included in the “Food and Agriculture” category of Phase 1b.

All health districts in Virginia are vaccinating those eligible for Phase 1b. Many health districts are now vaccinating other essential workers in Phase 1c. Beginning on April 4, some health districts will move to Phase 2, and all of Virginia will move to Phase 2 by April 18. When Virginia moves to Phase 2, you will be able to schedule an appointment. That appointment could be a few weeks out. Check to see which phase your county or city is in here.

The decision to move from one phase to the next is made in coordination with local and state health officials and is dependent upon a variety of factors, including whether vaccine demand decreases despite strong efforts to engage eligible populations, particularly among those who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.  

Everyone aged 16 years and older who lives or works in Virginia should pre-register. In some communities, it could be days, not weeks, until you are contacted to schedule an appointment for your vaccine. 

Pre-registration is available through vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). After you pre-register, you will be contacted when it is your turn to receive a vaccine. VDH has also developed an eligibility tool to enable Virginians to find out which vaccination phase they fall under.

All of Virginia will move to Phase 2 by April 18. Some Virginia communities will move into Phase 2 beginning April 4. Check to see which phase your community is in here.

Phase 2 includes anyone aged 16 years and older who lives or works in Virginia.

Every health district is different and has a variety of factors that influence their vaccine rollout. Districts vary in size and population, demand for vaccine, proportion of vulnerable populations in Phase 1, their ability to access pre-registration and vaccination sites, and the resources available to aid in the vaccination efforts. 

VDH offers a map that shows what phase each health district is in at this link: https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/covid-19-vaccine/phase-by-health-district/

Everyone aged 16 years and older who lives or works in Virginia should pre-register now at vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). 

If you are eligible for Phase 1 and have not been contacted to schedule an appointment, make sure your registration information is updated at vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). 

People 65 years and older should pre-register by visiting vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 877-VAX-IN-VA (877-829-4682) from 8 a.m.-8p.m., seven days a week. If you are eligible for Phase 1b and have not been offered an appointment, go to vaccinate.virginia.gov and make sure your information is correct. If your record is missing important information, then your appointment might be delayed. Verifying and updating your record will not change your pre-registration date. People who do not have access to the internet or who need assistance scheduling an appointment can call 877-VAX-IN-VA (877-829-4682).

Another option for these individuals is getting vaccinated at a local pharmacy. Visit VaccineFinder.org to find eligible pharmacy locations, hours, phone numbers, and scheduling links where available. While many pharmacies have continued to work directly with local health districts to vaccinate vulnerable populations, some pharmacies have online scheduling for vaccine appointments.

Many communities have moved to Phase 1c, and all of Virginia will move to Phase 2 by April 18. Virginia will continue to prioritize those eligible in Phase 1b who have not been vaccinated. 

Virginia’s Phase 1c includes other essential workers not included in Phase 1b.  

In Phase 1b, frontline essential workers were included. Vaccination will be allocated to additional essential workers in Phase 1c. These workers are in sectors essential to the functioning of society and/or are at higher risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Other Essential Workers include:

• Energy
• Water, Wastewater, and Waste Removal Workers (includes recycling removal workers)
• Housing and Construction
• Food Service
• Transportation and Logistics
• Institutions of Higher Education Faculty/Staff
• Finance 
• Information Technology & Communication
• Media 
• Legal Services
• Public Safety ( including Engineers)
• Other Public Health Workers
• Barbers, Stylists, Hairdressers

Occupational definitions and further clarifications can be found within guidelines provided by Guidance issued by Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).  

Many communities are in Phase 1c at this time. It is important that everyone aged 16 years or older who lives or works in Virginia get pre-registered. In some communities, it could be days, not weeks, until you are contacted to schedule an appointment for your vaccine.

Everyone 16 years of age and older who lives or works in Virginia is included in Phase 2. 

You should pre-register at vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). All college students should pre-register, and it is especially important if you are graduating. You will be contacted when it is your turn to receive the vaccine.

If you have already pre-registered, check the list at vaccinate.virginia.gov to make sure you are in the system and to update and check your information.

Vaccine supply is limited, and VDH is distributing vaccines to communities based on total population, state vaccination rates, and priority populations. Local health departments will announce when access continues to expand for those living or working in the community. Individuals who have pre-registered for vaccination online at vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682) will be contacted when it is their turn to receive the vaccine.

All Virginia residents and workers aged 16 years and older can pre-register to get a COVID-19 vaccine through our Statewide Vaccine Pre-registration System. You can pre-register online 24/7 at vaccinate.virginia.gov. You can also pre-register by phone 7 days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682, TTY users call 7-1-1). Assistance is available in English, Spanish, and more than 100 other languages. Videoconferencing in American Sign Language is also available by videophone at 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682) or by clicking “ASL Now” at  vaccinate.virginia.gov.

After you pre-register, you will be contacted when it is your turn to get the vaccine. It is important that everyone aged 16 years and older who lives or works in Virginia get pre-registered. In some communities, it could be days, not weeks, until you are contacted to schedule an appointment for your vaccine.

You only need to pre-register once, either at vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). If you have already pre-registered through your local health district, you were automatically added to the new statewide system. Check the list at vaccinate.virginia.gov now to make sure you are in the system and to update and check your information. VDH has added more questions since you pre-registered, and this information may be important for figuring out your eligibility. If you are having trouble finding your name in the system, check the spelling of your name and email address carefully and consider whether you may have used a different name, phone number, or email address in the past. If you have questions, call 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). 

Clergy members and faith leaders fall under Phase 1b. 

Member of the clergy/faith leader refers to a person formally designated within a religious group or faith community/congregation that performs religious functions critical to the continuity of the faith community, congregation, or house of worship. A faith leader includes but is not limited to: Apostle, Bishop, Cardinal, Minister, Nun, Imam, Pastor, Priest, Punjaris, and/or Rabbi.

The CDC provides additional support in their VAMS Vaccine Recipient Frequently Asked Account Set Up and Scheduling Questions.

No, photo identification is not required for vaccination. It is important however, to have some way to confirm your identity (i.e. name, date of birth) so we can confirm that we are vaccinating the right person. Some localities may choose to only vaccinate residents, and may need some type of proof of residency for vaccination.

No, government-issued identification is not required to receive a vaccination. However, some localities may restrict vaccination to residents, and may need some type of proof of residency for vaccination.

For most localities, proof of Virginia residency is not required. However, some localities may choose to restrict vaccination to residents only.

No. Any person living in the U.S., regardless of duration, is eligible to be vaccinated. Proof of U.S. Citizenship is not required.

Yes. Persons living in Virginia who are eligible for the current phase of Virginia vaccination rollout (e.g. based on age, medical condition or occupation) can get vaccinated in Virginia. However, some localities may restrict vaccination to residents only. Proof of residency may be required.

There is no policy that you may only receive a vaccine in your locality (city or county) of residence, however CDC allows localities to make this decision. Vaccines are allocated by population in the locality, so it is best to work with your local health department in the locality where you live. If you are eligible to receive the vaccine by your occupation you should work with the local health department where you work.

As some districts move to Phase 2, clinics will send invitations to those in the area near the clinic who are on the pre-registration waitlist. Once open scheduling begins, we still encourage everyone to try to be vaccinated in their home health district because it’s important that you receive your first and second dose in the same location, as much as possible.

Virginia is receiving weekly shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines from the federal government. While vaccine supply is increasing, it remains limited so vaccines are being provided to those most at risk of COVID-19.

Several other drug companies are participating in Phase 3 trials at this time, and other vaccines may be available in the future.

Since December 2020, long-term care facility residents and staff have been offered vaccines on-site at their facilities by CVS and Walgreens teams. When these partnerships wrap up, a VDH Long-Term Care Facility Vaccination Coordination Team under the VDH State Pharmacy will coordinate the on-going need for vaccinations at long-term care facilities.

Phase 1a healthcare workers are being offered the vaccine at their places of employment.

Phase 1a healthcare workers who cannot receive the vaccine at their place of employment should pre-register at vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). You will be asked for information about your job when you pre-register. If you think your employer may have previously submitted your information to your local health district, check if you are already in the statewide system at vaccinate.virginia.gov before trying to pre-register.

Primary caregivers perform a role similar to that of a home health aide or personal care aide, which are included in Phase 1a.  Primary caregivers for persons with severe chronic medical conditions or with intellectual or developmental disabilities requiring a high level of daily care will be able to access a vaccine through their local health department, their healthcare provider, or arrangements with healthcare systems and pharmacies as part of Phase 1a.  

Phase 1a primary caregivers who do not have access to the vaccine through their health system or healthcare provider should pre-register at vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682).

