Author Archives: Jessie Higgins

University of Virginia students and Charlottesville residents flocked to Danville this week to receive COVID-19 vaccines at a new mass vaccination center — and state officials now say that must stop. Earlier this week, the new Community Vaccination Center had thousands of extra doses and the staff there was giving them out to anyone who […]

Beginning Tuesday, the Blue Ridge Health District will close its main vaccination clinic at the old K-Mart parking lot and move it into the old JCPenney store in the Fashion Square Mall. The new location offers more space and stability, health officials say. “It provides us with about 100,000 square feet to space out,” said […]

While state health officials say that all Virginia health districts should open COVID-19 vaccines to people in phase 1C within “weeks,” local officials stopped short of making any promises. The Blue Ridge Health District has a disproportionately high number of frontline health workers and individuals older than 65 — groups that fall into phase 1A […]

As local supplies continue to increase, the Blue Ridge Health District has started vaccinating people with high-risk medical conditions. The district last week began vaccinating individuals with such conditions as it continues to give doses to people age 65 and older, health care workers and some essential workers. The expansion comes as the local health […]

One year ago today, Charlottesville leaders gathered for what would be their final in-person meeting before a yearlong shutdown. A new disease, a novel coronavirus, was swiftly spreading across the globe. On that day, there were only 17 confirmed cases in Virginia and it hadn’t yet been identified in what is now the Blue Ridge […]

It was one year ago that local leaders gathered for their final in-person meeting before government business went virtual.  Four days later, the first Charlottesville resident tested positive for COVID-19. “It is wild to think we are coming up on a ‘one year anniversary’ of our first case,” said Kathryn Goodman, a spokeswoman for the […]

By next week, COVID-19 vaccines may be available at multiple pharmacies in Charlottesville. The federal government last week expanded its Federal Retail Pharmacy Program to include more multiple stores in addition to CVS that can now distribute vaccines in Virginia.  Details are still vague on which pharmacies will have vaccines and when. Here is everything […]

The Blue Ridge Health District will receive its first doses of the newly approved single-dose COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson later this week. The district is still finalizing plans on with whom and where the new vaccine will be distributed. More information is expected either late Tuesday or Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. The news […]