COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan update from the Washington State Department of Health

OLYMPIA—The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) continues to make progress with the COVID-19 vaccine distribution planning efforts.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) received its first Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application from a COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer on November 20. This is encouraging news about the potential for vaccines as a prevention tool to control the pandemic. An EUA allows the FDA to make a product available during a declared state of emergency before it has a full license.

The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will meet on December 10 to review the EUA application. DOH knows vaccine safety is of the utmost importance to communities in Washington. If the EUA is approved, the vaccine will then be vetted by the western states’ Scientific Safety Review Workgroup.

This workgroup will provide another layer of scrutiny and expert review to this process and take about 1 to 2 days. This will be done while the vaccine is still being processed and shipped, so it should not cause any delay in making the vaccine available to people in Washington.

DOH is hopeful that they will have a vaccine to begin administering by mid-December. The federal government estimated that 62,400 doses of the Pfizer vaccine for the initial allocation, followed by an additional 200,000 doses by the end of the month. There is no estimate on the Moderna vaccine.

High-risk healthcare workers will be among the first eligible recipients in Phase 1A of the initial distribution. DOH is currently unsure what the remainder of the schedule will look like but expects to develop a more comprehensive plan and will share updates as they develop.