Pre-registration is available through vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). After you pre-register, you will be contacted when it is your turn to receive a vaccine. If you are eligible because of your job and think your employer may have previously submitted your information to your local health district, check if you are already in the statewide system at vaccinate.virginia.gov before trying to pre-register. It is important that everyone aged 16 years and older get pre-registered. In some communities, it could be days, not weeks, until you are contacted to schedule an appointment for your vaccine.

More than 300 retail pharmacy locations in Virginia are providing vaccination appointments to anyone eligible in Phase 1b, which includes people age 65 and older, people with high-risk medical conditions, and frontline essential workers. These appointments were previously only available based on age. Individuals interested in getting vaccinated at a local pharmacy may visit VaccineFinder.org to find eligible pharmacy locations, hours, phone numbers, and scheduling links where available. While many pharmacies have continued to work directly with local health districts to vaccinate vulnerable populations, some pharmacies have online scheduling for vaccine appointments.

How Persons Living in Correctional Facilities, Homeless Shelters, and Migrant Labor Camps Can Access Vaccination

The Department of Corrections, local and regional jails, and their occupational health programs will vaccinate staff and persons living in correctional facilities, with local health department assistance as needed. Those living in homeless shelters and migrant labor camps will receive the vaccine through their local health department or through arrangements with healthcare systems and pharmacies.

Many Virginia communities have moved from Phase 1b to Phase 1c. It is important that everyone in Phase 1c get pre-registered. In some communities, it could be days, not weeks, until you are contacted to schedule an appointment for your vaccine. Pre-registration is available through vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682).

Occupations listed in Phase 1c will not be vaccinated in a specific order.

Everyone aged 16 years and older who lives or works in Virginia should pre-register now at vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). Some communities will transition into Phase 2 beginning April 4. Those health districts will invite members of the general public who are pre-registered to vaccine clinics.

After April 18, Virginia will move to an open appointment scheduling process for anyone aged 16 and older. More details on how to schedule those appointments will be announced closer to that date.

Yes. There will be no restrictions or eligibility requirements, but you still will need to schedule an appointment. If you have not already done so, you should pre-register at vaccinate.virginia.gov or by calling 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). Health districts are using pre-registration lists to send invites for vaccine appointments to those who are eligible. After April 18, Virginia will move to an open appointment scheduling process for anyone aged 16 and older. More details on how to schedule those appointments will be announced closer to that date. 

When Virginia moves to Phase 2, you will be able to schedule an appointment. That appointment could be a few weeks out.

For now, you should sign up on the statewide pre-registration website. After April 18, there will be open scheduling, and you can visit vaccinate.virginia.gov to find out how to schedule an appointment.

Those communities that transition to Phase 2 before April 18 will invite pre-registered individuals to closed clinics.

Yes, pharmacies should be able to move to Phase 1c by April 11 and Phase 2 by April 18. Pharmacies are accounting for approximately one-third of Virginia’s vaccine allocation.

VDH will offer an appointment to anyone who has pre-registered for a vaccine. It is possible that the information you entered into the pre-registration system is not up to date, or that there was an error in your contact information. You should go to vaccinate.virginia.gov and make sure your information is correct. If your record is missing important information, then your appointment might be delayed. Verifying and updating your record will not change your pre-registration date. 

People who do not have access to the internet or who need assistance scheduling an appointment can call the Virginia call center Monday - Sunday 8am-8pm at 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682).

Virginia has made significant progress in its vaccine rollout. To date, over 3.7 million doses of vaccine have been administered, which means more than one in three adults have received at least one dose and one in five Virginians are fully vaccinated. We have seen great response, and we expect that to continue as we remove eligibility requirements to receive a vaccine.

Throughout its vaccine rollout, Virginia has focused on equity and that will continue as we transition into open eligibility. We will continue trying to reach those who are most vulnerable with targeted advertising in multiple languages, working with community partners to schedule vaccination clinics, and opening large, state-run Community Vaccination Centers in targeted areas.

The doses Virginia receives from the federal government are allocated by VDH to local health districts, based on total population, state vaccination rates, and priority populations. Local health districts then work with volunteers, hospitals, healthcare providers, and pharmacies to provide these vaccines to people in their districts in an efficient and equitable way. Additional doses help support targeted equity initiatives. Other doses reach some residents of Virginia through separate federal allocations for certain retail pharmacies; employees of the U.S. Department of Defense and certain other agencies; the Indian Health Service; and a federal contract to vaccinate residents of long-term care facilities.

In the future, if there is a sufficient amount of vaccine to cover an entire priority group, it will be shipped directly to the designated vaccinators to administer to anyone who wants to be vaccinated.

No, the dosing or schedules of COVID-19 vaccines should not be changed. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has emphasized that vaccine providers should continue to follow the authorized dosing and schedules for COVID-19 vaccines.

The COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use have shown high effectiveness when following the specified dosing and schedules in the emergency use authorizations.

For additional information, see the FDA Statement on Following the Authorized Dosing Schedules for COVID-19 Vaccines.

VDH released a COVID-19 vaccine dashboard with information including total vaccine doses received and administered. Locality and demographic information is also available. 

The COVID-19 vaccine “must be provided to vaccine recipients with no out-of-pocket costs,” according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). While the federal government is picking up the cost of the vaccine doses Americans across the country are getting, some healthcare providers can get paid for administering the vaccines. For those with health insurance, this cost is typically billed to the insurance company. Even if you do not have health insurance you can still get a COVID-19 vaccine for free. Providers who administer a COVID-19 vaccine to someone who is uninsured or who has limited Medicare benefits that do not cover vaccines, will be reimbursed as part of a provider relief fund created as part of the CARES Act coronavirus legislation.

No. There are currently three vaccine brands available in the United States, but each healthcare provider will likely have only one brand. Vaccines will be offered to everyone at no cost, regardless of whether or not they have insurance.

No. While there is currently more than one vaccine brand available to Americans, local health departments, healthcare providers, pharmacies, and clinics will likely have only one brand. Vaccine supplies are limited, and you should take whichever COVID-19 vaccine is available to you. In general, side effects and effectiveness for the currently available vaccines are very similar.

The COVID-19 vaccine will be offered to everyone at no cost regardless of health insurance. Availability will be based on risk level, not on income or insurance. Children under the age of 16 will be offered a COVID-19 vaccine only after the vaccines are tested and authorized for emergency use in children.

The flu vaccine and routine childhood vaccines are provided free or low-cost by many public providers in underserved areas. Refer to the VDH website for more information.

The following federal entities (and their respective populations) that will receive a direct allocation of COVID-19 vaccine: 

• Bureau of Prisons (BoP)
  • All BoP-managed facilities: facility staff and inmates
  •  Private contracted facilities and contracted residential reentry centers (RRCs) not included
• Department of Defense (DoD)
  •  Active duty personnel and their dependents 
  • Retirees (does not include their dependents) 
  • U.S. Coast Guard (does not include their dependents) 
  •  DoD civilian and contractor employees (those who regularly receive care through DoD as well as those who don’t) 
  • To be determined: Reserves and National Guard (including those not activated)
• Department of State (DoS)
  • All personnel under Chief of Mission eligible to receive care through DoS
  • Stateside civil service employees
• Indian Health Service (IHS)
  • Tribal nations selecting IHS for vaccine allocation
  • Potentially includes IHS/Tribal/Urban facility staff and individuals served
• Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
  • VA staff (including volunteers and trainees) and veterans regularly receiving care at VHA facilities
  • (State Veterans Homes not included)

Federal employees can also access the vaccine through other entities available, if they are eligible for the vaccine.

Doses that have been administered by these federal agencies are shown here.

At this time, Virginia is receiving a limited supply of COVID-19 vaccines each week from the federal government. VDH is distributing these vaccines to communities in Virginia based on total population, vaccination rates, and priority populations.

Additional doses reach some residents of Virginia through separate federal allocations to certain retail pharmacies; employees of the U.S. Department of Defense and certain other agencies; the Indian Health Service; a federal contract to vaccinate residents of long-term care facilities.

The Federal Retail Pharmacy Program is a program that provides additional COVID-19 vaccines to certain retail pharmacies each week. These vaccines are provided in addition to the weekly supply of vaccines already being sent to Virginia by the federal government. 

More than 300 retail pharmacy locations in Virginia are now providing vaccination appointments to anyone eligible in Phase 1b, which includes people age 65 and older, people with high-risk medical conditions, and frontline essential workers. Pharmacies may expand to Phase 1c on April 11 and Phase 2 (general public) on April 18. Individuals interested in getting vaccinated at a local pharmacy may visit VaccineFinder.org to find eligible pharmacy locations, hours, phone numbers, and scheduling links where available. While many pharmacies are continuing to work directly with local health districts to vaccinate vulnerable populations, some pharmacies have online scheduling for vaccine appointments.

