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Martinsville works to address issue with missing COVID-19 vaccine data

City leaders and health officials estimate at least three times the amount of people have been vaccinated

MARTINSVILLE, Va – The City of Martinsville is working to address an issue in COVID-19 vaccine data.

Right now, the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) is only reporting a small fraction of how many people have been vaccinated in the city.

According to the VDH, only 140 people in Martinsville have gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“We know that people are receiving the vaccines, it’s the disconnect with VDH and how they’re reporting it,” Mayor of Martinsville Kathy Lawson said

Most health officials and city leaders say they know what is on the VDH Dashboard is a very small fraction of how many doses are being used in the city.

“The numbers are skewed and we know the numbers are skewed is skewed and we know that. But we also know that people are being vaccinated, and that’s the number one goal is to get everyone vaccinated, that wants to be vaccinated,” Lawson said.

The confusion could be coming from the large role SOVAH Health Martinsville is playing in the vaccination process.

“We know we’ve given over 1200 shots in the city of Martinsville, and that’s not what’s being reflected, we’re doing it, doing things as fast as we can it’s not showing on that dashboard yet,” West Piedmont Health District Public Information Officer Nancy Bell said.

Bell says her division is getting an increase in the number of doses to distribute.

Until then, VDH is working to fix its reporting methods to accurately reflect who has been vaccinated.

“I want people to be assured that when we get it we can handle it, we can do 1000s of people a day three or more times a week to get the vaccine in arms when the time comes,” Bell said.

The West Piedmont Health District posts regular updates about vaccines on its Facebook page.


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About the Author
Annie Schroeder headshot

Annie Schroeder joined the 10 News team as a reporter in June 2020 and is no stranger to Southwest Virginia.