Where does Washington stand with COVID vaccines? It ranks among best in US, report says
Washington is one of the best states in the country when it comes to administering the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new report.
Becker’s Hospital Review, a publication specializing in healthcare news, compiled data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into a report released on Tuesday. Each state was ranked by the percentage of vaccines they received that have been administered, the report says.
The state received more than 1.6 million doses of the vaccine and as of Monday, it has administered more than 1.4 million doses, or 91.36%, the report says. That ranks Washington No. 8 in the U.S.
State health officials said part of their success is tied to using multiple vaccination locations, including pharmacies, hospitals and mass vaccination sites.
The report uses data from the CDC’s data tracker, which compiles information from healthcare facilities and public health authorities. Becker’s determined the percentage by dividing the number of doses distributed to a state by the number of doses a state has administered. It includes both first and second doses
New Mexico topped the list with the highest percentage of doses administered — 604,732 doses administered of 605,885 doses received, or 99.81%, the report says. Alabama had the lowest percentage of doses administered — 793,614 doses of 1.08 million received, or 73.34%.
The U.S. has administered more than 64.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine as of Monday, according to the report. That is 85.34% of the more than 75.2 million doses the country has distributed.
“Coding problems and data lags” may have impacted “efforts to accurately count and publicly report” the number of vaccines administered a day in some states, therefore potentially affecting the numbers reflected in the report, according to Becker’s.
Vaccines in Washington
Washington is in Phase 1B tier 1 of the governor’s vaccine distribution plan.
“The vaccine is available to anyone 65 and older, and all people 50 and older who also live in a multigenerational household,” the department says. “This is in addition to populations eligible during Phase 1A, including health care workers at high risk for COVID-19 infection, first responders, people who live or work in long-term care facilities and all other workers in health settings who are at risk of COVID-19.”
The state is increasing administration rates as it receives more shipments of the vaccine from the federal government, Shelby Anderson, a spokesperson for the Washington Department of Health, told McClatchy News in an email. Washington’s seven-day average as of Monday was 26,380, the department’s website says.
“We are continuing to enroll providers and now have more than 1,200 providers enrolled across the state,” Anderson said. “Our four state-led mass vaccination sites have administered more than 50,000 doses since opening Jan. 26.”
Washington’s four state-led vaccination sites are in Spokane, Kennewick, Ridgefield and Wenatchee, according to the department. All four recently reopened this week after vaccine shipments were delayed due to winter storms, McClatchy News previously reported.
The Department of Health has reported 317,805 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Washington as of Tuesday and 4,881 deaths, the department’s coronavirus dashboard says.
This story was originally published February 23, 2021 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Where does Washington stand with COVID vaccines? It ranks among best in US, report says."