There is no charge to any U.S. resident for COVID-19 vaccine or for the vaccination appointment itself. No one can get their vaccine sooner by paying someone money. The Virginia Attorney General has recently provided a warning and detailed advice for avoiding COVID-19 vaccine scams or other COVID-19 scams here.

The Commonwealth of Virginia will never call, email, or text asking for someone's social security number or immigration status in connection with vaccination. Virginians who have any questions or concerns or believe they may have been the victim of a COVID vaccine related scam should reach out to Attorney General Herring’s Consumer Protection Section. 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is also warning the public about several emerging fraud schemes related to COVID-19 vaccines. If you believe you have been the victim of a COVID-19 fraud, immediately report it to the FBI (ic3.gov, tips.fbi.gov, or 1-800-CALL-FBI) or HHS OIG (tips.hhs.gov or 1-800-HHS-TIPS).

This depends on the setting. In general, people who have had a known COVID-19 exposure should not seek vaccination until their quarantine period has ended. This is to avoid potentially exposing healthcare personnel and other persons to SARS-CoV-2 during the vaccination visit.

Exceptions to this are made in the following settings: people living in congregate healthcare settings (e.g., long-term care facilities) and residents of other congregate settings (e.g., correctional and detention facilities, homeless shelters). Additional guidance on this topic can be found here. 

VDH continues to sign up Virginia healthcare providers who want to provide the COVID-19 vaccine. These providers include hospitals, long-term care facilities, local health departments, pharmacies, health systems, outpatient centers and urgent care centers. Vaccine providers are being trained to correctly store, administer, and document available vaccines.

When healthcare providers register to provide vaccines in Virginia, they identify the number of people they think they will vaccinate in each risk group (senior citizens, essential workers, people with serious medical conditions, etc.). VDH is using this information, along with CDC recommendations, to determine how and when vaccines should be distributed to each group.

Community Vaccination Centers (CVCs), are larger-scale sites capable of vaccinating hundreds to thousands of people per day. CVCs are organized by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) and the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) in consultation with local health districts and local governments; funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); and operated by turnkey contractors.

The people that will be vaccinated at these CVCs are those already pre-registered in the state system. Like local clinics, CVCs are by appointment only, with invitations sent to eligible individuals on the statewide pre-registration list. CVC locations were selected based on an equity analysis to determine the communities with the most vulnerable populations and the greatest impact from COVID-19. Additional CVCs will open across Virginia in the coming weeks.

It is important that everyone aged 16 years and older get pre-registered. You will be contacted if you are eligible for one of these vaccination events.

• Arrive no earlier than 20 minutes before your appointment time. You will not be allowed in early to receive your vaccine. 
• No walk-ins will be accepted. Please pre-register for an appointment. To pre-register, visit Vaccinate.Virginia.gov/ or call the COVID Vaccine Hotline at 1-877-VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682). 
• Bring a copy of your vaccination invitation (email, text, barcode) or proof of your name when you arrive at the site.

We don’t know yet why some healthy people become seriously ill or die from COVID-19, while other healthy people with COVID-19 only become mildly sick. There’s no way to know ahead of time how COVID-19 will affect you. However, once vaccinated, your body will build immunity to the virus so you are less likely to get sick. In fact, the COVID-19 vaccine will greatly reduce your chances of getting COVID-19 and will ensure that if you do get the virus, you will have only mild symptoms or none at all.

All available COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization, and death. 

Experts continue to conduct more studies about the effect of COVID-19 vaccination on its ability to keep people from spreading the virus that causes COVID-19.

As more people get vaccinated, we can slowly return to doing the things we enjoy. 

Goal #1: The most important goal of a COVID-19 vaccine is to safely protect the vaccine recipients over a long period. It should either protect them completely, keeping them from getting infected at all or make sure that if they are vaccinated but still get infected, their COVID-19 infection is less severe than it would have been if they had not been vaccinated.

Goal #2: A second goal for a COVID-19 vaccine is to be sure that the people who get vaccinated can’t pass a COVID-19 infection on to other people even if they are not having any symptoms themselves. For example, many people who get COVID-19 infections have no symptoms at all, but they can still transmit and spread COVID-19 to people that they come in contact with.

Goal #3: A third goal for a COVID-19 vaccine is to provide an opportunity for an entire population to develop long-lasting “herd immunity, in which many people are protected against COVID-19, either because they have been vaccinated or, for some, because they had COVID-19 disease and then recovered. If the number of people in a population with those kinds of immunity and protection becomes high enough, there won’t be enough unprotected people left who can still get infected with COVID-19 to allow that disease to keep spreading.

The vaccine will not be mandatory for Virginians and there are no legal penalties for refusing it, but we urge you to get it once it’s available. Once enough people are vaccinated against COVID-19, we can resume more of the everyday activities we enjoyed before the COVID-19 pandemic.

No. The vaccine will not give you COVID-19 because the vaccine is not made from the live virus. However, it can take a few weeks for the body to build full immunity after any vaccination, so it’s possible to get COVID-19 from another person just before or just after being vaccinated, while your immunity is still developing. 

Sometimes the immune response from a vaccine can cause soreness at the injection site, a fever, headache or tiredness. This is normal and should go away after a few days.  

No. Vaccines currently being used or developed in the United States will not cause you to test positive on COVID-19 PCR and antigen tests. These types of tests detect active infection with the virus that causes COVID-19 and the current COVID-19 vaccines do NOT contain the actual virus that causes COVID-19.

After vaccination, you might test positive on a COVID-19 antibody test. This type of test shows previous exposure of your immune system to the virus that causes COVID-19, not current infection. We’re still learning about how COVID-19 vaccination might influence the interpretation of antibody test results.

Fully vaccinated people are less likely to get an asymptomatic COVID-19 infection that can be spread to others. Thus, in addition to protecting you, getting vaccinated will provide some protection to your contacts.

However, it is important for every person to get vaccinated themselves as soon as a COVID-19 vaccine is available for them and to continue wearing masks and following physical distancing recommendations in public settings.  

For more information on what you, your family, and friends can do safely after being fully vaccinated, click here. 

When you get vaccinated for COVID-19, you will be provided a card that contains the name of the vaccine manufacturer, the vaccine lot number, the date and the location of where you were immunized. Please keep this card in a safe place. 

You should also receive or have access to a fact sheet with information specific to the vaccine that you received. 

All people receiving a COVID-19 shot should be monitored on site for some time, after receiving the shot.  

Remember to ask your healthcare provider about how to register for v-safe. V-safe allows you to use your smartphone to tell CDC about any side effects after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. You’ll also get reminders if you need a second vaccine dose. You can also choose to enroll in the VaxText text messaging service. By texting ENROLL to 1-833-VaxText (829-8398), vaccine recipients can opt in to receive a weekly text reminder for their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine or a reminder for when they are overdue for their second dose, in English or Spanish.

Herd immunity is a form of indirect protection from an infectious disease that occurs when the majority of a population has become immune to infection, either through vaccination or previous infections. Once herd immunity is achieved, the infectious disease is less likely to spread. Those who did not get vaccinated will still be protected because the population in which they live is protected. This is especially important for people with certain medical conditions who might not be able to receive a vaccine.

Herd immunity only works in very large groups -- tens of thousands of people -- because it keeps the virus from being able to find new hosts within the population. A small group, like a family or a school, cannot have herd immunity because there are still too many other people in the community who can spread the virus. That’s why a country can only have herd immunity when most of the population has been vaccinated.

With COVID-19 and many other diseases, if you become sick, your body builds up antibodies that keep you from getting sick again from the same virus -- at least for a while. This is called “natural immunity.” A vaccine gives you the same type of antibody immunity -- at least for a while. How much immunity and how long it lasts depends on the disease and on the person. For instance, most people who had measles as a child -- or who got the measles vaccine -- have immunity to measles for life. COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccine are similar. However, we do not know for sure how long the immunity will last.

If that immunity runs out, you will need another dose of COVID-19 vaccine. In some other types of vaccines, a second shot or “booster” gives immunity for a much longer time than the first dose. In others, like the flu vaccine, you need to get a new dose of the vaccine every year.

Yes, regardless of their history (symptomatic or asymptomatic), they should get the COVID-19 vaccine.  In the clinical trial, there were patients with serologic evidence of previous infection.  Patients should be out of the isolation period and out of the active stage of infection when they get vaccinated.

