WA state health officials preview their plan for moving forward with life with COVID
Washington state health officials so far are not worried about the current surge of Omicron subvariant cases overseas, but say they are closely monitoring through various means to detect when and if such a strain takes off here.
In a Wednesday news briefing, officials with the state Department of Health told reporters that the state’s WA Forward plan will be released Thursday as a blueprint for next steps in living with COVID-19 as the last surge dwindles.
In his preview of the plan, Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah said it “has absolutely been informed by looking at what other parts of the country and the globe have been doing. And also taking an approach that works for Washington.”
Other officials were on hand to share more general details.
“DOH will be monitoring the science and providing people and organizations across the state with the latest health information guidance and resources so that individuals, school leaders, child cares and early learning centers, businesses and community leaders can take measures to protect themselves,” said Lacy Fehrenbach, deputy secretary for prevention & health with DOH.
Monitoring would come via ongoing genotyping, epidemiology and wastewater monitoring, as well as watching case rates and hospitalizations.
“Worst-case scenario, we get a new variant that is way more infectious. We see our case rates go up. We won’t be surprised by this. We’ll see it coming,” said Dr. Scott Lindquist, state epidemiologist for communicable diseases with DOH.
Prevention through vaccines, testing and masks are part of the plan, along with support for anti-virals and monoclonal antibodies. Officials admitted that there were concerns moving forward regarding funding.
The White House recently announced it would be winding down a COVID-19 program that pays to test, treat and vaccinate those without health insurance, with monoclonal antibody funding also in question.
New funding has stalled in Congress.
Shah said there were continuing discussions and monitoring of FEMA funding and reimbursement eligibility.
“We want to continue to be able to protect people, (and) those efforts are very much about being able to manage within the guidelines or the parameters that the federal government has put out there,” he said. “So one of those considerations for the governor’s emergency orders is very much about making sure that we have access to the funding so we can continue to be able to move forward.”
Fehrenbach ticked off a list of actions in the WA Forward plan, which includes continued work with the Washington Medical Coordination Center and the state’s healthcare coalition “to address health system capacity and ensure balancing across the state so that everyone has access to quality health care,” she said.
“We will maintain the capacity to give out about 30,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine daily, and we could surge to double that amount within about a week if needed,” Fehrenbach said.
“We will be ready to provide appropriate PPE. We have on hand 7.5 million high-quality masks available for distribution to local governments health care, front-line workers and higher risk settings, schools and the public ... should there be an emergent need, a supply-chain shortage or both,” she added.
Lindquist, in his remarks, continued to reassure that the Omicron surge was continuing to recede, despite the presence of Omicron subvariant BA. 2 in the state, the same one plaguing other countries with rising cases.
“Our numbers and our percent of that subvariant remain less than 7 percent,” he said. “So we are remaining very low in our subvariant. It is not becoming the dominant force, and it is certainly not driving an increase in cases.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 1:55 PM with the headline "WA state health officials preview their plan for moving forward with life with COVID."
