Firefighters will distribute COVID vaccine to adult family homes, Washington mayor says

Seattle firefighters will be going door to door to distribute doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to certain households over the next two weeks, according to city officials.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced two mobile vaccination teams will work to vaccinate residents and staff at adult family homes, a news release from Durkan’s office said..

The Washington State Department of Health chose Seattle “to serve as a vaccine distributor, meaning [it] is eligible to receive weekly shipments of vaccine from DOH and can administer vaccines to Seattle residents and workers,” on Jan. 9, according to the release.The city has requested 1,000 vaccine doses for the first week of the mobile vaccination program, the release says.

“While we had a difficult start to 2021, I believe we have so much hope on the horizon with vaccinations,” Durkan stated in the release. “We know that Seattle’s road to reopening and economic recovery starts with vaccinations, and today is the first step in the City’s efforts to significantly increase the vaccination rate and ensure the vaccine is easy and accessible to our City’s workers and residents.”

The mobile vaccination teams, which include registration technicians and firefighters/EMTs or firefighters/paramedics, expect to provide Moderna vaccinations to 10 adult family homes per day, beginning Thursday.

Adult family homes “are residential homes licensed to care for up to six non-related residents,” which “provide room, board, laundry” and other services, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services says.

Only adult family homes that are not served by the federal partnership with CVS/Walgreens will receive the doses, the release said. The fire department expects every resident of adult family homes in Seattle will be vaccinated by Jan. 24, according to the release.

The city will expand the mobile vaccination efforts “between the first and second vaccination dose at the initial group of AFHs,” and “will likely focus on partnerships with community-based organizations and providers who serve older adults who may be unable to receive a vaccine through traditional health care systems,” the release said. After the vaccine becomes more widely available, the city will launch mass vaccination hubs, according to the release.

Washington has launched a phased approach to distributing the vaccine to residents. It is currently in phase 1a, during which the vaccine will be available to:

• High-risk workers in health care settings

• High-risk first responders

• Residents and staff of nursing homes, assisted living facilities and other community-based, congregate living settings where most individuals are over 65 years of age receiving care, supervision or assistance

• All other workers in health care settings are prioritized in tier 2 of phase 1A

Phase 1b will expand availability to:

• All people 70 years and older

• People 50 years and older in multigenerational households

• High-risk critical workers 50 years and older who work in certain congregate settings in tier 2

• People 16 years or older with two or more comorbidities or underlying conditions in tier 3

• High-risk critical workers in certain congregate settings under 50 years

• People, staff and volunteers all ages in congregate living settings such as correctional facilities and group homes for people with disabilities.

Washington has reported 266,701 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 3,789 deaths as of Tuesday evening, according to the department of health’s dashboard.

This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Firefighters will distribute COVID vaccine to adult family homes, Washington mayor says."