The one exception for vaccination might be for those people who had COVID-19 earlier but who have not recovered completely and are still having long-term effects. If you are still having long-term effects after COVID-19, you should discuss COVID-19 vaccination with your healthcare provider. 

While there is otherwise no recommended minimum interval between infection and vaccination, current evidence suggests that reinfection is uncommon in the 90 days after initial infection. Thus, persons with documented COVID-19 in the preceding 90 days may delay vaccination until near the end of this period, if desired.

There have been reports of people testing positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 after becoming fully vaccinated. Thus far all cases have been either mild or asymptomatic. Gene sequencing and investigation of these cases are underway. Breakthrough cases are rare, but they should be expected as COVID-19 vaccines do not provide 100% protection from getting the virus. 

An individual is considered a breakthrough case, if they initially test positive for SARS-COV-2 at least 14 days after completing the vaccine series (that, depending on the vaccine brand, may be 2 doses or just 1 dose.) 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a lot of information on this topic. To learn more:

1. • Frequently Asked Questions about COVID-19 Vaccination
   • Vaccines
   • Benefits of Getting a COVID-19 Vaccine
   • Understanding How COVID-19 Vaccines Work
   • How CDC Is Making COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations
   • 8 Things to Know about Vaccine Planning
   • Busting Myths and Misconceptions about COVID-19 Vaccination

For the latest information about COVID-19 vaccination in Virginia, click here. 

At the top of all VDH web pages, there is a Google Translate button that says 'Select Language.' Clicking on this button translates web page content into 100+ different languages immediately. From there, you can go to the main page at: https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/covid-19-vaccine/ where you can learn more about COVID-19 vaccines.

En la parte superior de todas las páginas web de VDH, hay un botón del Traductor de Google que dice 'Select Language.' (Seleccionar idioma). Al hacer clic en este botón, el contenido de la página web se traduce inmediatamente a más de 100 idiomas diferentes. Desde allí, puede ir a la página principal en: https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/covid-19-vaccine/ donde puede obtener más información sobre las vacunas contra COVID-19.

El sitio web vdh.virginia.gov ofrece la opción "Traductor de Google" para ayudarlo a leer el sitio web de vdh.virginia.gov en otros idiomas además de inglés. Google Translate no puede traducir todos los tipos de documentos y es posible que no proporcione una traducción exacta.

في الجزء العلوي من جميع صفحات موقع الويب الخاص بـ VDH، يوجد زر "تحديد اللغة" لترجمة جوجل "Google Translate"، يؤدي النقر على هذا الزر إلى ترجمة محتوى صفحة الويب على الفور إلى أكثر من 100 لغة مختلفة. من هناك، يمكنك الانتقال إلى الصفحة الرئيسية على: /https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/covid-19-vaccine حيث يمكنك معرفة المزيد عن لقاحات COVID-19.

يقدم موقع vdh.virginia.gov خيار ترجمة جوجل أو "Google Translate" لمساعدتكم على تصفح موقع vdh.virginia.gov بلغات أخرى غير الإنجليزية. لا يمكن لـ Google Translate ترجمة جميع أنواع المستندات، وقد لا توفر ترجمة دقيقة.

모든 VDH 웹 페이지의 상단에 '언어 선택(Select Language)'이라는 Google 번역 버튼이 있습니다.' 이 버튼을 클릭하면 즉시 웹 페이지 콘텐츠가 100가지 이상의 다른 언어로 변환됩니다. 거기에서 https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/covid-19-vaccine/의 메인 페이지로 이동합니다. 그곳에서 COVID-19 백신에 대해 자세히 확인하실 수 있습니다.

vdh.virginia.gov 웹사이트가 제공하는 "구글 번역(Google Translate)" 옵션을 통해 vdh.virginia.gov 웹사이트를 영어 이외의 언어로 읽을 수 있는 도움을 받을 수 있습니다. 구글 번역(Google Translate)은 모든 유형의 문서를 번역 할 수 없으며 정확한 번역을 제공하지 않을 수 있습니다.

Sa kabuuan ng lahat ng mga web page ng VDH, may Google Translate button na nagsasabing 'Piliin ang Wika.' Ang pag-click sa button na ito ay nagsasalin ng content ng web page sa 100+ na iba't ibang wika agad. Mula rito, maaari kang magpunta sa main page sa: https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/covid-19-vaccine/ kung saan matututunan mo ang tungkol sa mga bakuna ng COVID-19.

Ang website ngvdh.virginia.gov ay ibinibigay ang “Google Translate” na opsyon para alalayan ka sa pagbabasa sa website ng vdh.virginia.gov sa iba pang wika maliban sa Ingles. Ang Google Translate ay hindi kayang isalin ang lahat ng uri ng mga dokumento, at maaaring hindi makapagbigay ng eksaktong pagsasalin.

在任何 VDH 网页的顶部，都有一个 Google 翻译按钮，上面写着“选择语言”。点击此按钮即可将网页内容翻译成 100 多种不同的语言。您可以从翻译页面转到 COVID-19 疫苗主页：https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/covid-19-vaccine/，进一步了解有关 COVID-19 疫苗的更多信息。

vdh.virginia.gov网站提供"谷歌翻译"选项，以帮助您阅读vdh.virginia.gov网站上非英语语言的内容。Google翻译无法翻译所有类型的文档，也可能无法提供准确的翻译。

One of the reasons that these COVID-19 coronavirus vaccines could be produced and tested so quickly is that two previous coronaviruses, SARS that emerged in China in 2002 and MERS that emerged in the Middle East in 2012, taught us a lot about developing safe and effective coronavirus vaccines. The COVID-19 vaccines are being produced faster than any other U.S. vaccines, but they have followed the very same processes as other vaccines, including studying tens of thousands of participants of different ages, races and ethnicities for each vaccine.

For every vaccine used in the United States (including COVID-19), trials start with Phases 1 and 2, when small groups of people are vaccinated and then monitored for safety. Then, in Phase 3, tens of thousands of people are vaccinated to be sure the vaccine is both safe and effective for all types of people. 

Development of U.S. vaccines is strictly controlled by the FDA. After the FDA authorizes or approves a vaccine, an independent immunization committee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) decides whether to recommend it and for whom. In all stages of the process, the most important factor is safety. Vaccines must meet the highest standards of safety and have minimal side effects, because they are given to healthy people to prevent disease. And in fact, the United States currently has the safest, most effective vaccines in its history.

The CDC and FDA monitor the safety of vaccines after authorization and approval to be sure they are safe and effective in the long term. After a vaccine is authorized or approved, as it is being used in widespread vaccine programs, it enters Phase 4 of vaccine research, where CDC and FDA continue to monitor its safety and long-term effects as it is being used for the public. These long term studies, which include people at high risk for COVID-19, will help identify any common side effects or other safety concerns and will help clarify how long protection lasts after vaccination.

VDH shares the goal of ensuring safe vaccines and has the safety of the Commonwealth and its citizens as its number one priority. VDH works closely with the CDC to review all vaccines to be sure its recommendations are based on sound science. 

All Phase 3 vaccine trials had at least 30,000 participants each and included people from various races, ethnicities, age groups, and genders. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson (also known as Janssen Biotech), the companies currently providing COVID-19 vaccines in the United States, report that at least 30% of their trial participants are Black, Hispanic, Asian or Native American.

One way that the effectiveness of a vaccine (how well it works) is determined is through studies that compare the proportion (percentage) of vaccinated people who got COVID-19 infection with the proportion (percentage) of people who didn’t get the vaccine (control group) and developed COVID-19 infection. If significantly fewer people in the vaccine group become infected compared to the control group, the vaccine is determined to be effective in preventing infection.

For COVID-19, many public health experts are also using a slightly different outcome measure to decide if a vaccine is working. For example, for a disease as serious and sometimes fatal as COVID-19, we might worry less about people having a mild COVID-19 infection and worry more about how well a vaccine can keep vaccinated people from needing to be in a hospital or keep them from dying.  Fortunately, all three current vaccines, from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson (also known as Janssen Biotech) did really well in their large Phase 3 studies in keeping vaccinated people from needing to be in a hospital. They also almost totally prevented deaths among those receiving the vaccine.

In order to show effectiveness for many groups of people, vaccine trials also look at many factors, including age, race and ethnicity, gender, degree of exposure to COVID-19, and other risk factors. For example, healthcare workers are more likely to be exposed to the virus and are more likely to be exposed to large amounts of it. People with chronic illnesses like diabetes or asthma may be less likely to come into contact with the virus, but they are more likely to become seriously ill if they do get it. 

The COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna use mRNA to cause an immune response. mRNA stands for messenger ribonucleic acid. mRNA does not get into the nucleus of your cells and it does not put germs into your body. Instead, it teaches your cells to make a non-infectious COVID-19 protein that then stimulates your immune system to respond. That immune response produces antibodies that help keep you from becoming infected if the COVID-19 virus later enters your body.  The two COVID-19 vaccines that use mRNA will not change your DNA or cause any alteration of your body’s genetic material.   

Viral vector vaccines use a modified version of a different virus - not the SARS-CoV-2 virus - as a way to deliver instructions, in the form of genetic material (a gene), to a cell. The vaccine does not cause infection with either COVID-19 or the virus that is used as the vector.

For COVID-19 vaccines, a modified virus delivers a SARS-CoV-2 gene that instructs our cells to make a SARS-CoV-2 antigen called the spike protein. This antigen triggers production of antibodies against it and a resulting immune response that targets the spike protein. The virus used in a viral vector vaccine poses no threat of causing illness in humans because it has been modified so it cannot reproduce and thus cannot cause disease in humans.

As with the mRNA vaccines, the genetic material carried by the viral vector vaccine does not become part of - or otherwise change -  a person’s DNA.

The Johnson & Johnson (also known as Janssen Biotech) vaccine uses a virus called an adenovirus in its viral vector COVID-19 vaccine. Adenoviruses are often used for viral vector vaccines because they can induce a robust immune response. The adenovirus genome has been well studied by scientists.

Viral vector vaccines for COVID-19 are being held to the same rigorous safety and effectiveness standards as all other types of vaccines in the United States. The only COVID-19 vaccines the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will make available for use in the United States (by approval or emergency use authorization) are those that meet these standards.

An EUA is an “Emergency Use Authorization,” a process in the FDA that allows a drug or vaccine company to apply for use of a COVID-19 vaccine with a limited amount of effectiveness and safety data. This means that the vaccine can become available for use in an emergency like the current COVID-19 pandemic more quickly than the usual approval and licensing process would allow. 

Before it allows an EUA, the FDA and its outside advisory group  must decide that the known and possible benefits of the proposed vaccine outweigh the risks of authorizing (allowing) its use in that kind of emergency before it has been studied long term.

EUAs are issued when the FDA agrees that the current disease situation is so dangerous that there is not time for the usual long-term studies. Even in an emergency, however, the short-term studies and trials must show that the vaccine is effective and as safe as possible. 

The first COVID-19 vaccines in the United States have been authorized as EUAs so they can be distributed quickly to as many people as possible. The vaccine companies will still need to obtain the regular biological license application (BLA) approval later to continue marketing the vaccines, but a BLA approval requires up to a year of study.

Information describing a COVID-19 vaccine’s path from research to an EUA can be found on the FDA’s website here.

Common short term side effects at the injection site include: local arm pain and redness or swelling. Common systemic side effects include tiredness, headache, or muscle aches. A very small number of vaccine recipients have had transient nausea, chills, or a fever for a few days. A small number have experienced swollen lymph nodes. For the two mRNA vaccines, these expected side effects are more common in younger people than older people and with the two-dose vaccine series, are more common after the 2nd dose than after the first dose. 

Some people have reported redness, swelling, and itching around the injection site beginning a few days after or into the second week after their first mRNA vaccine dose.  Some of these reactions in the upper arm have been quite large. It is not known if the persons who experience this unusual reaction will have a similar reaction after their second dose. However, these reactions are not felt to represent a risk for anaphylaxis upon receipt of the second dose. Thus, individuals with such delayed injection site reactions after the first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine dose should receive the second dose using the same vaccine product as the first dose and at the recommended interval, and preferably in the opposite arm.

These short term discomforts are the effects of your body developing immunity, and are normal. These discomforts do not mean that the vaccine has given you COVID-19. Even if you experience discomfort after the first dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, it is very important that you still receive the second dose a few weeks later for the vaccine to be effective.

Medicines such as acetaminophen, ibuprofen, or naproxen or other medicines called “non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs” (NSAIDS) can help with the expected side effects (arm pain, fever) once those side effects start to occur. However, these drugs should not be taken before your COVID-19 vaccine doses since information on their possible impact on the body's ability to create immunity to COVID-19 infection is not yet available.

Because COVID-19 vaccines are so new, information on possible long term side-effects is still being collected and studied. However, at this point, although CDC, FDA, and other groups are looking carefully using multiple systems to collect side effect data, no permanent long term side effects of any of the three current COVID-19 vaccines have been identified.

No. There is no live virus in any of the current COVID-19 vaccines. 

However, because there are still so many COVID-19-infected people in our communities, it is possible that a few COVID-19 vaccine recipients have already been exposed to and infected with COVID-19 at the time they get the vaccine even if they are not yet showing symptoms of COVID-19 infection. If those exposed people later have symptoms of COVID-19 infection or test positive for it soon after vaccination, that means that they got COVID-19 from their pre-vaccination exposure to one or more infected people and not from the vaccine.

If you have an underlying medical condition such as diabetes, asthma or obesity, you may be at higher risk for severe COVID-19 disease so your need for the vaccine is even greater. So when a COVID-19 vaccine is available to you, you are encouraged to get vaccinated to protect yourself from serious COVID-19 illness. 

Several groups of people have special COVID-19 vaccine concerns:

• People with weakened immune systems are at greater risk for severe COVID-19 disease. Categories of patients with weakened immune systems include patients with disease such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, bone marrow or organ transplant, genetic immune deficiencies, or patients taking steroids or other medicines designed to suppress the immune system. Such patients can receive COVID-19 vaccine if they have no other contraindications but they should be aware that there is only limited safety data available and that, because their immune system may be weaker than normal, they may have a weaker immune response to the vaccine and may thus be less protected against COVID-19 infection.
• Even after vaccination, such patients should pay extra attention to the continuing need for all of the other COVID-19 prevention measures such as mask-wearing, avoidance of crowds and poorly ventilated spaces, physical distancing and handwashing.

• People with some autoimmune diseases are also able to be vaccinated but also need to be aware of the limited safety data for people in their category.
• People with a neurologic disease history of having previously had either Guillain-Barre syndrome or Bell’s palsy can receive COVID-19 vaccine but need to be closely monitored for the re-development of one of those conditions.
• Some people with a history of dermal filler use may develop swelling at or near the site of filler injection after receiving a dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. If it occurs, this problem can be treated by a healthcare provider and dermal filler use is not a contraindication to COVID-19 vaccination. However, such people should be advised to contact their health care provider if they experience swelling at a dermal filler injection site.  

People with a history of any of these conditions or situations should discuss COVID-19 vaccination with their healthcare provider. 

Additional information on COVID-19 vaccination for people with these conditions can be found on the CDC website here.  

There have been rare reports of people receiving COVID-19 vaccine, who suffered severe allergic reactions, also known as anaphylaxis. An allergic reaction is considered severe if it requires hospitalization, or the use of an EpiPen (epinephrine) injection for treatment. 

These severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) have occurred rarely after both of the currently available mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Based on VAERS reports and reported doses administered, CDC data published on February 12th show that anaphylaxis occurred following vaccination with the current mRNA COVID-19 vaccines about 4 times for every million doses administered. Because the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) viral vector vaccine just came into use, no data on the frequency of severe allergic reactions are available yet for that vaccine. 

If you have ever had a severe allergic reaction to any of the ingredients in a COVID-19 vaccine, you should not get that specific vaccine. In that case, your doctor may want to refer you to a specialist in allergies and immunology to provide more specific care or advice.

If you have ever had an immediate allergic reaction to polyethylene glycol (PEG), you should not get an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is an ingredient in both mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. You should discuss this with your healthcare provider, as you still may be able to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.  

If you have ever had an immediate allergic reaction to polysorbate, you should not get the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) COVID-19 vaccine. Polysorbate 80 is an ingredient in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. You should discuss this with your healthcare provider, as you still may be able to get one of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. 

PEG and polysorbate are structurally related, and cross-reactive hypersensitivity between these compounds may occur. 

If you have ever had a severe allergic reaction in the past to other vaccines or injectable medications, you should ask your doctor or other healthcare provider if you should get a COVID-19 vaccine. That person will help you decide if it is safe for you to get vaccinated.  And in fact, If you have ANY concerns about getting a COVID-19 vaccine, talk to your doctor or other healthcare provider. 

People with a history of allergic reactions not related to vaccines or injectable medications—such as allergies to foods, pet dander, venom, pollen, or latex—are not likely to have a severe reaction to COVID-19 vaccines and may still get vaccinated. People with a history of allergies to oral antibiotics or other oral medications or a family history of severe allergic reaction may also still get vaccinated.

