Freezer failure forces overnight rush to use COVID vaccines at Washington hospital
An alarm sounded at about 9 p.m. Thursday, alerting staff at a community hospital in Seattle that a freezer holding doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine had failed, KOMO reported.
Kaiser Permanente staff called UW Medical Center and Swedish hospitals to make sure the vaccines wouldn’t go to waste, according to KIRO.
“I received a call this evening at 9 o’clock and learned a Kaiser freezer went down and could we help vaccinate people before the doses expired at 5:30 in the morning?” Jenny Brackett, an assistant administrator with UW Medicine, told The Seattle Times.
An emergency distribution plan was developed by 9:30 p.m., Kevin Brooks, Swedish’s chief operating officer, said, and the plan was put into action by 11 p.m., according to KOMO. There were hundreds of doses that needed to be used between UW Medical Center’s Northwest and Montlake hospitals and Swedish, the Times reported.
Swedish tweeted that appointments for people who qualify for the vaccine in Phase 1A or Phase 1B/Tier 1 were available at its Seattle University site between Thursday at 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. Friday. By about 12:40 a.m., the hospital announced all appointments were booked, KIRO reported.
Several hundred people lined up in the middle of the night for a chance to get the vaccine, but those who are eligible in phases 1A and 1B got priority, KING reported. The state recently moved into Phase 1B Tier 1, according to the Department of Health.
Those who qualify to get the vaccine as of Friday are:
High-risk healthcare workers in health care settings
High-risk first responders
Long-term care facility residents
All other workers at risk in health care settings
All people over 65 years or older
All people 50 years or older in multigenerational households (home where individuals from two or more generations reside such as an elder and a grandchild.)
Ten overnight clinics helped to administer 1,600 doses by 3:30 a.m. Friday, according to KIRO. None of the doses from the failed freezer were wasted, the Times reported.
Washington has reported 293,978 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 4,243 deaths, according to the department of health.
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 4:31 PM with the headline "Freezer failure forces overnight rush to use COVID vaccines at Washington hospital."