59,000 vaccinated in Washington, state adds more health care workers to first phase
More health care workers are part of a new, second tier of people prioritized for receiving the first COVID-19 vaccines arriving in Washington state, according to health officials, as some communities complete vaccinations for top-priority recipients.
So far, 59,491 people have been vaccinated in Washington state, officials said at a media briefing Wednesday. Doses primarily were given to high-risk workers in health care settings and people in long-term care facilities, said Lacy Fehrenbach, Deputy Secretary of Health.
The tier added to Phase 1A Wednesday allows for the vaccination of all other workers in health care settings once high-risk workers are vaccinated, she said.
“This will help us protect more of our health care system so that they can protect us and our communities,” Fehrenbach said.
Some rural communities that got early doses have fewer people in the first tier, said Michele Roberts, who’s leading COVID-19 vaccine planning and distribution at the state Department of Health. And vials have a set number of doses, she said — any provider might encounter a need to use remaining doses due to the vaccine’s time sensitivity.
Washington State Department of Health Secretary Dr. Umair A. Shah added that the move is motivated by the importance of getting the vaccine out and administered quickly.
According to numbers provided at the briefing, less than 20% of the vaccines sent to Washington state have been administered so far.
In all, 356,650 doses have been delivered to Washington, according to Roberts. The amount administered of the Pfizer vaccine, which was approved and started arriving first, is much higher than that of the Moderna vaccine, she said.
She pointed to a number of factors contributing to the pace: These are large-scale efforts happening at the community level that take a lot of community planning, there isn’t a predictable delivery schedule from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and most of the state’s Moderna vaccine was delivered last Thursday, on top of a holiday weekend.
She expects logistics and timing to smooth out after the new year, and said doses are already increasing after the holiday weekend.
“The best-laid plans also require a lot of operational, on-the-ground execution and we, as Michele said, our goal is to continue to support our local partners, whether in the health care system, public health system, or beyond,” Secretary of Health Shah said.
About 57,500 of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and about 44,500 doses of the Moderna vaccine are expected to arrive this week, according to Roberts — 43,375 doses of those will go to 87 sites in 26 counties, and 58,650 will go to long-term care facilities and 17 tribes and Urban Indian Health Programs.
Vaccinations have started for long-term care facility staff and residents, Roberts said. One long-term care pharmacy registered through the DOH COVID-19 vaccine provider program and started administering vaccines Dec. 20.
This week, under a federal program, Walgreens and CVS have on-site vaccination clinics planned for long-term care facility residents and staff, according to Roberts. The companies have a goal to complete the first dose ofvaccinations in skilled nursing facilities in the next three weeks..
After completing his first week as Washington state Department of Health Secretary, Dr. Shah said if the pandemic was a football game, we’re “hitting halftime.”
Strategies are being developed and important activities are happening, he said, and 2021 is the second half. It will be “months and months and months before we see any light of day of the end of this pandemic,” Shah said, but we’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The Department of Health hopes to announce plans for who will be part of Phase 1B next week, including information about how decisions were made.
.jpg)