Questions remain in Washington about the effects of federal vaccine delays

This week, Washington was scheduled to receive another 123,275 COVID-19 vaccinations.

That number may level off next week in Friday’s report Washington post Despite hopes for increased access to vaccines nationwide and federal announcements, supply is not there.

This disclosure reflects the concerns of state health authorities this week.. They admitted that Washington’s vaccine distribution was delayed, but also said they were not confident in the stable supply of vaccines to the state.

According to the State Department, the state did not receive forecasts of future vaccine supply a few weeks ago, hampering state and local providers’ ability to plan vaccination clinics and appointments.

“The important thing is to increase the dose to the states, and those states can bring them to the arms of the community and people,” said State Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah. “But without a consistent and enhanced vaccine supply, by declaring (the federal authorities) we are simply putting people in longer lines, which adds to frustration and surprise. only.”

The news that federal stockpiling of vaccines is not a reality means that some communities may have to wait longer to receive higher doses.

“What we learned this morning is that we don’t have such a large stockpile of vaccines at the federal level,” Matt Shantsu, director of the Northeastern Tri-County Health District, told reporters Friday. “So how does that announcement at the federal level affect Washington? They are still trying to analyze what that means.”

In a phone call with health authorities in other health districts and states, Shantsu said the universal question was, “What does this mean?”

The Ministry of Health did not respond to requests for what it had learned about federal vaccine distribution next week, and authorities did not release new information by Friday night.

Rural communities, such as the three counties northeast of Ferries, Stevens and Pendoleil, can be affected if supply is limited, especially as the first phase of vaccination is nearly complete.

“It’s going to be a problem of limited supply at this point,” said Dr. Sam Alzis, Northeast Tri-County Health Officer, Friday. “(The Ministry of Health) may assign it to a location like King County that does not exceed 1A at this time.”

In short, just because Washington lags behind other states in terms of vaccination does not mean that the state has a shortage of supply surplus. The state’s urban areas are still in the midst of Phase 1A, immunizing front-line healthcare workers and first responders, but some rural communities are working on other groups. Waiting for

In the coming days, the Ministry of Health plans to extend vaccinations to Phase 1B Phase 1 Washington residents. This includes all residents over the age of 70 and residents over the age of 50 in multi-generational households. What that means for access depends heavily on supply.

“If you don’t have the resources to meet that need, it creates an obvious bottleneck, so it’s important to follow some sort of allocation process,” says Shantsu.

The Northeast Tri-County Health District is not scheduled to receive the vaccine this week, but some providers in the county will.

On the other hand, in Spokane County, health districts are receiving higher doses than originally expected. Initially, 700 doses were planned, but this week, 1,900 doses are planned. This is a change from the last two weeks when the district was affected by the supply chain and received less than requested.

The state remains Phase 1 of the recovery plan

No county is pursuing a new recovery plan for the governor on Monday, including the “East” region, of which Spokane County is a part.

According to new state indicators, the “eastern” region has improved hospitalization rates, but the region’s positive rates are still too high to move on to the next stage. The positive rate must be less than 10% for the region to move forward.

“We meet three of the four indicators, which is encouraging,” said Interim Health Officer Dr. Francisco Velázquez in a news release. “Our continued progress is to continue health care, avoid out-of-home meetings and vaccinate when qualified.”

The positive test rate for the “East” region is still 17%, which is only comparable to the high rate found in central Washington. However, other areas, including Puget Sound, meet this criterion. The positive test rate for Puget Sound is 7%, but hospitalizations with COVID-19 have not decreased enough to reopen the area.

The Spokane Community Health District has identified 1,602 new COVID-19 cases since Monday. The county continues to show the second highest number of cases in the entire state except King County.

Other counties in the “East” region are wary of the impact of Spokane County on metrics, especially with the current high prevalence in the region.

“We are undoubtedly concerned that the counties are concentrated in larger populations, because whatever we do locally to reduce their numbers, we link with other larger populations. When I’m doing it, I feel like I don’t move the needle too much. It’s a populated area, “Shants said.

Friday Covid number

The Spokane Community Health District confirmed 247 new cases and 3 more deaths on Friday.

Since Monday, 19 Spokane County residents have died in COVID-19 and 443 have died in the pandemic so far.

At Spokane’s hospital, 121 patients are being treated for the virus.

The Panhandle Health District confirmed 153 new cases on Friday, with an additional 6 deaths from the virus.

There are 74 Panhandle residents hospitalized for the virus. Kootenai Health treats 68 patients with COVID-19 and 21 patients are in the emergency room.

Arielle Dreher’s report on The Spokesman-Review is partially funded by the Report for America and members of the Spokane community. This story can be republished for free by other organizations under a Creative Commons license. Contact our newspaper for more information. Editor-in-chief.