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COVID Blog: More than 200,000 people in the DMV have now been vaccinated

But, there's still a long way to go to get even the majority of health care workers in the region inoculated against COVID-19.

WASHINGTON — It’s Tuesday, January 5, and nearly 200,000 people in the DMV have now received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

More than half of those doses have been administered in Virginia, which has now given shots to 104,083 people, as of Tuesday. That’s about a quarter of the commonwealth’s health care workforce.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, both Maryland and Virginia have distributed abut 25% of the doses they’ve received so far. That puts them behind states like South and North Dakota, Tennessee and Connecticut, which have all used more than half of the doses they’ve received. The District of Columbia has so far used a little less than half of its allotment.

All three jurisdictions are going to need to step it up, though, if they want to begin vaccinating people outside of Phase 1A by the end of the month – as D.C. said yesterday it hopes to begin doing January 25. If you live in D.C. and still need to be vaccinated, here’s how the process of signing up for an appointment works.

If you’re just here for the numbers, here’s how things look today.

  • D.C. reported 262 new cases of the coronavirus and 4 new deaths on Tuesday. More than 30,000 people in the District have now contracted the virus, and more than 800 have died from it.
  • Maryland reported 1,956 new cases of the coronavirus and 54 new deaths on Tuesday.
  • Virginia reported 4,377 new cases of the coronavirus and 59 new deaths on Tuesday. The commonwealth is now averaging more than 4,500 new cases a day for the first time ever.

How are things in the DMV?

It’s natural to want to focus on the vaccine numbers, but don’t let that distract you from how bad the virus has gotten in the DMV. As you can see in the graphic above, all three jurisdictions are still experiencing some of their highest case counts since the pandemic began.

In Virginia, the commonwealth is now averaging more than 4,500 new cases a day for the first time ever. Its average positivity rate for coronavirus tests has jumped up to more than 16% -- the highest rate since May. And there are now nearly 3,000 COVID-19 patients in Virginia hospitals, again the highest number ever.

Maryland’s hospitalization numbers have been plateaued at near-record highs since peaking on Dec. 15 at just under 1,800 COVID-19 patients. As of Tuesday, there were 1,771 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the state.

In D.C., the city is now averaging 233 new cases a day. That’s about 20% below its all-time high, but still 50 more cases a day than where it was on December 1.

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