Inova Health is canceling all first-dose appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine, effective Tuesday.

The hospital system says its vaccine supply had been “severely diminished” after a switch in the state’s distribution method.

“Vaccinating everyone in the Northern Virginia community, as quickly as possible, is Inova’s top priority right now,” the hospital said in a statement. “Last week, in response to a national shortage of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Virginia Department of Health made a modification to their vaccine distribution methods and announced that going forward, vaccines will be sent directly to health districts to be allocated appropriately.

“As a result, Inova’s allocation of vaccine has been severely diminished, causing us to make the difficult decision to prioritize the available doses.”

Those who received a first dose from Inova and are scheduled for a second dose appointment will be prioritized at this time and their appointments will be honored.

“We understand and share the frustration that this news brings to our patients,” the statement said. “When we receive more supply inventory, we will first prioritize patients who had an appointment scheduled and then focus on opening further appointments up to eligible groups. If you are a patient whose appointment is cancelled, rest assured we are working diligently to identify new supply and will reach out to reschedule your appointment as soon as we are confident we have a vaccine for you.”

In the last month, Inova quickly established operations and administered more than 70,000 vaccines.

SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff updated the community about the local response to COVID-19 in their daily briefing Monday night.

Nirenberg reported 162,108 total COVID-19 cases and 1,980 total deaths in Bexar County, an increase of 2,082 new cases as of Monday. Thirteen new deaths were reported today.

The mayor says some of Sunday’s cases were included in Monday’s numbers due to a backlog.

The 7-day moving average of cases is 1,722.

City officials also reported that 1,402 patients are hospitalized, 409 are in the intensive care unit and 263 are on ventilators. There are 13% of staffed beds available and 51% of ventilators available.

Nirenberg said the COVID-19 Risk Level this week is “severe,” and many of the risk indicators have either stabilized or improved for the first time in weeks. The positivity rate has decreased to 15%, down from 17.5% last week.

RELATED: Had the 1st dose of COVID-19 vaccine in San Antonio? Here’s how to get the 2nd dose.

Wolff said the Bexar County Hospital District will be administering first doses of the vaccine at the Wonderland Mall site to those in the Phase 1B category this week. The following week, those people will get their second vaccine dose.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE FROM KSAT:

Monterey County leaders have transitioned to the Phase 1b, Tier 1, population in their vaccination efforts.

According to health officials, the county has made enough progress in vaccinating Phase 1a health care workers that they can now move on to more people.

Phase 1b, Tier 1 includes residents over the age of 75 years old. Health care workers in Phase 1a can still get the vaccine if they were unable to get it earlier.

“After consulting with representatives from our local health care community and reviewing data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we believe that prioritizing people 75 years of age and older at this time will save the most lives,” states Dr. Edward Moreno, Monterey County Health Officer and Director of Public Health.

Health officials noted that vaccine supplies are still limited stating that Monterey County receives 2,000 to 4,000 doses of vaccine each week, half of which must be used for the second dose in the vaccine series.

The MCHD plans to open vaccination clinics as more vaccines become available.

Monterey County’s vaccine appointment registration website will be updated as clinics are scheduled: www.montereycountycovid19.com. Please note that individuals will be required to show proof of at least 75 years of age when presenting for community-based vaccination appointments.

For more information about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccination, visit www.montereycountycovid19.com or call the COVID-19 call center at 831-769-8700 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

But instead of what pattern, logo or slogan you display, choose your mask based on its effectiveness against the deadly coronavirus in the environment you are in.

Working closely with government agencies, industry stakeholders and ASTM International, an international technical standards organization, the standards will apply to filter efficiency, sizing and fit, cleaning and recommended period of use or reuse.

For now, here’s a breakdown of respirators and masks based on current scientific knowledge, and what experts are saying on how to best use them.

N95-type masks

Made from fibers woven with an electrical charge that can trap errant particles — like a sock that sticks to your pants in the dryer — studies have shown N95-type respirators are currently at the top of the line when it comes to filtering large and small particles. Masks in this category are also known as “filtering facepiece respirators” or “disposable respirators.”

