Northern Virginia leaders send governor letter requesting more vaccines

Northern Virginia requests more vaccines

Northern Virginia is asking for more vaccines as hundreds of thousands of eligible people sit on the waitlist. In a letter sent to Governor Northam, local leaders say they have the ability to vaccinate all the people on the waitlist but need the supply.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - Northern Virginia is asking for more vaccines as hundreds of thousands of eligible people sit on waitlists. In a letter sent to Governor Northam, local leaders say they have the ability to vaccinate all the people on the waitlist but need the supply.

Arlington County Council Chairman Matthew de Ferranti, Loudoun County Council Chairwoman Phyllis Randall, Prince William County Council Chairwoman Ann Wheeler, Fairfax County Council Chairman Jeffrey McKay, P. David Tarter, Chairman of the Northern Virginia Regional Commission and Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson all signed the letter.

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The four-page letter, sent via email, asks Governor Northam to send more vaccines to Northern Virginia before moving the state to priority group 1c in a few weeks.

"We have the capacity, we have the demand and we have the commitment and structures to ensure equity. Our message to the Governor is all we need is one thing, it’s the doses," Mayor Wilson said.

While waitlists in Virginia are full, other jurisdictions in other parts of the state are running out of people to vaccinate in priority groups 1a and 1b.

"It just didn’t seem fair to us that while we’re vaccinating more people than anyone else, our problem is not that we’ve run out of people, our problem is that we have hundreds of thousands of people on the waitlist ready to get their shots. If they could send us the vaccines we can get rid of the waiting list," Chairman McKay said.

Currently, 102,000 eligible people in Fairfax County alone are awaiting appointments.

"Frankly we can probably get rid of the waiting list in a week. If they sent me 100,000 new vaccines this week, we can figure it out. We have a network in place to get those in people’s arms this week," McKay said.

In the letter, they emphasized the region’s focus on diversity and distributing the vaccine equitably.

"Each of the jurisdictions are doing different things. We are partnering with non-profits, we are going door to door in neighborhoods that are hard to reach and have been harder hit by COVID. We have a lot of residents in this region who are very eager for vaccination. They want it done now. We don’t have to convince a lot of folks," Wilson said.

After the letter was sent, leaders from the region met with state health officials to discuss their concerns and were told the state will work on getting more vaccines to Northern Virginia.