6,000+ Tri-Cities teachers, childcare workers join scramble for COVID vaccine

More than 6,000 Tri-Cities teachers and childcare workers have joined the scramble to find COVID-19 vaccinations after President Biden directed all states to make at least one shot of the vaccine available to them this month.

“We are currently challenged by the fact that even though they opened up to make educators and childcare staff eligible that hasn’t actually changed the amount of vaccine that is available in the community right now,” said Dr. Amy Person, health officer for Benton and Franklin counties.

Last year, the Tri-Cities had 6,016 people employed in education positions in preschool through 12th grade, which included teaching assistants, counselors and administrators, according to data by the Washington Employment Security department that was analyzed by the Tri-City Herald.

The state also showed at least 130 licensed childcare workers.

The numbers do not include support staff in the schools such as janitors, groundskeepers and cooks.

The Washington state Department of Health is working with the Biden administration to ensure that there will be ample vaccine supply for all people now eligible.

“Vaccine supply will likely primarily be delivered through the federal pharmacy program, and the directive indicates all vaccine providers should prioritize these workers,” the state said in a statement.

The Benton Franklin Health District has been working on plans to get essential workers vaccinated when eligibility extends to them.

That now could start with pop-up clinics for educators, Person said. When the clinics are scheduled, educators can expect to be notified by their school district.

Also, the Washington state Department of Health confirmed that its Phase Finder site that shows eligibility had been updated Wednesday to show teachers and childcare workers qualify for the vaccine.

Vaccine availability

For now the local health district keeps an online list at bit.ly/BFHDvaccinesites of where COVID vaccines may be available. The list includes primarily pharmacies, hospitals and medical clinics.

The Benton County Fairgrounds mass vaccination site expected to give mostly second doses of vaccine this week.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require a booster shot weeks later to be fully effective.

But it also had some vaccine available for first doses.

As of noon Wednesday, no openings remained at prepmod.doh.wa.gov/clinic/search. To check for appointments that may be added due to cancellations, scroll down and check the multiple pages for openings by site, date and first or second dose.

The fairgrounds also maintains a holding line of cars each day for any leftover doses, although no specific time is given for when the holding line forms or how many cars are allowed to wait.

Hours for the drive-thru clinic this week are 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Friday and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.

The first step for those newly eligible for the vaccine is to obtain written confirmation that they qualify for a vaccine by going to the Washington state Phase Finder at FindYourPhaseWA.org and taking a screenshot or photo of their eligibility verification.

In addition to the educators, those previously eligible included people 65 and older, some people 50 or older in multigenerational households, health care workers, emergency medical technicians, and residents and staff of long-term care facilities for the elderly.

Tri-Cities cases

The Tri-Cities area had 61 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 announced Wednesday.

It puts the average number of daily cases so far this week — starting with the weekend — at 47 per day.

That’s more than the 43 per day on average the previous week. Benton and Franklin counties have had dropping case numbers in recent weeks, with average daily new case numbers in successive previous weeks of 46, 64, 76 and 94.

The new cases announced for the Tri-Cities area on Wednesday put the average number of new cases per day for the past seven days at 16 per 100,000 people.

It is higher than the Washington state case rate of 11 per 100,000 people over seven days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of Tuesday.

The national rate for the same period was 20 per 100,000, according to the CDC.

Four states had lower rates than Washington. New Jersey had the highest rate in the United States at 38. Hawaii had the lowest at 4.

The number of people hospitalized locally for COVID-19 treatment continues to drop.

Just 16 COVID patients were being treated in Benton and Franklin county hospitals as of Wednesday, down from 24 the previous day. At the start of 2021, local hospitals were treating 62 people for COVID-19.

The 16 patients on Wednesday accounted for just 4% of all 398 patients in the Richland, Kennewick, Pasco and Prosser hospitals.

The drop in hospitalized patients comes as about 61,000 first or second doses of COVID vaccine have been given in Benton and Franklin counties and more than 19,000 people are fully vaccinated.

Only one recent COVID-19 death in the Tri-Cities area was reported last week, bringing the total to 287, after the area had about a death each day reported from December through mid February.

The Benton Franklin Health District reports deaths once a week, on Fridays.

The new COVID cases reported on Wednesday bring the total for the two counties to 25,672, including 14,692 cases in Benton County and 10,980 cases in Franklin County.

The cases reported on Wednesday include 27 in Benton County and 34 in Franklin County.

State health officials have been concerned that cases in Franklin County have not been dropping as much this year as those in Benton County. Franklin County has about half as many people.

Washington state

The Washington state Department of Health reported 746 new cases of COVID-19 Tuesday and 19 deaths from the disease.

Statewide totals from the illness caused by the coronavirus are 341,441 cases and 4,988 deaths. Those numbers are up from 340,695 cases and 4,969 deaths Monday. The case total includes 18,954 cases listed as probable. 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.

As of Feb. 11, the date with the most recent complete data, 46 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 were admitted to Washington state hospitals.

Preliminary reports indicate that average daily hospital admissions were trending down toward 44 in late-February.

Out of the state’s total staffed intensive care unit beds (1,211) approximately 75.1% (909) were occupied by patients Monday. Of those staffed ICU beds, 10.8% (131) held suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients.

On Feb. 11, the most recent date with confirmed testing data, 19,199 specimens were collected statewide, with a downward-trending 4% testing positive.

The average positive test rate for the seven days prior was 4.1%. More than 5.3 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.

Cases by county

According to DOH data, King County continues to have the highest numbers in Washington, with 84,326 cases and 1,397 deaths. Pierce County is second in cases, with 38,491. Spokane County has the second-highest number of deaths, at 565.

All counties in Washington have cases. Only 12 of the state’s 39 counties have case counts of fewer than 1,000.

There have been more than 28.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 516,456 deaths from the virus in the United States as of Tuesday evening, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has the highest number of reported cases and deaths of any nation.

More than 2.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide. Global cases exceed 114 million.

Craig Sailor of The (Tacoma) News Tribune and Allison Stormo of the Tri-City Herald contributed to this report.

This story was originally published March 3, 2021 at 1:52 PM.