ROANOKE, Va. – While Virginia as a whole hit President Joe Biden’s goal of 70% of its adult population having at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, that statement doesn’t hold true when you dig a bit deeper.
The latest numbers provided by the Virginia Department of Health show that statewide, 71.5% of Virginia’s adult population have received the COVID-19 vaccine; however, mapping out who received those doses shows the White House’s benchmark has not been reached throughout the Commonwealth.
In fact, just 12 of Virginia’s 133 cities and counties have hit that 70% threshold, according to VDH.
Below is a map with those counties and cities highlighted.
Here’s a list of them in descending order: City of Fairfax (82.9%), Albemarle County (81.2%), Loudoun County (76.9%), Falls Church (76.7%), Northampton County (75.6%), James City County (74.4%), Goochland County (73.4%), Manassas (72.2%), Lancaster County (72%), Henrico County (70.7%) and Hanover County (70%)
Virginia does have six counties and cities with at least 69% of their adult populations having at least a COVID-19 vaccine does. Those are Nelson County (69.9%), Roanoke County (69.9%), Poquoson County (69.6%), Arlington (69.5%), Charlottesville (69.1%), Fluvanna County (69.1%).
If we were to treat every locality equally, not taking into account population size, the average percentage of adults vaccinated in a Virginia locality is 57.35%.
When looking at what areas have the lowest percentage of vaccinated adults, these six localities are all less than 45%: Lee County (39.8%), Carroll County (40.9%), Patrick County (41.1%), Prince George County (43.4%), Scott County (43.9%), Prince Edward County (44.1%).
In the map below, you can see the 28 localities highlighted that have an adult vaccination rate of less than 50%.
The infographic below allows you to see the adult vaccination rate for each of Virginia’s 133 counties and cities.
One note to this story, VDH’s latest data does show that 626,312 people are not mapped to a specific county or city, so while some localities may have indeed hit the threshold, the data available to us can not confirm that.