Finally, each site where COVID-19 vaccines are given is required to have the medications on hand to treat any of the severe or mild allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines.

If you get a COVID-19 vaccine and you think you might be having a severe allergic reaction after leaving the vaccination site, seek immediate medical care by calling 911. 

For the most up to date information on allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines, see COVID-19 Vaccines and Severe Allergic Reactions on the CDC web site. 

Information on the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine can be found here. Information about the Moderna vaccine can be found here. Information about Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine can be found here. 

People who have had recent COVID-19 disease should not get COVID-19 vaccine until they have recovered from their illness.  

Children under the age of 16 or 18 (depending on which vaccine is available), should not receive the current vaccines as they have not been studied yet in this population. (Use of COVID-19 vaccines in adolescents and younger children is now being studied.)

People who had COVID-19 disease earlier and who were treated with convalescent plasma or monoclonal antibody should not get the COVID-19 vaccine until at least 90 days have passed since their last plasma or antibody treatment. 

Starting the COVID-19 vaccination series as soon as it becomes available to you is an important step. Given the lack of data on the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines administered at the same time as other vaccines, COVID-19 vaccines should be administered alone, with a minimum interval of 14 days before or after getting any other vaccines. However, if a COVID-19 vaccine is inadvertently given within 14 days of another vaccine, doses do not need to be repeated for either vaccine.

If you have concerns about close spacing of vaccines, you should discuss this issue with your doctor or other health care provider. 

Information on the Pfizer -BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine can be found here.

A complete list of this vaccine’s ingredients can be found here. 

Type of vaccine: mRNA

Number of injections (shots): 2 injections, 21 days apart

How given: injections in the muscle of the upper arm

This vaccine does not contain: eggs, preservatives, gelatin, Latex

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is recommended for people aged 16 years and older.

Information on the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine can be found here.

A complete list of this vaccine’s ingredients can be found here. 

Type of vaccine: mRNA

Number of injections (shots): 2 injections, 28 days apart

How given: Injection in the muscle of the upper arm

This vaccine does not contain: eggs, preservatives, gelatin, latex

The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is recommended for people aged 18 years and older.

Information on the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine can be found here.

A complete list of this vaccine’s ingredients can be found on page 2 here. 

Type of vaccine: adenoviral vector for spike protein

Number of injections (shots): 1 injection

How given: Injection in the muscle of the upper arm

This vaccine does not contain: eggs, preservatives, gelatin, or latex

The Johnson & Johnson (also known as Janssen Biotech) COVID-19 vaccine is recommended for people aged 18 years and older.

Available data suggest that some pregnant women who get infected with COVID-19 are at greater risk of having a severe form of COVID-19 than non-pregnant women. Pregnant women with some underlying health conditions, such as diabetes or obesity, are at even greater risk, as is true in the non-pregnant population.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) recommend that COVID-19 vaccines should NOT be withheld from pregnant or breast-feeding women or from other women who intend to get pregnant and who otherwise are in any of the priority categories for COVID-19 vaccination based on the CDC and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendations.

CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have several safety monitoring systems in place to collect and study information about vaccination during pregnancy and will closely monitor that information. 

Results from CDC’s v-safe voluntary after-vaccination health check system showed that more than 30,000 women who received the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have reported pregnancies, with no specific safety issues identified. CDC established the v-safe COVID-19 Vaccine Pregnancy Registry to learn more about these issues.

Initial data from this registry show similar vaccine side effects for pregnant and non-pregnant individuals. Based on birth outcomes of 275 completed pregnancies, rates of complications are not significantly different from those of unvaccinated pregnant women.

Pregnant or breast-feeding women who are considering a COVID-19 vaccination should discuss the potential risk and benefits of COVID-19 vaccines with their doctor or nurse-midwife.    

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine can be used now in people 16 and older and the Moderna and Johnson and Johnson (Janssen) vaccines can be used in people 18 and older. Pfizer-BioNTech have now begun studying COVID-19 vaccine use in children as young as 12 years old, but these studies are not yet complete. (As of mid-March 2021, Moderna is also beginning a COVID-19 vaccine study in younger children.)

Although there is not yet an exact timeline for children to get vaccinated against COVID-19, recommendations for vaccinating children will be developed as soon as these current studies are finished. 

A COVID-19 vaccine for pets is not available. A small number of pets worldwide, including cats and dogs, have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, mostly after close contact with people who have COVID-19. Some pets did not show any signs of illness, and most of those pets that did get sick all had mild disease that could be taken care of at home. Although people can give COVID-19 to household pets and other animals, there is no evidence that animals play a major role in spreading COVID-19 to people. For these reasons, there is no COVID-19 vaccine for pets. If your pet is sick or you think your pet might have the virus, call your veterinarian to discuss your pet’s health.

Vaccines must meet the highest standards of safety and have minimal side effects because they generally are given to healthy people to prevent disease. Vaccines are strictly regulated by the FDA. The CDC and FDA are committed to assuring the safety of vaccines through detailed studies both before and after they are licensed. The United States currently has the safest, most effective vaccines in its history. 

And in fact all people now getting COVID-19 vaccine will continue to be monitored for long-term side effects and to be sure the vaccine continues to be effective in the coming months and years.

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) shares the goal of ensuring safe vaccines. VDH has the safety of the Commonwealth and its citizens as its number one priority. VDH works closely with CDC to conduct active surveillance and review of vaccines to ensure the recommendations the agency follows are of sound science. 

CDC and FDA continuously monitor the safety of vaccines after they are put into use. 

If CDC and FDA identify a problem with a vaccine, the agencies inform health officials, health care providers, and the public. These agencies use several systems to monitor vaccine safety:

• The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS): an early warning system that helps CDC and FDA monitor problems following vaccination.  Anyone can report possible vaccine side effects to VAERS. However, most of the VAERS monitoring is done by U.S. healthcare providers providing anonymous vaccine-related data from millions of patients. This system, which is already used to monitor all other current U.S. vaccines, alerts the CDC and FDA if healthcare systems begin recording complications that should not have been occurring after vaccines. VAERS cannot determine whether a vaccine caused any specific  side effect. VDH participates in VAERS.
• The Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD): a collaboration between CDC and nine health care organizations around the United States, which allows ongoing monitoring and proactive searches of vaccine-related data.
• The Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) Project: a partnership between CDC and several medical centers that conducts clinical research on vaccine-associated health risks.
• V-safe is a new cell phone-based CDC system that individual COVID-19 vaccine recipients can use to notify CDC if they develop any side effects. Each vaccinated person can and should download a v-safe app onto their cell phone as soon as they receive the vaccine.  Instructions on how to download and use v-safe will be given out when you get the vaccine. As an extra benefit, v-safe will remind you about getting your second vaccine dose.  

Additional vaccine safety monitoring systems, such as the use of National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) data, and continued monitoring through clinical trials will also be utilized to ensure the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.

None of the three current COVID-19 vaccines contain any fetal tissue. Fetal tissue was used in the development of the Johnson and Johnson (Janssen) vaccine. Neither Moderna nor Pfizer-BioNTech used fetal tissue in the research, development, or production of their vaccines; however, after the development of these vaccines, both companies used a fetal cell line in the process of confirmation that their vaccines worked.

The Vatican released a document called “Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines.” This document that discusses concerns about fetal tissue use in the development of COVID-19 vaccines was developed at the request of Pope Francis, was approved by him (as noted in its text), and was published on December 17, 2020.

Vaccine side effects fall into one of three categories: 1) Local reactions (at or near the injection site); (2) Systemic reactions (such as fever, chills, or muscle aches); and (3) Allergic reactions. 

This question addresses local and systemic side effects. Allergic side effects are addressed in a later question. 

Although COVID-19 vaccination will help protect you from getting COVID-19 disease, you may have some local or systemic side effects from the vaccination, which are normal signs that your body is building protection against COVID-19. 

While we do not yet know all of the possible vaccine side effects, some vaccinated people have had arm pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache or other body aches, or chills or fever for a few days. These common side effects are also experienced after receiving other types of vaccines, such as the flu shot. These side effects do NOT mean that the vaccine has given you a COVID-19 infection. Rather, this means that the vaccine is causing your body’s immune system to react and create antibodies to fight off the virus that causes COVID-19 in the future.

Some people have reported redness, swelling, and itching around the injection site beginning a few days or into the second week after their first vaccine dose. Some of these reactions have been quite large. It is not known if the persons who experience this will have a similar reaction after their second dose. However, these reactions are not felt to represent a risk for anaphylaxis upon receipt of the second dose. Thus, individuals with such delayed injection site reactions after the first mRNA COVID-19 vaccine dose should receive the second dose using the same vaccine product as the first dose and at the recommended interval, and preferably in the opposite arm.

