Nearly 5,800 more COVID vaccine doses heading to Tri-Cities health providers
Tri-Cities health care providers will get nearly 5,800 more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this week in the second round of state distributions.
The Washington state Department of Health announced that it was shipping 4,700 Moderna doses to Benton County, along with 975 Pfizer doses and 100 Moderna doses to Franklin County.
Those shipments should have arrived by late Wednesday afternoon.
In the first round sent last week, only Benton County received nearly 2,000 doses. Franklin County got nothing in that initial round.
Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland acknowledged receiving some of the first round to start vaccinating some of its highest-risk health care workers.
However, the state is not releasing which agencies are on the allocation list, so it is not known if Lourdes Health, Trios Health and Prosser Memorial Health were included in this round.
The Department of Health has advised hospitals to limit the information they release in the interest of safety and security.
Second-round recipients may also include drug stores with nursing-home contracts, low-income health clinics and first responders depending on their providers.
The state says 30,000 initial doses of the Pfizer vaccine were administered last week. “We are thrilled with this progress in such a short time,” the department said in a news release.
This week, another 44,850 Pfizer doses were shipped out across the state. The newer Moderna vaccine added 127,900 doses to the state shipment.
Those doses included 153,925 to more than 220 sites in 37 counties.
Another 18,825 were distributed to support long-term care facilities, as well as 14 Tribes and Urban Indian Health Programs.
State health officials said in a news release Thursday that Franklin County’s COVID transmission rate has seen a recent decline to pre-Thanksgiving levels and Benton County’s rate is holding flat.
“Substantial decreases in transmission are still not enough to return the state to the lower levels of disease activity seen earlier in the fall,” said the health department in the report. “Based on the timing of this trend, the plateaus may be due in part to the current restrictions on gatherings and certain businesses.”
Vaccines for veterans
The Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center in Walla Walla received a limited supply of the Moderna vaccine earlier this week.
Care teams at the Walla Walla medical center soon will be calling veterans to schedule an appointment for vaccination. Veterans do not need to call, preregister or stop by a facility to sign up.
Essential health care employees are first up to get vaccinated “to assure they remain healthy to care for our veterans,” said medical center spokeswoman Linda Wondra.
The Walla Walla VA is one of 113 VA Medical Centers across the country to receive the first supply from Moderna. Sites were identified based on need for the vaccine and capacity to store the vaccine, which must be kept at -20 degrees Celsius and requires two doses for each recipient.
“Receiving the vaccine is like having hope delivered,” said Chris Bjornberg, medical center director. “As vaccine supplies increase, our ultimate goal is to offer COVID-19 vaccination to all veterans and employees who want to be vaccinated.”
Staff will start with people who are at the highest risk of serious illness should they contract the virus.
Veterans need to be “enrolled” to get the vaccine through the medical center. To check eligibility with Veterans Affairs, visit www.va.gov/health-care/how-to-apply/, and either apply online or download the VA form 10-10EZ.
Just say ‘no’ to gatherings
State health officials are reminding people that while they may want to spend time with loved ones for the holidays, gathering with people from other households remains “a dangerous choice.”
Gatherings are unsafe and carry a high risk of disease transmission, so people need to continue to social distance to protect their own health and the health of those they care about, officials say.
“There are several ways to do this politely and kindly,” says behavioral health psychologist Dr. Kira Mauseth.
“Saying no effectively starts with just that — saying no. A simple, direct response is the best way to make yourself understood and closes the door for negotiations,” Mauseth said in a news release. “Offer alternatives, be honest, don’t feel pressured to keep the conversation going, and show them the facts if they have questions.”
Officials say limit holiday celebrations to members of your immediate household, but include others through online gatherings or movie watch parties. When dropping off gifts and treats for friends, leave them on the doorstep.
“Gathering right now is a dangerous choice, even though it feels like the right choice right now, for so many reasons,” says Lacy Fehrenbach, deputy secretary of health for COVID-19 response at DOH.
“We all feel that, but it’s just not safe at this time. There is hope for more in-person connection later in 2021, but we aren’t there yet.”
Holiday testing hours
The Tri-Cities two free, drive-thru testing sites will be closed for Christmas Day, and one will resume normal operations Saturday.
The West Columbia Basin College site at 3110 W. Argent Road in Pasco is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The site at The HAPO Center, former TRAC, in Pasco also is closed Christmas Eve. Typically, the Burden Boulevard location is open Tuesday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Both sites also are expected to be closed New Year’s Day.
Preregistration can be done for both online at bit.ly/Tri-CitiesTesting. More information about testing at the those two sites and at other places, from clinics to pharmacies, is posted at the same link.
Daily update on pause
While people can still get their test results over the long Christmas weekend, the Benton Franklin Health District says it will not be updating case numbers on its website or social media pages.
Health officials say people should expect to see larger-than-usual case counts next Monday, Dec. 28, since it will include a five-day stretch of non-reported days back to Thursday, Dec. 24.
Health officials in Walla Walla County announced Wednesday that four residents recently died from complications of COVID.
They were identified as a woman in her 50s, a man in his 60s, a woman in her 70s and a man in his 90s.
The county now has had 33 deaths, with 3,290 confirmed positive cases. There are 638 active cases in Walla Walla County, which include 15 people hospitalized for treatment and 248 inmates at the Washington State Penitentiary.
In the latest round of vaccines distributed this week, the county received 975 Pfizer and 200 Moderna.
Washington state
The Washington state Department of Health reported 2,281 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday and 31 deaths.
Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are at 230,202 cases and 3,162 deaths. The case total includes 8,507 cases listed as probable. Those numbers are up from 227,921 cases and 3,131 deaths on Tuesday. DOH revises previous case and death counts daily.
Washington’s population is estimated at about 7.6 million, according to U.S. Census figures from July 2019.
One-hundred eight people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals on Dec. 4, the most recent date with complete data. Preliminary reports indicate average daily hospital admittances were 113 in mid-December.
Approximately 13.8% (1,202) of all staffed adult acute care hospital beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients on Wednesday. In the state’s intensive care units, 21.5% (263) of staffed adult beds were occupied by suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.
On Dec. 12, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 15,394 specimens were collected statewide, with 10.2% testing positive.
The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 10.2%. More than 3.6 million tests have been conducted in Washington. The test numbers reflect only polymerase chain reaction tests, which are administered while the virus is presumably still active in the body.
King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 59,383 cases and 974 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 23,914. Snohomish County has the second-highest number of deaths at 347.
For the past seven days, Washington had a case rate of 42.8 per 100,000 people. The national rate for the same period is 64.7 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tennessee has the highest rate in the United States, at 127.9. Hawaii is the lowest, at 9.2.
More than 30,000 high risk health care workers have been vaccinated in Washington, according to DOH. This week, 44,850 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 127,900 of the Moderna vaccine were received in the state and allocated to 220 sites in 37 counties. Pierce County received 4,875 Pfizer doses and 14,100 Moderna doses.
There have been more than 18.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 326,088 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.
More than 1.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 78 million.
Craig Sailor of The (Tacoma) News Tribune contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 24, 2020 at 12:47 PM.