Lateef: Prince William schools secure 3,150 COVID-19 vaccines for employees

This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.

This article was written by WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.

Prince William County school officials have secured more than 3,000 COVID-19 vaccines from the Novant UVA Health System for school staff.

The school division has been working with the Prince William Health District, INOVA Health and Novant to obtain vaccines amid the latest news of a shortage in supply.

Late last Friday night, school officials were notified of 100 available vaccinations at INOVA Fairfax Hospital. This past Saturday and Sunday, these vaccinations were administered to Tier 1 employees who have been working in-person, the school division said in a statement Tuesday. Tier 1 employees are those with documented underlying medical conditions that place them at high risk per the CDC if they were to contract COVID-19.

School Board Chairman Babur Lateef posted on his Facebook page Tuesday night Novant UVA “has created the capacity for us to vaccinate 3000+ of our staff over the next two weekends.”

“This is an incredible effort made by the medical staff at NOVANT/UVA,” he wrote. “Our school nurses will be a critical part of the team that will make this happen.”

The school pandemic team is working with Novant UVA to vaccinate 750 Tier 1 employees this weekend and 2,400 more to staff members the following weekend. The school division employs nearly 12,000 teachers and staff.

Lateef said the pandemic team, Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chair Ann Wheeler and state Sen. Chap Peterson, D-Fairfax, have worked “around the clock” to accelerate vaccinations for school staff.

“The PWCS Pandemic Team led by Associate Superintendent Denise Huebner was instrumental in making this happen with hours and hours of dedicated effort. She was aided by our Communications team led by Matt Guilfoyle and Diana Giulotta,” Lateef wrote. “It SHOULD NOT be this hard. But with limited supplies and resources and the county health district stretched thin everyone has chipped in.”

The news of more vaccines came as the Prince William Education Association, which represents many county teachers, launched a daylong “Twitter Storm” on Tuesday calling for a return to remote-only learning until teachers are vaccinated.

“PWEA calls on @PWCSNews and SB to communicate a transparent and achievable plan to vaccinate our school staff NOW!” the association tweeted to kick off the campaign. “PWC SB has the most aggressive in-person learning plan with the slowest vaccine rollout. #WhereIsOurVaccine.”

As the health district partners make vaccines available, the school division will move forward with registering the remaining teachers and staff in Prince William County starting Thursday, Jan. 28, with vaccines starting Saturday, Jan. 30.