Vaccine hesitancy and refusal among Virginia residents will make it difficult to achieve the 75 percent vaccination rate among the population that is considered necessary for herd immunity against COVID-19, according to Dr. Richard Williams, medical director of the Three Rivers Health District.

In his weekly update, Williams said that although the district has the capacity to vaccinate up to 5,000 people each week against the virus, it is only administering about 1,500 doses of vaccine at present.

“There are many reasons people are hesitant to receive a COVID-19 vaccine,” said Williams in the release.

While some are distrustful of the government, he said, others fear they might suffer adverse effects from the vaccine.

Some don’t think the COVID-19 virus is a significant threat, and some think vaccination is a violation of their “individual freedoms and rights,” he continued.

Williams again urged people to try to understand that COVID-19 is highly contagious and still capable of causing serious illness and death, and that the vaccines developed to fight it are all highly effective. While they might cause a reaction, he said, any medication can do that.

“COVID-19 is far, far more dangerous than any of the COVID-19 vaccines,” he said. “It you have doubts or questions about COVID-19 vaccination, consult with your health care provider to consider the facts they tell you and to make a decision whether or not you will take the vaccine.”

Cases, hospitalizations, deaths

The number of new COVID-19 cases identified locally decreased yet again this week, with only seven new cases in Gloucester, for a total of 2,203; one new case in Mathews, for a total of 596; and the reduction of one case from those listed for Middlesex, for a total of 572 cases since the pandemic began last March.

While Gloucester and Middlesex each added one hospitalization for the virus during the past week, for totals of 62 and 25, respectively, there were no new hospitalizations of Mathews patients, leaving the total at 22, and there have been no deaths in any of the three counties for a number of weeks, leaving the number of deaths at 48 for Gloucester, 12 for Mathews, and 20 for Middlesex.

Across the Three Rivers Health District, there have been 10,027 cases of the virus identified over the past 14 months, with 36 new cases diagnosed during the past week, slashing the new caseload in half from last week’s 73 new cases. Five district residents have been hospitalized for COVID-19 since last Wednesday, for a total of 412 hospitalizations, and two residents of the Three Rivers District lost their lives to the virus during the past week, for a total of 187.

Case numbers continued to drop statewide, as well, with 3,178 new cases recorded during the past week, down from the 4,609 new cases listed last week. The statewide COVID-19 case total stood at 671,325 as of Wednesday morning. The number of new hospitalizations reported declined during, as well, from 416 last week to 301 this week, for a total of 29,339 patients with the virus hospitalized in Virginia over the past 14 months.

The only number that was higher during the past week than in the preceding weeks was the number of deaths from the virus, which was 114, up from 90 last week, and bringing the statewide death toll to 11,048 people since the pandemic began.

Vaccination numbers

Vaccination efforts continue across the district. In Gloucester, 613 people received their final dose of the vaccine during the past week, bringing the total number of fully vaccinated people in the county to 13,481, or 36.1 percent of the population. In Mathews, 149 people became fully vaccinated, for a total of 3,793, or 42.9 percent of the population. And in Middlesex, 146 people had their final shot, for a total of 4,591 people, or 43.4 percent of the population, who were fully vaccinated as of Wednesday. The percentages of people in each county who had received at least one dose of the vaccine as of Wednesday were: Gloucester–43.8 percent, Mathews–49.5 percent, and Middlesex–51.1 percent.
Statewide, 48.7 percent of people have received at least one dose of the vaccine, while 38 percent, or 3.25 million people, are fully vaccinated.