The days of getting COVID-19 vaccinations at the Fairfax County and South County government centers are numbered.
The mass vaccine clinics will reduce operations from five to three days per week, starting Monday (Nov. 7), the Fairfax County Health Department announced last week.
(Updated at 4:30 p.m.) Booster COVID-19 vaccinations for kids aged 5 to 11 were put on hold late last week, as the Fairfax County Health Department transitions to updated vaccines that target omicron variants of the disease.
Federal health officials expanded their recommendation for the bivalent booster vaccines to include that younger age group on Wednesday (Oct. 12), saying the updated shots will provide better protection against “more transmissible and immune-evading” variants.
There were undeniably hiccups along the way, but Fairfax County’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic earned an overall positive assessment from community surveys conducted this summer.
A general community survey issued in June received 2,148 responses, representing just a fraction of the county’s over 1.1 million residents.
Most booster shots against COVID-19 were put on hold over Labor Day weekend, as Fairfax County prepares for newly authorized vaccines designed to target omicron variants of the coronavirus.
Appointments for the updated boosters are expected to be available through the county’s Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS) by tomorrow (Wednesday), the Fairfax County Health Department confirmed to FFXnow.
Put in your final requests for free at-home COVID-19 tests now, because once Labor Day weekend arrives, that will no longer be an option.
The federal government’s offer of free, at-home test kits to all households will be put on hold Friday (Sept. 2) after Congress failed to renew funding for the program, which launched in January during the pandemic’s biggest surge so far.
An end may be in sight for the local state of emergency that Fairfax County has had in place since the COVID-19 pandemic upended government operations and daily life in March 2020.
“A County Executive agenda item regarding ending the Local Emergency Declaration that was established to support response and recovery related to the COVID-19 pandemic will go before the Board of Supervisors at their next meeting on Tuesday, September 13,” Fairfax County Director of Public Affairs Tony Castrilli said in a statement.
Fairfax County’s COVID-19 community level has dropped from “medium” to “low,” as anticipated based on a steady decline in case numbers over the past month.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed the county’s community level with its weekly update on Thursday (Aug. 11), as its case rate of 187.71 cases per 100,000 residents dipped below the 200 mark for the first time since early May.
In the Fairfax Health District, COVID-19 cases are on the decline, and vaccinations have continued to rise.
At least one Covid vaccine dose has been administered to 85% of all residents in the district, which includes Fairfax County and the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, according to the Fairfax County Health Department’s data dashboard.
After staying level in the early summer, COVID-19 cases have been on a more decisive downward trend since mid-July in the Fairfax Health District, which includes Fairfax County and the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church.
The 231 new cases reported today (Monday) are the fewest to come in on a single day since just 169 cases were added on May 2, according to Virginia Department of Health data.
A fourth vaccine has entered the fight against COVID-19.
The Gaithersburg-based company Novavax received an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration earlier this month for a two-dose vaccination designated for unvaccinated people 18 and older.