These side effects may interfere with your ability to do daily activities, but they should go away in a few days.

Remember to sign up for v-safe, where you can use your smartphone to tell CDC about any side effects after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. You’ll also get reminders from V-Safe about your second vaccine dose.

If you have persistent injection site pain or other discomfort, talk to your doctor about taking an over-the-counter medicine, such as ibuprofen or acetaminophen.

To reduce pain and discomfort where you got the shot: 

• Apply a clean, cool, wet washcloth over the area
• Use or exercise your arm.

To reduce discomfort from fever:

• Drink plenty of fluids.
• Dress lightly.

When to call the doctor:

In most cases, discomfort from arm pain or swelling where you got the shot or from fever, headache, fatigue, etc, will not last more than a few days after a COVID-19 vaccine dose. Contact your doctor or healthcare provider:

• If the redness or tenderness where you got the shot increases after 24 hours
• If your side effects are worrying you or do not seem to be going away after a few days

Side effects or adverse events can be reported either in v-safe or VAERS. 

Healthcare personnel, experiencing certain symptoms may need to remain out of work, as outlined here. 

Residents of long term care facilities, experiencing certain symptoms may need to take additional precautions or measures as outlined here.  

There have been some reports of immediate but non-severe allergic reactions within 4 hours after getting a COVID-19 vaccine such as hives, swelling, and wheezing. People who have such an immediate allergic reaction - even if it was not severe - after their first COVID-19 vaccine dose should probably NOT receive the second dose of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines. However, because COVID-19 is a potentially serious disease, deciding not to finish your COVID-19 vaccine series is a very important decision that should be discussed with your doctor or other healthcare provider.  

In some cases, your doctor may want to refer you to a specialist in allergies and immunology to help make a final decision. You may be able to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine instead.

This depends on what signs and symptoms you are experiencing. The big concern is making sure that you are not one of the rare people who was exposed to COVID-19 just before you got vaccinated and that you now have an actual COVID-19 infection.

• In general, you can return to work if you are afebrile and signs and symptoms are limited only to those observed following COVID-19 vaccination (i.e., do not have other signs and symptoms of COVID-19 including cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, or loss of taste or smell). If symptoms persist for more than 2 days, you should not work, should be further evaluated, and a viral test for SARS-CoV-2 should be considered.
• For example, if you had an immediate hypersensitivity reaction (e.g., urticaria, anaphylaxis) or localized symptoms (e.g., pain, swelling, or redness at the injection site) alone but that reaction has now resolved completely, then you may go to work following normal protocols. 
• However, if you have signs and symptoms unlikely to be from the COVID-19 vaccine (e.g., cough, shortness of breath, rhinorrhea, sore throat, loss of taste or smell that could be from a COVID-19 infection), you should not go to work until you are evaluated for possible causes, including SARS-CoV-2 infection, as appropriate. Criteria for returning to work will depend on the suspected or confirmed diagnosis. 
• If you have signs and symptoms that may be from either COVID-19 vaccination, SARS-CoV-2 infection, or another infection (e.g., fever, fatigue, headache, chills, myalgia, arthralgia), you should consult your provider or occupational health office. 

For more information about post-vaccine considerations for healthcare workers, see here.  

No. Sometimes people who are afraid of or otherwise opposed to using vaccines raise this fertility topic as a concern.  In fact, there is a rumor that antibodies produced by the COVID-19 vaccines target syncytin-1, a protein in the placenta of pregnant women.  However, there are no scientific data indicating that these antibodies will affect syncytin-1 and no other fertility effects have been found for any current U.S. vaccine.  At the moment, although there is no biologic reason to suspect that COVID-19 vaccines might have an effect on female or male fertility, this topic will be monitored as part of the Phase 4 (long term) vaccine studies that are being done.

You will need your smartphone and information about the COVID-19 vaccine you received. This information can be found on the vaccination record card you received during your vaccination; if you cannot find your card, please contact your healthcare provider.

For instructions on how to register for v-safe, please click here. 

VDH is asking providers to report all vaccination administrations to the Virginia Immunization Information System (VIIS). This is very important for ensuring that there is an established reporting and data feedback loop for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Healthcare providers who are interested in providing the COVID-19 vaccine may complete a Provider Intent form on the VDH website. VDH staff will contact providers once they have submitted their intent form to discuss the next steps to enroll as a COVID-19 vaccine provider.

Further information specific to enrollment as a vaccine provider in Virginia can be found here and general information from CDC can be found here.

Yes. The Virginia Department of Health publishes a list of individual healthcare providers/practices that are currently partnering with VDH to administer the COVID-19 vaccine. This is NOT a list of locations where the public may access the COVID-19 vaccine and does not indicate the number of doses available for public distribution. Many organizations and local health departments partner to deliver vaccines at community events, and some providers are coordinating with VDH to serve specific populations, such as long-term care facilities.

Data is published weekly on Wednesday mornings (beginning February 17, 2021), and is meant to reflect data through the previous Sunday. These data do not indicate the current inventory available at these locations, and may not align exactly with the daily totals on the main VDH dashboard. Vaccine administrations may take up to 72 hours to be reported. In some cases, administration data may reflect the location where a patient's medical records were updated instead of the physical location the dose was administered. Doses may also be used to support a community event in a different locality, which may result in apparent discrepancies.

CDC has developed several self-study web modules for healthcare providers. These can be found here, and include the following:

• COVID-19 Vaccine Training: General Overview of Immunization Best Practices for Healthcare Providers (15 minutes)
• Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine (Johnson & Johnson): What Healthcare Professionals Need to Know (30 minutes)
• Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine: What Healthcare Professionals Need to Know (30 minutes)
• Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine: What Healthcare Professionals Need to Know (30 minutes)

Each of these courses includes continuing medical education (CME) credits.

Additional resources include the CDC website “Clinical Considerations for COVID-19 Vaccination” and the CDC “COVID-19 Vaccination” homepage. 

The New England Journal of Medicine provides additional Covid-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions for clinicians. 

The fact sheet for healthcare providers administering the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine can be found here. (Revised February 25, 2021) 

The fact sheet for healthcare providers administering the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine can be found here. (Revised March 31, 2021)

The fact sheet for healthcare providers administering the Johnson and Johnson (also known as Janssen) COVID-19 Vaccine can be found here. (Revised March 19, 2021)  

Governor Northam recently signed House Bill 2333 and Senate Bill 1445, which expand the pool of health care providers eligible to administer the COVID-19 vaccine in Virginia. 

Health care providers who are now authorized to administer the COVID-19 vaccine in Virginia include but are not limited to dentists, dental hygienists, veterinarians, optometrists, and health professions students enrolled in an accredited Virginia program. 

Eligible health care providers may register to volunteer as a COVID-19 vaccinator through either the Virginia Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) or the Virginia Volunteer Vaccinator Registry (VVVR).

No. Instructions from Moderna about their current COVID-19 vaccine indicate that the vaccine should NOT be refrozen once it is thawed. Moderna COVID-19 vaccine vials that have been thawed and then refrozen should be considered spoiled and should be discarded. Discarded vaccine doses or vials should be reported according to the relevant VDH requirements. The VDH COVID Vaccine Wastage Form can be found here. 

No. Expired COVID-19 vaccine is much less likely to protect recipients. Moderna COVID-19 vaccine vials expire no later than six hours after they were first used and must be discarded then. Discarded vaccine doses or vials should be reported according to the relevant VDH requirements.The VDH COVID Vaccine Wastage Form can be found here.

Yes. If the first dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine was received but the patient is unable to complete the series with an mRNA vaccine (e.g., due to contraindication), a single dose of Janssen COVID-19 vaccine may be administered at a minimum interval of 28 days from the mRNA dose*. These individuals will be considered to have received a valid, single-dose Janssen vaccination, not mixed vaccination series (mRNA/viral vector). 

Persons with a contraindication to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (including due to a known allergy to PEG) have a precaution to the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.*

The same precaution applies if a person has a contraindication to getting the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.  Persons with a contraindication to the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine (including due to a known allergy to polysorbate) have a precaution to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.*

Persons with a contraindication to one mRNA vaccine should not receive doses of either mRNA vaccine (PfizerBioNTech or Moderna).

*In these patients, vaccination should be undertaken in an appropriate setting under the supervision of a health care provider experienced in the management of severe allergic reactions. Consider referral to an allergist-immunologist.

Detailed information from CDC on how to address vaccine administration errors can be found here.

