Inslee updates vaccine progress as he announces mega clinic in Seattle on Sunday
Amazon and Virginia Mason will hold a pop-up clinic in Seattle Sunday with a goal to administer 2,000 COVID-19 vaccines that day to eligible people, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Thursday.
Inslee shared the news at a virtual press conference, where he talked about the 2021 legislative session and vaccination in the state. Jay Carney, senior vice president of global corporate affairs at Amazon, and Dr. Gary Kaplan, co-CEO of Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, joined the governor for the announcement.
According to Kaplan, it’s the first of what will be many large-scale vaccination events. Washington residents can learn what phase they’re in for vaccinations online here: www.findyourphasewa.org.
Event details
The pop-up will take place Sunday, Jan. 24, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Amazon Meeting Center on 7th Avenue in the South Lake Union area, he said. Amazon is providing the facility, set-up, some supplies and signage, way-finding and free parking. Virginia Mason will staff the event and provide medical supplies and the vaccine.
People can get on Virginia Mason’s vaccine waiting list online at www.virginiamason.org, Kaplan said — those on the list should receive an invitation to register for the event and reserve an appointment.
People who get a vaccine at the event will be scheduled for their second shot while there. The vaccine is free of charge, with or without insurance, Kaplan emphasized.
The event is part of a series of changes announced Monday aimed at picking up the pace of the state’s vaccination efforts, Inslee announced Washington had moved into the first tier of Phase 1B of the state’s vaccination program. In that tier, people age 65 and older are eligible for the vaccine, as is anyone age 50 and older who lives in a multi-generational household.
Only about half of state’s vaccine has been administered
On Monday, Inslee said every dose already allocated before this week had to be given by Jan. 24. Though the pace has increased, the state is well behind that mark.
Data presented at the press conference show that providers have reported 362,046 vaccine doses as administered in the state, out of 829,800 doses delivered here. That data lags behind reality, officials have said, due to issues with disparate data-reporting systems they’re working to resolve.
Including long-term care facilities where vaccines are distributed via a federal pharmacy partnership program, 43.6 percent of doses have been given, according to the data shared Thursday. Excluding long-term care, the state has administered 52.4 percent.
“We believe that many more doses have been administered out in the community,” said Michele Roberts, acting assistant secretary for prevention and community health at the state Department of Health. “That’s what our health systems are telling us, and then there is lags in reporting to the state.”
Roberts is leading COVID-19 vaccine planning and distribution.
About 2,400 long-term care facilities in Washington state signed up for that national program, for which doses of vaccine are set aside, Roberts said. Walgreens and CVS, which are involved in that program, have told the state they’ll complete a first visit to all of those facilities by this Sunday.
Asked Thursday about progress toward Inslee’s Sunday target, Health Secretary Dr. Umair Shah highlighted the “significant progress” made so far while also saying there will likely need to be more efforts to “encourage and incentivize and/or require our partners to be able to do certain things.”
In the last week, vaccine administration increased from 32 percent, and an average of more than 16,000 vaccinations have been administered per day.
“I’ll just say that we need a much more rapid delivery system, we insist on that,” Inslee said. “We’ve created requirements that our partners actually respond. We have distributed to our partners those doses. Those doses need to be out there, and we’re asking — and frankly demanding — that our partners hustle up here.”
He pointed out that state employees are not administering the vaccine, private employees are.
The state has set a goal to build capacity to vaccinate 45,000 people per day, though that level of supply has not yet been made available to the state.
Other new efforts to speed up vaccinations included setting up four mass-vaccination sites and a public-private partnership. The state will also require providers to administer 95 percent of future allocated doses within a week of when they’re received.
At a press briefing Thursday morning, state health officials said the state was still working on logistics for the new mass-vaccination sites — planned for Wenatchee, Tri-Cities, Spokane, and Ridgefield, near Vancouver, Washington — that are expected to start vaccinating people next week. They’ll be staffed “significantly” by the Washington State National Guard, Inslee said Thursday.
The state also is earmarking doses for mass-vaccination efforts in Snohomish, Pierce, and King counties, according to officials.
Help from Biden
Inslee said he’s “very hopeful” about the news that President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 strategy includes invoking the Defense Production Act to help accelerate the production of vaccine supplies. Shah also has expressed hope for more doses and increased transparency with a new administration.
“I am so glad to have a partner in the White House who will really help us,” Inslee said in response to a reporter’s question Thursday. “I believe Joe Biden understands how to move a large government, I know he cares deeply about this ...”
Initial discussions with his vaccine team have been productive, Inslee said.
As of Jan. 19, Washington state had reported more than 296,000 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 4,065 deaths due to the disease during the pandemic. The first confirmed case of the new coronavirus here and in the U.S. was announced a year ago on Thursday.
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Inslee updates vaccine progress as he announces mega clinic in Seattle on Sunday."
.jpg)