Following a few years during which WVU Medicine has expanded operations into the Upper Ohio Valley in Glen Dales, Barnesville, and Wheeling, the health care provider is now offering to assist with mass vaccination sites throughout the state of West Virginia.
Lou Vargo, director of the Ohio County Emergency Management Agency, said on Monday officials of WVU Medicine offered the partnership, but whether or not those mass vaccination events take place will depend on the supply provided by the federal government.
“We have learned this week that WVU Medicine is going to help with the vaccinations around the state,” Vargo said. “They are going to partner with them in hopes that we will be able to do mass vaccinations in the future. There are a lot of moving parts with an event such as a mass vaccination, so that’s why I believe this is going to be a great partnership.
But when it comes to mass vaccinations, the state has to supply us the doses, and that’s been inconsistent for the last few weeks,” he said. “As long as we can get the supply, WVU Medicine has said they could administer 7,500 doses per day throughout the state. That would provide a great solution, but again, it’s always about the supply.”
80-Plus
Employees of the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department will continue each day this week with administering the first of two vaccinations to residents of Ohio County who are at least 80 years old or older. The clinics are operated at the health department on the first floor of the Ohio County Courthouse in downtown Wheeling.
The number of appointments, however, has been limited because the state has distributed fewer doses than what has been expected, according to Vargo.
“The state of West Virginia has been leading the nation with the rate of vaccinations, and things have been going very well for the most part, but it’s difficult because we have to rely on the state to provide the doses, and the state has to rely on the federal government,” the EMA director explained. “Once the state does get the vaccines, they are transported to five different destinations for distribution. What we can do here in Ohio County just depends on what the state allocates to us.
“But, when we were expecting 650 doses, we find out at the last minute that we received only 250 doses,” he said. “That has limited us to the number of appointments that we can make. When we were told it was 650 per week, we were hopeful to get everyone in the country who is 80 years old and up vaccinated in a couple of weeks so we could move on, but now we don’t know if that’s possible.”
Frontline hospital employees and first responders were first to be vaccinated with Pfizer doses in Ohio County, and 21 days later those people were scheduled for dose No. 2, but that almost did not take place.
“We did have an issue with getting the second doses for the people in our hospitals and for our first responders, but thankfully we got that resolved quickly so those folks can get up to the 95 percent efficacy that both of the vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, provide the people who get them.
“We are just anxious to move forward with getting the next age group vaccinated,” he said. “We estimated the population of those 80 and up to be about 2,000 residents in Ohio County, and we realize as we move down the age groups, there are going to be more and more people who will want the vaccine.”
Free of Charge
When Vargo, health department administrator Howard Gamble, and the administration of Wheeling Hospital teamed up to begin Covid-19 testing in Ohio County at Wheeling Park, there was a fee residents had to pay. Those testing fees were waived, however, once the state mandated additional mass testing at various locations throughout the country.
The vaccine, though, is free of charge to all residents.
“The vaccine is free,” Vargo said. “The federal government allocated billions of dollars to Pfizer and Moderna, and when our residents here in Ohio County are vaccinated, there is no charge for it. Some counties may be charging an administrative fee or something like that, but that is not the case here in Ohio County.
“Initially, when we first started testing for Covid-19, there was a fee, but then the state allowed us to open up more locations for testing, and those tests are free of charge,” he said. “We will continue with that testing as long as the state is providing the funding for those sites.”
If the partnerships between WVU Medicine and the health departments across the state are not possible because of a lack of supply, Vargo said the county will continue scheduling appointments the same way it has the past few weeks. Following an announcement of the arrival of a number of vaccines, health department employees will make the appointments with the residents during phone calls.
“It’s usually Monday when we know for sure how many doses we’re going to get, and that’s when the health department opens up the phone lines to make those appointments,” Vargo said. “While our top issue is getting the vaccines to the people, the other issue is that when you have that many people calling the health department at the same time for one of 250 appointments, those phones ring for a long time after the appointments are filled up.
“Trust me; if I had a mother and father who both are over 80 years old, my whole family would be calling to get them on that list,” he said. “We’re just doing everything we possibly can to get that vaccine in as many arms as possible here in Ohio County, and we’re looking at things like establishing a waiting list in the future, but that would be something that would have to be approved by the state.”
