Camano Island without virus vaccine doses, local vaccination site to close next week

A Camano Island fire department says they have to close their vaccination clinic next week due to expected 1,200 doses not arriving.

CAMANO ISLAND, Wash. - Camano Island Fire & Rescue will close their vaccination clinic next week after1,200 expected doses of the COVID-19vaccine never arrived.

CIFRsay they requested 1,200 doses from the state, buthave not been allocated any doses to provide vaccinations in time for next week.

According to their website, CIFR is partnering with the Camano Center and Island County to set up a vaccination clinic on the island, located at the Camano Center,and open weekly whenever vaccines are shipped from the state to their site.

Q13 News reached out to Island County Health Department for additional comment but was not availableat the time of the article's publication.

Related:Washington averaging 28,000 COVID-19 vaccinations a day

A spokesperson for the Washington state Department of Health (DOH) sent the following statement in regards to available vaccines:

We are still in a place right now where demand for vaccine greatly outpaces the amount of vaccine we have available. This week, more than 600 facilities requested more than 358,000 first doses of vaccine. Our first-dose allocation from the federal government was only 107,125 doses, which is less than one-third of what providers asked for.

We also had more requests for second dose allocations than our allocation from the federal government. Our total state allocation for second doses was 58,725, and providers requested 14,000 more than that.

Recently DOH has been expanding vaccine allocation beyond hospitals to help with access. In the beginning it made sense to send most of the vaccine to hospitals to reach the most at-risk workers in health care settings. Now, we are spreading limited vaccine among many more sites where people can get vaccinated, including pharmacies, community health centers, local public health, and mass vaccination sites.

Weve received a lot of questions recently regarding the states allocation process. This week, DOH allocated 19% of vaccine to community health centers, federally qualified health centers, local health jurisdictions and private practitioners, 23% to hospitals, 36% to mass vaccination sites, 19% to pharmacies, and 3% to tribes and Urban Indian Health Programs. State allocations of vaccines go to sites that are locally run, as well as the mass vaccination sites.

Each week, the state allocates vaccine from our limited supply to enrolled providers through a multi-step process that starts Saturday and is completed by Thursday night to meet the CDCs Friday morning ordering deadline. Enrolled providers place their requests through the states Immunization Information System (WAIIS) and DOH gathers information from Local Health Jurisdictions to help determine their priorities of where vaccine should go. Decisions are made based on several factors: proportional population of those eligible in the county, data from providers, providers current inventory and documented throughput, equity, and access at all provider types (hospitals, pharmacies, mass vaccination sites, and clinics).

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Camano Island fire department to close clinic next week after 1,200 expected vaccine doses don't arrive - Q13 FOX (Seattle)