To promote access to COVID-19 vaccine and assist efforts to reach the national goal of 70% vaccination coverage by July 4, VDH encourages hospitals, emergency departments (EDs), and urgent care centers (UCCs) to administer vaccines prior to discharging patients. 

• EDs serve as the primary—and often only—health care access point for up to a fifth of the U.S. population
• UCCs handle about 89 million patient visits each year, or more than 29% of all primary care visits in the country, and nearly 15% of all outpatient physician visits. Expanding COVID-19 vaccine availability in these settings can increase vaccine access. 

Over the past few months, Virginia’s vaccination effort has made great strides with over 8.4 million doses administered and nearly half of Virginians fully vaccinated. With vaccine allocations exceeding customer demand, some partners are reporting significant vaccine inventory buildup. To minimize waste and ensure the opportunity to redeploy vaccine at risk of expiring  to an area in need of additional supply, we have created a survey for partners to share information with VDH. This survey will not replace the wastage reporting tool, rather it is an attempt to minimize the amount of waste providers will have and thus report in the tool. Providers should plan to use both surveys regularly to report expired doses and those at risk of expiring. Both surveys can be found on the Resources for Vaccine Clinics webpage.

• This survey will request the following information:
  • Facility Name
  • Facility VTrckS ID
  • Vaccine manufacturer(s)
  • Expiration Date
  • Quantity of doses at risk of expiring
• Please provide this information as accurately as possible to ensure we are able to maximize the use of existing vaccine inventory and avoid unnecessary spoilage.
• After completion, VDH will work to provide specific guidance about whether the at-risk vaccine can be utilized (e.g., No Further Action, Redistribute to Provider XYZ, Redistribute to Central Pharmacy, etc.). VDH will work to support  providers for any logistics or transportation-related costs, where applicable.
• This survey can be filled out on a rolling basis so that over time, as more vaccine may become at-risk, the information can be shared immediately.

VDH Office Hours for Providers have been discontinued. If you have questions, please contact us at covidvaccineinfo@vdh.virginia.gov.

• Some additional functionality has been added to VaxMaX to help support and enhance the vaccine request process
  • Please note that Pfizer-BioNTech 450 will now be available to all providers to request for upcoming orders
  • Providers will also be able to request ancillary kits to support adult vs. adolescent vaccinations through VaxMaX
• VDH has launched the Small Shipment Redistribution Program (SSRP) - a voluntary network of geographically dispersed providers who coordinate with a central distribution center (hub) to order smaller quantities of the vaccine than are available through direct federal shipments.
  • To participate in the program, please place order requests by 7pm ET on Mondays using the RedCap Survey link here.
  • Note: This is not meant to replace the normal ordering procedures; if a provider is able to handle standard shipping quantities, providers should do so.

As with previous weeks, please enter all order requests into VaxMaX by Mondays at 7pm ET. For any questions about VaxMaX and its functionality, please visit the VaxMaX help website as a resource for reference guides and tutorial videos.

VDH has received reports from providers about needles separating from syringes before or during vaccination because they are not tightly attached. Before injecting, vaccinators should always check to be sure that the needle hub is secured tightly.

Check out our complete list of updated COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic Best Practices and our Lightning Learnings: Best Practices for Busy Providers!

Upcoming Events

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• June 9, 3 - 4 pm: COVID-19 Vaccine Update – Pregnant Women, Children & Variants
• June 9, 3 - 4 pm: CDC and U.S. Department of Education: Strategies for Supporting College and University Students Holistically and Safely: CDC Guidance and Best Practices
• June 23, 1 - 2 pm: COVID-19 Vaccination and Children – Answering Parents’ Questions

 

As a reminder, there are storage and handling labels available on the CDC website to assist with logging and monitoring expiration dates.  The labels are located at:

1. Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Beyond Use Date/Time (BUD) Tracking Label
2. Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Storage and Handling Label
3. Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine Storage and Handling Label

Other helpful resources:

1. CDC | Information About Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine
2. CDC | Building Confidence in COVID-19 Vaccines
3. VDH | Resources for Healthcare Professionals
4. VDH | Vaccine Information Shareables