What would happen if every American wore an N95-type mask for four weeks in risky settings like being indoors?

“It would stop the epidemic,” Dr. Abraar Karan, an internal medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

N95 respirators come in many sizes to accommodate various face shapes. When fitted to the wearer’s face and worn properly, N95-type masks can trap 95% of particles around 0.3 microns, studies have shown. SARS CoV-2 can be as small as 0.1 micron in diameter — that’s about 4 millionths of an inch.

While it may seem that N95 filters would miss the tiny Covid particles, that’s not so. Most bits of virus exit the lungs encased inside larger respiratory droplets, typically much bigger than 0.3 microns.

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“In a health care setting, there’s an advantage because there’s a degree of sophisticated training to inform people how to properly wear respirators which doesn’t exist in a public setting,” NPPTL’s Szalajda said.

The N95 mask — and its sisters and brothers — is best fitted to a person’s unique facial contours on a bare face to keep the seal tight. Then the mask must be worn properly, despite the fact that such high filtration can make breathing more difficult. N95-type masks have a much higher breathing resistance than simple surgical or fabric masks.

“I’ve seen people with a full beard wearing the N95, or they’re wearing the 95 upside down, or they just have it over their mouth and not their nose and mouth because it’s easier to breathe when you’re not covering your nose,” Szalajda said.

Note: Beware of N95 masks with exhalation valves in them, since those valves put your airflow back into the environment. Also beware of knockoff N95s being sold on the internet and at some commercial stores.

Europe’s FFP2

In response to the spread of new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus, some European countries are mandating the use of FFP1 and FFP2 masks — which stand for “filtering facepiece respirator.”

An FFP1 filter has a minimum filtration efficiency of 80%, an FFP2 is 94% effective and a FFP3 is 99% effective against airborne infectious diseases.

Last week the German state of Bavaria mandated that citizens use FFP2 masks when shopping in stores and traveling on public transport. The German government then followed that lead, requiring everyone in the country to wear either FFP1 or FFP2 masks while at work, in shops or traveling on public transport.

KN95 and similar filtering facepiece respirators

“However, prior to selecting a respirator,” the 3M document said, “users should consult their local respiratory protection regulations and requirements or check with their local public health authorities for selection guidance.”

Surgical-grade masks

They do not “filter or block very small particles in the air that may be transmitted by coughs, sneezes, or certain medical procedures,” the FDA stressed.

“Surgical masks weren’t meant to perform the functions of the respirator,” said NPPTL’s Szalajda. “They’re not intended to be protection from inhalation particles but from contact with body fluids.”

True medical-grade masks are made of three layers of nonwoven fabric typically made from plastic. The colored top layer of fabric is made of medical-grade spunbond polypropylene, which is a resin polymer heat-bonded into a weblike structure.

Surgical masks also have small, bendable wires to help the mask stay in place, and are often tied behind the head or secured with ear ties. This design doesn’t make for a particularly great fit, especially compared to the N95, according to Szalajda.

Surgical masks are one-time use only, and if they are soiled or breathing becomes difficult, the mask should be carefully discarded and replaced, the FDA said.

Homemade cloth masks

The most common mask in use among the general public today is a fabric mask, often homemade. Effectiveness depends on the type of fabric used and the number of layers of cloth. These masks can be as little as 26% effective.

According to the CDC, “multiple layers of cloth with higher thread counts have demonstrated superior performance compared to single layers of cloth with lower thread counts, in some cases filtering nearly 50% of fine particles less than 1 micron.”

That’s good news — studies have detected SARS‐CoV‐2 in aerosols between 1 and 4 microns.

“We found that silk face coverings repelled droplets in spray tests as well as disposable single-use surgical masks,” the authors wrote, adding that silk masks “can be more breathable than other fabrics that trap humidity, and are re-useable via cleaning.”

You can also add filters to your fabric mask, according to the CDC. Some are made from polypropylene, the plastic that produces static cling; others from silver or copper, which have antimicrobial properties. Studies on the effectiveness of inserts, however, are rare, so guidance is limited.

To up their odds, people have begun layering fabric masks over surgical ones for added protection.

