Mike Maltais, Staff writer
OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Health celebrated the administration of its one-millionth dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine last week since inoculations began in mid-December 2020.
An elderly Chelan-Douglas county resident identified as Ruby T., 90, received the milestone vaccination. In recognition of the honor Ruby received a Washington National Guard escort, was presented a certificate from Governor Jay Inslee, was invited to ride in the Apple Blossom Festival Grand Parade, given a lifetime pass to Washington State Ferries and Wenatchee Wild VIP hockey tickets.
Vaccine distribution
The DOH announced that appointments to get the first dose of the two-part Pfizer vaccine will be hard to come by during Valentine’s Day Week while the agency concentrates on giving second doses.
DOH advises that the second dose should be given as close as possible to the recommended interval:
● Two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech should be administered three weeks or 21 days apart.
● Two doses of Moderna should be administered one month or 28 days apart.
As of last week, DOH received just 200,000 doses, less than half of the requested 440,000 doses from the federal government.
A DOH media release said the agency is still determining exactly how many first doses will be available this week.
“Providers requested about 170,000 second doses for the week, significantly more than the state’s allocation of 92,325 second doses,” said DOH. “The difference is likely due to the fact that some providers in Washington used doses of vaccine that were intended to complete the two dose vaccine series as the initial dose when vaccinating community members earlier in January.”
This now means that a portion of this week’s available first doses will need to be used to complete the series for these people. This focus on second dose administration is anticipated to be for this week and is anticipated to be less so for upcoming weeks, DOH said.
FOH asks that community members eligible for vaccine be patient as there will be limited availability for your initial vaccine dose this week.
“While the state still does not have enough doses to cover everyone who is currently eligible, the good news is that Washington’s allocation from the federal government is steadily increasing,” the DOH release said.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here