Number of Vaccine Doses Allocated To Island Remain Low

Here’s what you need to know about Jan. 26 - Feb. 1.

February 4, 2021 1:30 am
Some people feel anxious about computers and going online to fill out the form needed to get an appointment at the drive-through vaccination site. Ease your unease by taking a look at a new preview guide that shows you in advance what you’ll be doing online at bit.ly/VaxRegHelp. When appointments are available, you will want to have your info ready to smooth the online experience. For example, as you can see in the guide, have your health insurance info ready if you have insurance. (Vaccination is free to all, including those with no insurance! But it will help the pharmacy cover the enormous cost of administering the vaccine if it can be compensated by your insurance provider.) You’ll also want to be ready to provide your date of birth and medical history to answer questions on the screening form. Keep in mind, you will be making two appointments so have your calendar out. Your first appointment will not be saved until you complete the process by making the mandatory second appointment. Don’t quit until you see the green confirmation check-mark shown here (Courtesy Photo).
Some people feel anxious about computers and going online to fill out the form needed to get an appointment at the drive-through vaccination site. Ease your unease by taking a look at a new preview guide that shows you in advance what you’ll be doing online at bit.ly/VaxRegHelp. When appointments are available, you will want to have your info ready to smooth the online experience. For example, as you can see in the guide, have your health insurance info ready if you have insurance. (Vaccination is free to all, including those with no insurance! But it will help the pharmacy cover the enormous cost of administering the vaccine if it can be compensated by your insurance provider.) You’ll also want to be ready to provide your date of birth and medical history to answer questions on the screening form. Keep in mind, you will be making two appointments so have your calendar out. Your first appointment will not be saved until you complete the process by making the mandatory second appointment. Don’t quit until you see the green confirmation check-mark shown here (Courtesy Photo).

THE VIRUS

Virus statistics: Public Health – Seattle & King County (PHSKC) reports 99 positive cases of COVID-19 on Vashon since the pandemic began. At press time, there had been four new cases since the last edition of this report.

School district cases: Two new COVID-19 cases were identified last week at Vashon Island School District (VISD) — one at Vashon High School and the second at Chautauqua Elementary School. Contact tracing investigations concluded that the cases did not result from participation in any school program or activity. The District reports that the infected individuals are safely isolating at home. Public Health and Vashon Medical Reserve Corps were informed and any close contacts of the individuals were notified and advised as appropriate.

Phase 2 begins: Our region of the state has advanced to Phase 2 of the Governor’s Healthy Washington Roadmap to Recovery plan. The Phase 2 relaxation:

  • Allows social gatherings among two households. No more than five people for indoor gatherings. No more than 15 for outdoor gatherings.
  • Permits indoor dining at restaurants up to 25% capacity.
  • Allows weddings and funerals to include food and drink with some restrictions.
  • Opens indoor entertainment such as theaters, concerts, museums up to 25% capacity.
  • Opens outdoor entertainment such as zoos, outdoor gardens or aquariums to groups of up to 15 people, limit two households per group, to a maximum of 200 people at the venue.
  • Retains worship service and retail store limits at 25% capacity.

VASHON VACCINATION SITUATION

The overview: The availability of COVID-19 Vaccine on Vashon improved last week. However, the number of doses allocated to the island remains low and uncertain — well below the current level of demand. The providers are at the mercy of the allocation decisions being made by the state Department of Health (DOH). Providers also face planning challenges because DOH doesn’t tell them how many vaccines they will get, if any, until the day before they begin a new week of vaccination.

Progress so far: Despite the challenges, a total of 1,740 vaccinations had been dispensed by the end of last week, 1,440 at the Vashon Pharmacy site and 300 at Sea Mar. The total of 1,740 equals roughly one-fifth of the adult population of the island. However, it is not possible at this time to precisely calculate the vaccinated percentage of island residents because some mainlanders are coming to Vashon for shots and some islanders are going to the mainland.

Getting updates: Three providers have been approved by the state to provide vaccinations on Vashon. They are Vashon Pharmacy, Sea Mar at Sunrise Ridge, and Vashon Natural Medicine. The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) recommends that you check the following four websites at least daily to get any updated information.

  • VashonBePrepared.org/COVID-Vaccine
  • VashonPharmacy.com/covid
  • VashonNaturalMed.com
  • SeaMar.org/covid-vaccine

Understanding the challenge: Getting a vaccination appointment has been frustrating for many people. However, it is important to understand that the island’s vaccination providers cannot plan more than one week ahead because of the state’s vaccine allocation process. The short notice and the limited single week allocations create extreme pressure on patients who feel they are in what some media have called a “Hunger Games” competition to get vaccinated. If long-range planning was possible, the providers could relieve pressure by offering patients a choice of appointments over two or three weeks, instead of squeezing all the demand into a single week. All providers are inundated with calls and emails, and they beg your patience.

