How is Clark County prioritizing populations at risk for COVID-19, such as those that are most affected by race / ethnicity or people who are eligible because of their age, but also have underlying health problems?
The Washington State Department of Health determines vaccine prioritization, but Clark County Public Health is working to make the COVID-19 vaccine more accessible to high-risk populations within the state’s structure. Vaccination sites that the county is developing (mobile and fixed location) should be positioned close to residents who have not been able to access the vaccine easily and among communities and populations disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, such as communities of color and workers critical in bringing together configurations. The first example of this was the recent mobile clinic for the elderly. Clark County Public Health plans to open additional sites as vaccine delivery allows.
How does the state decide which suppliers receive the vaccine?
Each week, the federal government allocates vaccine in Washington for the following week. The state Department of Health is responsible for deciding who will receive the vaccine. Local health establishments, pharmacies and vaccination sites request the amount of vaccine they would like to receive each week. The state reviews these requests and the amount of vaccine coming from the federal government and decides how to distribute the vaccine. The state considers a variety of factors, including: proportional population of eligible in the county, supplier data, current vaccine inventory from suppliers and documented throughput (how much they can manage), equity and access to all types of suppliers (hospitals , pharmacies, mass vaccination sites and clinics).
On average, how much vaccine does Clark County request each week? Generally, how much vaccine is Clark County given each week?
Let’s look at the week of February 1st of last week. That week, the state requested 358,000 first doses of the vaccine from the federal government. The state makes this request after researching all hospitals, pharmacies, mass vaccination sites and clinics certified to distribute the vaccine. This means that the state believes that providers have the capacity to administer 358,000 vaccines per week. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Washington received only 107,000 doses from the federal government, due to limited vaccine supplies. In the same week, starting on February 1, the county received 5,450 doses, most of which went to the mass vaccine site. In the past few weeks, Clark County has varied between 1,500 doses allocated to 3,700 doses. Allocation has increased somewhat recently, but Clark County has more than 89,000 people aged 65 and over who are eligible for vaccination, and this is just one of many groups that are currently eligible. According to data released Wednesday, the state will receive 206,125 doses of the federal government’s vaccine. This represents an increase of about 100,000 doses over the week of February 1, but less than the 446,850 requested from the federal government.
If I receive the first injection of the vaccine, but I have trouble defining the second dose, who should I contact?
You should contact the service that provided the first dose. The state distributes second doses to the facility two to three weeks after the first dose. If you are unable to get a second dose at 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 brand of vaccine that you received for your first dose. You can also submit a request through the Clark County Public Health website. If you received your first dose at the Clark County Events Center at Fairgrounds, you should receive a link on the consultation portal to schedule a second dose as soon as you reach the window for a second dose. If you did not get a link, you can bring the vaccination card you received when you received your first dose with the Clark County Fairgrounds labeled on it and the card will be honored, even without an appointment.
I don’t have reliable access to the Internet. What is the best way to get on the county vaccine waiting list to get an appointment at the mass vaccine site?
Clark County Public Health has created a call center to help you complete the web form requesting vaccination. You can call 888-225-4625 from 8 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, for help with the form, checking your eligibility, or to ask general questions about access to the vaccine. You can also ask a friend or relative with reliable Internet access to help you browse the Internet’s waiting lists and appointment portals. The state Department of Health also offers a phone number for assistance (1-800-525-0127, then press # or 888-856-5816). These numbers, however, tend to have extremely long waiting times.
I’m having problems with the fairground engagement portal. What should I do?
Unfortunately, there is not a good answer for that at the moment. Columbian was in contact with a nomination portal developer representative last week. They did not offer much useful information and stopped communicating at the end of last week. A Colombian reader recommended choosing a vaccination date at the end of the week, because these times are less popular and more likely to still be available when you complete the application process. If you choose an appointment that will be met at the end of the application process, the portal will initiate it or cause you to restart the process.
When will more vaccines be available?
If the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is a single-dose vaccine, is approved by the end of the month, it should substantially increase capacity in the spring or summer, especially since people will not need a second dose. There are hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines already approved that should also reach the United States by summer.
Clark County received more than 50,000 doses of the vaccine, but administered only about 32,000 doses. Why are there still thousands of doses available for vaccination?
With about 18,000 unused doses available in Clark County, one might think that it should be easier to be vaccinated than it is today. Although the county has not administered all the doses it has, this does not mean that these doses have not been counted. To begin with, vaccination data is lagging behind actual vaccine administration by at least a few days, so there is less vaccine available than it appears. In addition, many of the doses are reserved as a booster injection, or the second and last dose in the series for those who received their first dose. Other doses, although appearing as unused, may already be scheduled for administration to a person in the coming days.
Now that the vaccine has been launched and I am starting to protect some of our most vulnerable populations, do I still need to be as cautious as I was during most of the pandemic?
Absolutely. As the pandemic progressed, COVID-19 proved to be more of a mutator than originally thought. In the past few months, more virulent variations of COVID-19 have emerged in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Both variants have already been detected in the United States. The available vaccines have also proven to be effective against mutations, but less effective, particularly in relation to the South African variation. Although the COVID-19 case count is decreasing nationally now, infections are still higher than they were in most of 2020, and the more infections there are, the more likely the virus is to continue mutating and possibly make less effective vaccines.
Who will be the next eligible for vaccination?
You can learn more about Washington’s vaccination plan. Washington is expected to move on to its next level of vaccination – Phase 1B Level 2 – by spring. This layer will be for critical high-risk workers who are 50 years of age or older and work in certain congregated environments (agriculture, food processing, grocery stores, educators, daycare, prisons and jails, firefighters, public transport and law enforcement). The following two levels are likely to be reached in the spring and summer as well. Level 3 is for people aged 16 and over with multiple underlying comorbidities or conditions. Level 4 is for critical workers under 50 – which is the same group as level 2, but only younger. Any phases thereafter are expected to be reached in the summer and autumn, but given the slow implementation, it is possible that all phases may be reached later than expected and that many will not receive the vaccine until late fall. .
