Sentara Healthcare receives additional shipments of COVID-19 vaccines

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – Sentara Healthcare announced Tuesday that it has received additional shipments of both the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

Supply is still limited, so the health system is administering the vaccine to priority groups, which include staff who work inside a Sentara medical facility. But a Sentara official confirmed to 10 On Your Side they now have enough doses to offer the vaccine to all staff and affiliated providers.

The vaccine will not be available to the general public until this Spring.

Sentara is now offering vaccine clinics in all 12 Sentara hospitals, but again, only for healthcare workers.

Sentara first began administering the COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 15, a day after receiving a shipment of 11,700 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. In fact, the first COVID-19 vaccine in Virginia was administered at Sentara Norfolk.

As of Jan. 3, Sentara has administered nearly 9,000 vaccine doses, but spokesperson Lauren Patton said the health system expects to see that number increase dramatically over the next two weeks.

Staff who received the vaccine will continue to wear proper PPE and follow COVID-19 protocols.

The COVID-19 vaccine is optional for employees.

To date (as of Jan. 5, 2020), Virginia as a whole has distributed nearly half a million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, with a total of 104,083 people in the commonwealth now vaccinated.