Key points include:

• Inform the recipient of the vaccine administration error.
• Consult with the state immunization program and/or Immunization Information System (IIS) to determine how the dose should be entered into the IIS, both as an administered dose and to account for inventory. The Virginia IIS homepage can be found here. 
• Report the error to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), unless otherwise indicated in the table. Providers are required to report all COVID-19 vaccine administration errors—even those not associated with an adverse event — to the VAERS. To file an electronic report, please see the VAERS website.

Determine how the error occurred and implement strategies to prevent it from happening again. A discussion on strategies to prevent errors can be found in the Vaccine Administration chapter of the Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (Pink Book). Additional resources can be found on CDC’s vaccine administration web page, including a job aid for preventing errors.

CDC provides detailed information on preparing to handle anaphylaxis after COVID-19 vaccine administration here.

 Key points include:

• Healthcare personnel who are trained and qualified to recognize the signs and symptoms of anaphylaxis, as well as administer intramuscular epinephrine, should be available at the vaccination location at all times.
• Vaccination locations that anticipate vaccinating large numbers of persons should plan adequate staffing and supplies (including epinephrine) for the assessment and management of anaphylaxis.
• A full list of medications and supplies to have on hand can be found here.
• COVID-19 vaccination locations should have at least 3 doses of epinephrine available at all times, and the ability to quickly obtain additional doses to replace supplies after epinephrine is administered to a patient. Persons with a history of anaphylaxis who carry an epinephrine auto-injector could be reminded to bring it to their vaccination appointment.

CDC recommends an observation period following vaccination with COVID-19 vaccines.

Persons should be observed for 30 minutes if they have:

• A history of an immediate allergic reaction of any severity to a vaccine or injectable therapy 
• A history of anaphylaxis due to any cause 
• A contraindication to a different type of COVID-19 vaccine (for example, people with a contraindication to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines who receive Janssen viral vector vaccine should be observed for 30 minutes following Janssen vaccination).

All other persons should be observed for 15 minutes.  

For more information on allergic reactions related to the COVID-19 vaccines, please see the CDC website here.

Yes. CDC has specific guidance for healthcare providers who may be vaccinating homebound persons or persons in small group settings here.

Yes. The Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation (CIDI) at Georgia Tech has created COVID-19 resources in alternative formats based upon CDC's guidance.  Their work is supported by a grant from the CDC Foundation with technical assistance from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These accessible resources for COVID-19 for individuals with disabilities may be found here.

Yes. Pfizer-BioNTech states that ‘the thermal shipping container, including the temperature-monitoring device, must be returned to the supplier to help Pfizer-BioNTech fulfill its commitment to reusable resources’. The first step in preparing to return the container is to open the thermal shipping container and leave it at room temperature in a well-ventilated area to discard the dry ice. Details about how to return the container are available here.

CDC has resources that healthcare providers can use to share information on the history and safety of both mRNA and viral vector COVID-19 vaccines. These resources can be found here:

• Understanding and Explaining mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines
• Understanding and Explaining Viral Vector COVID-19 Vaccines 

V-safe is a smartphone-based tool that uses text messaging and web surveys to provide personalized health check-ins after patients receive a COVID-19 vaccination. Through v-safe, patients can quickly tell CDC if they have any side effects after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Depending on their answers, someone from CDC may call to check on them. V-safe will remind patients to get the second COVID-19 vaccine dose if they need one. 

Vaccination providers are asked to recommend the use of v-safe to all COVID-19 vaccine recipients. V-safe information sheets and posters are available under “Patient Education” on our website. 

The VaxText text messaging resource is a free, no cost to the provider or patient, service you can offer to vaccine recipients if you do not already have a text or email reminder system in place. By texting ENROLL to 1-833-VaxText (829-8398), vaccine recipients can opt in to receive a weekly text reminder for their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine or a reminder for when they are overdue for their second dose, in English or Spanish.

Additional information can be found here.

The mRNA COVID-19 vaccine series consist of two doses administered intramuscularly:

• Pfizer-BioNTech (30 µg, 0.3 ml each): 3 weeks (21 days) apart
• Moderna (100 µg, 0.5 ml): 1 month (28 days) apart

Persons should not be scheduled to receive the second dose earlier than recommended (i.e., 3 weeks [Pfizer-BioNTech] or 4 weeks [Moderna]). However, second doses administered within a grace period of 4 days earlier than the recommended date for the second dose are still considered valid. Doses inadvertently administered earlier than the grace period do not need to be repeated. 

The second dose should be administered as close to the recommended interval as possible. However, if it is not feasible to adhere to the recommended interval, the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines may be scheduled for administration up to 6 weeks (42 days) after the first dose. There are currently limited data on the efficacy of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines administered beyond this window. However, if the second dose is administered beyond these intervals, there is no need to restart the series.

Additional information on vaccine administration can be found here. 

Vaccine administration errors should be reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

No, currently available mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are not interchangeable with each other or with other COVID-19 vaccine products. The safety and efficacy of a mixed-product series have not been evaluated. Both doses of the series should be completed with the same product. 

Every effort should be made to determine which vaccine product was received as the first dose, in order to ensure completion of the vaccine series with the same product. In exceptional situations in which the first-dose vaccine product cannot be determined or is no longer available, any available mRNA COVID-19 vaccine may be administered at a minimum interval of 28 days between doses to complete the mRNA COVID-19 vaccination series. If two doses of different mRNA COVID-19 vaccine products are administered in these situations (or inadvertently), no additional doses of either product are recommended at this time. 

The safety and efficacy of Janssen COVID-19 vaccine administered after an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine has not been established. However, in limited, exceptional situations where a patient received the first dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine but is unable to complete the series with either the same or different mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (e.g., due to contraindication), a single dose of Janssen COVID-19 vaccine may be considered at a minimum interval of 28 days from the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine dose. Patients who receive Janssen COVID-19 vaccine after a dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine should be considered to have received a valid, single-dose Janssen vaccination—not a mixed vaccination series.

Recommendations may be updated as further information becomes available or other vaccine types (e.g., viral vector, protein subunit vaccines) are authorized. Additional information on vaccine administration can be found here. 

Vaccine administration errors should be reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

FDA and CDC have confirmed that some providers are reporting the ability to obtain additional doses within the multidose COVID-19 vaccine vials manufactured by both Pfizer and Moderna. Consensus from FDA and CDC is that it is acceptable to use every full dose obtainable from each vial. However, since these are preservative free vials, it is critical to note that any further remaining liquid that does not constitute a full dose should not be pooled from multiple vials to create an additional dose.

Given the lack of data on the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines administered simultaneously with other vaccines, the vaccine series should routinely be administered alone, with a minimum interval of 14 days before or after administration with any other vaccine. However, COVID-19 and other vaccines may be administered within a shorter period in situations where the benefits of vaccination are deemed to outweigh the potential unknown risks of vaccine coadministration (e.g., tetanus toxoid-containing vaccination as part of wound management, measles or hepatitis A vaccination during an outbreak) or to avoid barriers or delays to COVID-19 vaccination (e.g., in long-term care facility residents or healthcare personnel who received influenza or other vaccinations prior to/upon admission or onboarding). If COVID-19 vaccines are administered within 14 days of another vaccine, doses do not need to be repeated for either vaccine. Further information can be found here.

Currently, there are no data on the safety and efficacy of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in persons who received monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma as part of COVID-19 treatment. Based on the estimated half-life of such therapies and evidence suggesting that reinfection is uncommon in the 90 days after initial infection, vaccination should be deferred for at least 90 days, as a precautionary measure until additional information becomes available, to avoid potential interference of the antibody therapy with vaccine-induced immune responses. This recommendation applies to persons who receive passive antibody therapy before receiving any vaccine doses and those who receive passive antibody therapy after the first dose but before the second dose, in which case the second dose should be deferred for at least 90 days following receipt of the antibody therapy.

For persons receiving antibody therapies not specific to COVID-19 treatment (e.g., intravenous immunoglobulin, RhoGAM), administration of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines either simultaneously with or at any interval before or after receipt of an antibody-containing product is unlikely to substantially impair development of a protective antibody response. Thus, there is no recommended minimum interval between other antibody therapies (i.e., those that are not specific to COVID-19 treatment) and mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.  

More information can be found here.

Yes. CDC has released a summary table which provides descriptions of planned vaccine effectiveness evaluations they are conducting with partners. Table includes the research outcome, evaluation population, evaluation design, participating sites, and, where relevant, links to protocols that detail the evaluation designs.

The COVID-19 Prevention Network provides information on enrolling in clinical trials. Please click here for more information. The COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN) was formed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.