Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley
Dr. Michael Luce worked as a vaccinator at last week's COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Columbia County fairgrounds. The clinics took place over three days, instead of two, mainly to catch up on administering second doses of the Moderna vaccine. The week of March 1 was limited to one clinic held Tuesday.
DAYTON-Although initial COVID-19 vaccination efforts have been uneven, incremental progress is being made, CCHS CEO Shane McGuire told the Hospital District Board of Commissioners at their meeting last week.
"A lot of the story still remains about supply," he said.
McGuire said inventory of the vaccine was initially managed to cover first and second doses. After the governor issued an edict requiring 95% of the vaccine should be used each week, vaccines reserved for second doses were used as first doses by the district.
"Then we ended up in a situation where we didn't have second doses," he said.
The Health System did receive some of Whitman County's oversupply of the Pfizer vaccine, which was used for first doses during the initial weeks of vaccination efforts.
McGuire said there have been a higher number of requests for the vaccines than the federal government can provide, and larger allocations have been going to larger population centers.
Shipment delays caused by severe winter weather during the week of Feb. 14, set the clinics back a week.
Things seemed back on track last week when 530 second doses and 24 first doses of the Moderna vaccine were administered.
However, this week is a different story, because the hospital pharmacy was denied its request, according to CCHS COO Stephanie Carpenter.
There were some doses leftover from last week and a shortened clinic was scheduled for Tuesday, March 2. The next clinic will be on Thursday, Mar. 11, if an allocation is received.
McGuire said the vaccination clinics at the fairgrounds are well organized.
"We had people show up an hour early because they heard horror stories about waiting hours to get vaccines. There is no waiting. The waiting is the observation time," he told the commissioners at their Feb. meeting.
The Columbia County Public Health Department is now scheduling appointments for people in all Phase 1B tiers. Call the health department at: (509) 382-2181. A COVID-19 vaccine Phase Finder tool is located at http://www.doh.wa.gov.
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