Vashon Pharmacy: The drive-through vaccination site ran out of vaccine Tuesday afternoon after the state Department of Health decided not to allocate any new shipments this week to Vashon vaccination providers. The online appointment system opened briefly on Monday night to book appointments on Tuesday to use up the last of the vaccine doses.

In an effort to ease frustration over the online vaccination appointment system, the Pharmacy has taken a number of improvement steps.• The online reservation system has again been upgraded and retested. New programming will spread out the saturation load across several parallel databases. A higher capacity plan has also been purchased from the online vendor.

  • A new Vax Access Program has been deployed by the Emergency Operations Center. Already, the program volunteers have cleared a backlog of 60 paper forms that were filled out and left at the Pharmacy by people who were daunted by the online, computerized vaccination appointment system.
  • Portable fabric garages have been erected over some of the vaccination lanes in order to protect the vaccinator teams from rain and snow, so vaccination operations can continue, even in challenging weather.

Sea Mar at Sunrise Ridge: Manager Kerry Barnes reports her clinic was not able to run a vaccine clinic this week. This week’s shipment was allocated to cover the second dose needs of those previously vaccinated at Sea Mar. You can check for any updates at SeaMar.org/covid-vaccine.

Vashon Natural Medicine: Owner Kelly Wright says her clinic has not received any vaccine so far and has no information on when stocks might be expected. VashonNaturalMed.com currently refers people to the Vashon Pharmacy drive-through operation. They plan to notify their patients directly if vaccines become available.

Use your off-island options: Many major medical providers are offering vaccination appointments to their patients, including Kaiser, MultiCare, Polyclinic, CHI Franciscan, and the drugstore chains. In addition, King County opened two vaccination sites this week in Kent and Auburn. Patients must qualify under state guidelines, and appointments are required (see details online at tinyurl.com/kffjqlka). Also, Vashon Natural Medicine reports that a number of Vashon residents have elected to drive to the east side of the Cascades to get vaccinated at one of the four state-operated sites in Spokane, Ridgefield, Wenatchee, or Kennewick. Appointments are required. Sign up online at tinyurl.com/y26r49rp.

EMERGENCY OPERATIONS

Emergency Operations Center (EOC): The EOC activated in response to the pandemic emergency on March 12th, ten months and three weeks ago (330 days). Four operational priorities established by the Incident Commander, Fire Chief Charlie Krimmert, and approved by the VashonBePrepared Board, continue to guide our work: health, food security, housing security and economic recovery.

MRC/Vashon Island School District: Medical Reserve Corps volunteers have been working with the EOC leadership to prepare public health advice for next week’s “Go/No Go” meeting with the Schools Superintendent on the potential for school reopening in the elementary grades.

EOC/Community Operations Section: The EOC has set up a new unit to make sure those with limited access to vaccinations know that they can be vaccinated, and to help those who qualify in the current vaccination phase to get an appointment. The Vax Access Program will be reaching out to vaccine-qualifying folks as the phases progress, including seniors, folks with low- or no-digital access, non-English speaking residents, and other experiencing barriers to vaccination. The program has entered the pilot test phase. The plan is to work with our existing social service agency partners and ask the agencies to seek out those who need help.

EOC/MRC/CERT: The Vashon Pharmacy drive-through vaccination site set a new single-day record last week of 170 vaccinations. As described elsewhere in this report, total vaccinations at the three island authorized providers equals around one-fifth of Vashon’s adult population. Medical Reserve Corps and Community Emergency Response Team volunteers continue to support the vaccination operation, as well as the major commitment to operate the COVID-19 test site. All three of the vaccination providers continue to provide up-to-date information on their status, which is conveyed in the Vaccination Availability Survey section of this report.

Volunteers: Work by our volunteers has nearly doubled over the last several weeks, as the Vashon Pharmacy drive-through site has come up to full speed. For the most recent reporting period, 41 volunteers contributed 580 hours of work to VashonBePrepared’s pandemic emergency response. That brings the total contributed hours to about 21,800 since the activation began. At the FEMA reimbursement grant rate of $31.72/hour, VashonBePrepared volunteers have logged over $691,000 of in-kind value available to be applied to the 25% match requirement for reimbursement grants. The total includes hours contributed by the Vashon EOC Team, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), and Community Care Team (CCT). VashonBePrepared gives thanks as well for the many hours of work in support of the Vashon community by the staff and volunteers at local social services agencies.

Congratulations: Situation Section Chief Michael Sperazza and his team completed their 150th EOC Situation Report last week.

ABOUT

This information is compiled from the Situation Reports produced by the EOC Situation Section and provided to The Beachcomber to help islanders stay informed and safe. To receive reports and other emergency information emails, go to VoiceofVashon.org/alertsignup.