VIRGINIA – Giant Food, a Landover, Maryland-based company with locations in Northern Virginia, announced Wednesday that it is offering the COVID-19 vaccine to eligible residents at all 152 in-store pharmacy locations. This includes operations in Virginia, Washington, DC, Maryland, and Delaware.
Individuals 65 and over are prioritized in Virginia, but anyone in Phase 1a or 1b is eligible. Other eligible residents include health care workers, residents and long-term care facility workers, people 16-64 with an underlying illness, and key frontline workers. The main working groups are: police, fire brigade and dangerous goods; Corrections and homeless workers; Food and agriculture (including veterinarians); Manufacture; Grocery store workers (including grocery vendors at the farmer’s market); public transport (including carpooling); Postmen (USPS and private); Officials who need to maintain continuity of government (including judges and public justice officials); Clergy and religious leaders; and caretakers and cleaners.
“We are very proud of all of our Giant pharmacy teams in our stores who are committed to serving the public and doing their part in vaccinating our communities,” said Paul Zvaleny, director of pharmacies at Giant Food. “We are honored to be able to offer the vaccine at all 152 pharmacy locations to help our communities recover from the pandemic.”
Appointments for the first dose can be made at Giantsfood.com/covid-info. If there are no appointments available, please try again later.
Huge pharmacies use vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson, depending on the pharmacy location. If a person is receiving the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, pharmacy staff will schedule appointments for the second dose at the time of the first dose.
COVID-19 vaccinations are free, but residents should bring their health insurance card and driver’s license to the appointment.
In addition to the in-store vaccinations, Giant hosts some outside clinics to ensure fair distribution of the vaccine. Last week, one of the vaccination clinics in the Arc of Prince George’s County, Maryland was housed for people cared for by that organization.
According to the company, expanding availability will improve access for current eligible residents and future privilege groups. The expansion comes because all Virginia locations are expected to begin Phase 1c (certain key workers) by mid-April and Phase 2 (all residents 16 years and older) by May 1. Some health counts have started Phase 1c, but Northern Virginia health counts remain in Phase 1b.
As of this week, Giant Food was selling the vaccine in more than half of its pharmacies. For example, Giant Food locations helped the Fairfax County Health Department process its vaccine waiting list.
As of Wednesday, 2,515,287 people in Virginia have had at least one dose of vaccine (29.5 percent of the population) and 1,346,564 are fully vaccinated (15.8 percent of the population). According to the Virginia Department of Health, an average of 65,046 doses are administered per day.
Pharmacies like Giant have administered 851,218 doses in Virginia, followed by health departments with 1,159,011 administered doses. Hospitals have administered 815,634, doctor’s offices 565,566 and other community health care providers 382,157.
COVID-19 data
The daily cases are still on average for the 1000s. As of Wednesday, 1,035 additional COVID-19 cases were reported in Virginia, and the seven-day average is 1,467. To date, 10,252 deaths have been recorded, including 10 new deaths reported on Wednesday.
The positive average of the PCR tests on March 27 was 5.8 percent. An average of 18,017 PCR tests are reported daily in the state.
There are currently 1,046 COVID-19 patients nationwide, 228 of them in intensive care units and 134 on ventilators. COVID-19 patients make up about 7.9 percent of the 13,124 occupied hospital beds in Virginia. According to the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association, ventilator usage is 29 percent of all hospital patients and intensive care occupancy is 77 percent.
Here are the latest coronavirus data updates for our service area Tuesday through Wednesday:
- Alexandria: 10,940 cases, 531 hospitalizations, 128 deaths; Increase of 16 cases
- Arlington County: 14,227 cases, 802 hospital stays, 246 deaths; Increase of 39 cases, three hospitalizations and one death
- Fairfax County: 71,411 cases, 3,703 hospital stays, 1,040 deaths; Increase of 97 cases, seven hospitalizations and two deaths
- Fairfax City: 522 cases, 41 hospitalizations, 18 deaths; Increase by one case
- Falls Church: 386 cases, 20 hospitalizations, nine deaths; Three cases and one fatality were removed
- Loudoun County: 25,251 cases, 946 hospital stays, 269 deaths; Increase of 30 cases and one hospital stay
- Manassas: 4,159 cases, 166 hospitalizations, 45 deaths; Increase of three cases
- Manassas Park: 1,169 cases, 67 hospitalizations, 12 deaths; no changes
- Prince William County: 41,934 cases, 1,510 hospital stays, 468 deaths; Increase of 61 cases
- Fredericksburg: 1,879 cases, 96 hospitalizations, 22 deaths; Increase of three cases and one hospitalization
- Spotsylvania County: 8,845 cases, 289 hospitalizations, 108 deaths; Increase of five cases, two hospitalizations and one death
- Stafford County: 10,150 cases, 337 hospital stays, 69 deaths; Increase from 18 cases and one hospital stay