A man receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine (through the Fairfax County Department of Health)
The Fairfax Health District has reached an important milestone in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, despite concerns about the spreading delta variant of the novel coronavirus keeping the area on suspicion.
According to the Fairfax County’s Department of Health’s vaccine data dashboard, 70% of district residents aged 18 and over are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, which means they have received both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the one-off Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
A total of 692,049 residents of the Fairfax Health District – 58.5% of the total population – are fully vaccinated. The district includes the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church and Fairfax County.
765,085 residents – 64.6% of the population – received at least one dose of vaccine, including 76.8% of all adults.
Fairfax continues to have a higher vaccination rate than the state as a whole, which fully vaccinated 65.7% of adults and 54.6% of the general population.
The urgency of Fairfax County’s vaccination efforts has increased in recent weeks in response to the increasing transmission of COVID-19 in the community from the Delta variant, the most contagious strain of the virus to date, which is preliminary evidence even from vaccinated individuals can be spread, is fueled.
In a press release on Friday (Aug. 6), the Virginia Department of Health confirmed that the Delta variant is now the most common form of the coronavirus in the state, causing 80% of all infections in the week ending July 10 – a 45% increase versus June 19th three weeks earlier.
Since June 19, Fairfax County has grown from an average of zero new daily COVID-19 cases in a week to a seven-day average of 16 cases on July 10 and 116.4 cases today (Monday), the highest since the 25th according to the VDH dashboard.
The county health department today reported 93 new cases for the Fairfax Health District, bringing the total to 80,460 cases.
Fairfax County COVID-19 cases for the past 180 days as of August 9, 2021 (via the Virginia Department of Health)
The daily case count differs from VDH, which reported 78 new cases for the district today, including two in Falls Church City, as the county switched to reporting the total number of new cases on Aug. 1. The state still reports net new incidents, taking into account cases where data cleansings were mapped as duplicates or as the wrong health district.
“The health department is now reporting the number of newly reported COVID-19 cases and is not deducting cases that have been removed from data cleansing efforts,” said epidemiologist Ben Klekamp, who heads the county health department’s chronically communicable disease program. “The total number of cases will continue to reflect the net number of total cases to account for the changes made by data cleansing.”
A resident of the Fairfax Health District died of COVID-19 since last week, bringing the death toll to 1,153. The virus has hospitalized 4,195 people, including 10 people in the past week.
“The Delta variant is here in Virginia and is hitting our unvaccinated populations particularly hard,” said state health commissioner Dr. M. Norman Oliver, in a statement. “We have a very powerful tool to stop the transmission of COVID-19: vaccination. There is no question that the COVID-19 vaccination will save lives and prevent and reduce disease. “
As of Friday, 98.5% of COVID-19 cases in Virginia, 97.3% of hospital admissions, and 98.2% of related deaths have been people who are not fully vaccinated. The VDH has recorded 218 hospital admissions of fully vaccinated people and 50 groundbreaking deaths compared to 7,951 hospital admissions and 2,747 deaths of unvaccinated people.
In addition to encouraging people to get vaccinated if they aren’t already, state and local health officials recommend wearing a mask indoors, avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated rooms, and keeping a distance of two, regardless of your vaccination status Meters to people who are not in your household, wash your hands regularly and stay at home in the event of illness.
Fairfax County is now requiring face masks in the county’s facilities, and they will be mandatory for students, staff and visitors in school buildings when the new academic year begins later this month.