In what ways does Clark County prioritize populations at risk for COVID-19, such as those who are more affected because of race / ethnicity or those who qualify because of their age, but also have underlying health conditions?
The Washington State Department of Health sets priorities for the vaccine, but Clark County Public Health is working to make the COVID-19 vaccine more accessible to high-risk populations within the state. The vaccination sites that the province is developing (mobile and fixed site) are intended to be placed near residents who have not had easy access to the vaccine and between communities and populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19, such as colored communities and critical workers in congregate settings. The first example of this was the recent mobile senior care clinic. Clark County Public Health plans to open additional locations if vaccine supply permits.
How does the state decide which providers get a vaccine?
Every week, the federal government allocates vaccine to Washington for the following week. The State Department of Health is responsible for deciding who will receive the vaccine. Local health care facilities, pharmacies and vaccination sites request the amount of vaccine they want to receive each week. The state looks at those requests and the amount of vaccine coming from the federal government and decides how the vaccine should be distributed. The state takes into account a variety of factors, including: proportional population of those eligible in the county, provider data, provider current vaccine inventory and documented throughput (how much they can administer), equality and access among all types of providers ( hospitals, pharmacies, mass vaccination sites and clinics).
How much vaccine does Clark County require per week on average? How much vaccine is generally given per week in Clark County?
Let’s take a look at the week of February 1, last week. That week, the state requested 358,000 first vaccine doses from the federal government. The state is making that request after examining every hospital, pharmacy, mass vaccination site, and clinic certified to dispense vaccine. That means the state believes providers have the capacity to administer 358,000 vaccines per week. That is the good news. The bad news is that Washington has only received 107,000 doses from the federal government due to the limited supply of vaccines. That same week, starting Feb. 1, the province was assigned 5,450 doses, most of which went to the mass vaccination site. Over the past few weeks, Clark County has distributed between 1,500 doses across 3,700 doses. Allocations have increased slightly recently, but Clark County has more than 89,000 people aged 65 and older who are eligible for vaccination, which is just one of many groups currently eligible. According to data released Wednesday, the state will receive 206,125 doses of vaccine from the federal government. That’s about a 100,000 dose increase as of the week of Feb. 1, but less than the 446,850 requested from the federal government.
If I received a first injection of the vaccine but had problems setting the second dose, who should I contact?
Contact the institution that provided the first dose. The state will distribute second doses to facilities two to three weeks after the first dose. If you cannot receive a second dose in the facility where you received your first dose, you can try to schedule an appointment with another facility that has a vaccine – just make sure they have the same vaccine you have for your first dose got. You can also make a request through the Clark County Public Health website. If you received your first dose at the Clark County Event Center on the exhibition grounds, you should receive a link on the appointment portal to schedule a second dose once you reach the window for a second dose. If you have not received a link, you can bring the vaccination card you received when you got your first dose labeled Clark County Fairgrounds and the card will be honored even without an appointment.
I don’t have reliable internet access. What’s the best way to get on the province’s vaccine waiting list to schedule an appointment at the mass vaccine site?
Clark County Public Health has established a call center to assist you in filling out the vaccination request web form. You can call 888-225-4625 Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm for assistance with the form, to verify your eligibility, or to ask general questions about vaccine access. You can also ask a friend or family member with reliable Internet access to help you navigate waiting lists and appointment portals on the Internet. The State Department of Health also provides a telephone number for assistance (1-800-525-0127, then press #, or 888-856-5816). However, those figures often have extremely long waiting times.
I am having problems with the fair site appointment portal. What should I do?
Unfortunately, there is currently no good answer to this. The Colombian was in touch with a representative of the appointment portal developer last week. They did not provide much useful information and stopped communicating late last week. A Colombian reader recommended choosing a vaccination date later in the week, as those times are less popular and are likely still available when you complete the sign-up process. If you choose an appointment that will be made at the end of the sign up process, the portal will kick you off or let you start the process again.
When might more vaccine be available?
If the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is a single-dose vaccine, is approved by the end of the month, that should increase capacity significantly by spring or summer, especially since people don’t need a second dose. There are hundreds of millions of doses of the already approved vaccines that should also arrive in the US by the summer.
Clark County has received more than 50,000 doses of the vaccine, but has only delivered about 32,000 doses. Why are there still thousands of doses available for vaccination?
With about 18,000 unused doses available in Clark County, you might think it should be easier to get vaccinated than it is now. While the county hasn’t administered every dose, that doesn’t mean those doses aren’t listed. For starters, vaccination data lags at least a few days from actual vaccine administration, so there is less vaccine available than appears to be. Also, many of the doses are reserved as a booster shot, or the second and last dose in the series for those who received their first dose. Other doses, although listed as unused, may be scheduled for administration to a person in the next few days.
With the vaccine out and starting to protect some of our most vulnerable populations, do I still have to be as careful as I was before most of the pandemic?
Absolutely. As the pandemic continues, COVID-19 has proven to be more of a mutator than initially thought. In recent months, more virulent variants of COVID-19 have surfaced in the UK and South Africa. Both variants have now been spotted in the US. The available vaccines have still proven to be effective against the mutations, but less effective, especially for the South African variant. While the number of COVID-19 cases is currently declining nationwide, infections are still higher than in most of 2020, and the more infections there are, the more likely the virus will continue to mutate and the vaccines may be less effective will make. .
Who is then eligible for vaccination?
You can learn more about Washington’s vaccination plan. Washington is expected to move to the next level of vaccination – phase 1B level 2 – by spring. That level will be for high-risk workers who are 50 years of age or older and who work in certain municipal settings (agriculture, food processing, supermarkets, educators, daycare, prisons and prisons, firefighters, public transportation, and law enforcement). The next two levels are likely to be reached in the spring and summer as well. Level 3 is for people aged 16 and older with multiple co-morbidities or underlying conditions. Level 4 is for critical workers under 50 – which is the same group as level 2, but only younger. All stages thereafter are expected to be reached in the summer and fall, but given how slow the rollout has been, it is possible that all stages will be reached later than expected and many will not receive a vaccine until late fall.