President Joseph R. Biden has been seen wearing two masks on numerous occasions. On Inauguration Day, Transportation Secretary nominee Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten Glezman, took a selfie double-masking and inaugural poet Amanda Gorman wore a surgical mask beneath her Prada version.

It’s a behavior advocated by Joseph Allen, an associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the director of the school’s Healthy Buildings program.

It makes good sense to double mask, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, now chief medical adviser to Biden.

“If you have a physical covering with one layer, you put another layer on, it just makes common sense that it likely would be more effective and that’s the reason why you see people either double masking or doing a version of an N95.” Fauci told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie.

Face shields, bandanas, gaiters, ski masks and scarves

Early data on the rollout of the vaccines for COVID-19 shows that minority populations in the United States already disproportionately affected by the pandemic are not being immunized at the same rate as white Americans.

Yahoo News Medical Contributor Dr. Uché Blackstock believes there are multiple factors contributing to this disparity.

“One of the problems that I saw very early on is that if you’re going to have mostly hospitals and pharmacies dispensing the vaccine, we’re going to miss a lot of people,” Blackstock said. According to recent research from GoodRX, minority communities tend to have fewer pharmacies per capita, which puts them at a disadvantage based on where they live.

“We need to bring the vaccines to the people,” Blackstock added, suggesting that mobile vaccination units could help increase access in areas where transportation is an issue.

In 16 states that have released preliminary data on who has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, white residents were more likely to have received a shot than Blacks, KHN news reported. In Pennsylvania, data through Jan. 14 showed that while 1.3 percent of whites in the state had received a vaccination, just 0.3 percent of Black residents had. In Mississippi, 1.3 percent of African Americans residents have been vaccinated so far, compared with 3.5 percent of white residents.

While there are numerous factors that might account for the early discrepancy in the rate of vaccination, Blackstock thinks the pattern will hold.

“It’s the same thing that people said at the beginning of the pandemic, when there was incomplete data that showed that Black and Latinx people were also being infected and hospitalized and dying at higher rates. But then once we got the complete data it confirmed the initial data, like we already know which communities are vulnerable,” Blackstock said.

African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans die from COVID-19 at nearly three times the rate as white Americans, according to figures provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These minority groups are also about four times as likely to be hospitalized with the coronavirus as white Americans are.

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“If we’re seeing these trends at the beginning, I think now is an opportunity to respond to that data, right?” Blackstock said of the rollout of the vaccine. “To direct our efforts, according to the data. And so we’re seeing these trends this early on, we can actually try to course-correct.”

On Monday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki spoke of the challenge of meeting President Biden’s goal of vaccinating 1 million Americans every day for the next 100 days.

“It’s not just about having supply, which is pivotal, of course. It’s also about having more people that can physically put the shots into the arms of Americans and ensuring that we have places that that can be done,” Psaki said.

Biden has often spoken about the need for an equitable pandemic response. On his first day in office, he signed an executive order stating that “the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated severe and pervasive health and social inequities in America” and directing federal agencies to coordinate a response.

Blackstock said another factor contributing to preliminary low vaccination rates among African Americans is vaccine skepticism, which she attributed to a long-standing pattern of discrimination against minorities by the medical establishment. But she believes there are ways to combat that mistrust.

“I think, with that issue, what needs to happen is we need health care professionals and those communities to be able to have conversations with their patients about the vaccine and to answer those questions,” she said, adding that those one-on-one efforts should be bolstered by a national public health campaign to promote vaccines.

“We need to see [it] on buses and trains and billboards, social media, commercials on TV,” Blackstock said. “We need to see information out there about the vaccine, why it’s important for people to take it, and to see positive imagery around speaking of vaccines. We have not seen that at all.”

Last, Blackstock noted that some minority communities don’t have access to or proficiency with the technology required by some health systems to register for an appointment to be vaccinated.

“If you have the vaccines there, but people from the community are not able to get appointments because of the cumbersome process for signing up for a vaccine … then the people who need the vaccine aren’t going to get it right,” Blackstock added. “And we’re going to reinforce the inequities that we’ve already seen in the pandemic.”

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