40% of child coronavirus vaccines in the state are headed to Northern Virginia. Here’s why.

If you live in a part of Virginia where few teens have gotten coronavirus vaccines, fewer of the newly authorized child doses will be sent to your area.

State public health officials say they are using a weighted system modeled on vaccinations among 12 to 17-year-olds to determine how to distribute supplies for the younger age group.

Based on vaccination rates, the five districts in Northern Virginia will receive about 40% of the doses in the first week.

“This is so much more dependent on the parents making the decision,” Dr. Danny Avula, state vaccination coordinator, said on a call with reporters Wednesday. “Obviously parents were required to make decisions and provide consent for adolescents. But, as a parent of adolescents, I allow my adolescents a little more agency to decide whether they were going to do this or not.”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off on vaccinations for children ages 5-11 on Tuesday. The vaccine is one-third of the Pfizer dose given to people 12 years and older.

Though children tend to have milder illnesses, they are making up a larger share of COVID-19 cases now — nearly one in four infections. In Virginia, 134,000 children have tested positive for the disease, and 976 have been hospitalized with severe cases. Ten have died, three of whom lived in Hampton Roads.

When the delta variant became the dominant strain, the state saw a fivefold increase in pediatric cases, said Avula, who is also a pediatrician.

Not only could vaccinating children limit the spread, experts think it may keep more students in school.

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“So far in the first couple of months, we’ve seen a lot of kids having to be quarantined, kicked out of school for somewhere between 10 and 14 days,” he said. “When kids are fully vaccinated, they no longer need to be pulled out for quarantine.”

Across Virginia, 68% of children ages 12-17 have received at least the first shot. The percentage in Hampton Roads was not immediately available.

Some 700,000 to 750,000 children 5-11 live in the state. An earlier count from the Virginia Department of Health put the number at 748,000. Avula estimated 723,000 Wednesday.

With 377,000 child doses coming to Virginia this month, vaccinators will have enough to inoculate half of eligible children with the first shot. The majority of supplies will go to doctors’ offices.

The state has a goal to vaccinate 65% of the new age group in the next six months.

For more information on where to find vaccines, visit vaccinate.virginia.gov or www.vaccines.gov. For phone assistance, call 1-877-VAX-IN-VA or your child’s health care provider.

Elisha Sauers, 757-839-4754, elisha.sauers@pilotonline.com