It was an historic day on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020 at Burien’s St. Anne Hospital – they received the COVID-19 vaccine and have begun vaccinating a specified group of front line staff.
Pictured below are Dr. Aviles and Dr. Kennard excitedly getting the vaccine, “which will provide a welcomed layer of safety for our courageous hospital staff!”
Here’s more info from the Washington State Department of Health:
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is a two-dose vaccine, given 21 days apart. Clinical trial data show the vaccine is 95% effective at preventing COVID-19 infection starting 7 days after the second dose. Individuals will not be considered fully protected until 1 to 2 weeks after they receive the second dose. The clinical trials revealed no major unanticipated adverse events.
We expect to receive 62,400 doses of vaccine this week. The first distribution will go to 17 sites across 13 counties. The first doses of vaccine will go to people in Phase 1a. This phase includes high-risk workers in health care settings, high-risk first responders, and patients and staff of long-term care facilities. We estimate around 500,000 people in Washington will be eligible for the vaccine in phase 1a. Read more details about phase 1a here.
In this first phase of vaccination, we will only be sharing the names of counties receiving vaccine, and the number of doses each county will receive. As we expand to vaccinating broader groups in future phases, we will share details about where vaccine is located and let communities know how and where to get it.
Additional shipments
The federal government has given us an estimated total distribution of 222,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine by the end of December. Regular weekly shipments should begin in January.
A second pharmaceutical company, Moderna, submitted an EUA application November 30. This application will be reviewed December 17. If the EUA is granted and the Moderna vaccine approved by the Scientific Safety Review Workgroup, we should get about 183,800 doses by the end of December as well.
Allocation plan
We’ll know more about who will be vaccinated in later phases from guidance made by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. You can view the interim plan on our coronavirus vaccine webpage, www.CovidVaccineWA.org.
