KXLY
April 29, 2021 3:47 PM Matthew Kincanon
OLYMPIA, Wash. The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) announced they will start allocating COVID vaccines based on individual provider requests in addition to population size, instead of county population size alone.
Each week, providers will continue to order the amount of vaccines they need and DOH will receive weekly input from local health jurisdictions on community vaccine priorities. This method will allow DOH to to distribute vaccines to the communities that need them most, while also giving extra doses to providers who continue to see higher need for vaccines.
In the previous approach, pro-rata, DOH allocated to counties proportionally to match the size of their populations. However as vaccine supply increased, the number of doses requested didn’t always align with the county pro-rata allocations.
Washington state could receive 400,000 COVID-19 vaccines in December
State could receive 400,000 COVID-19 vaccines in December
SEATTLE - Washington state could receive more than 400,000 doses of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines before the New Year, according to the Department of Health.
Pending emergency approval by the FDA, expected later this week, the state is anticipating a first shipment from Pfizer next week totaling around 62,000 doses. By the end of the month, the state expects to get 222,000 total doses from the company.
If Moderna’s vaccine is granted emergency authorization next week, Washington is set to gain another 180,000 doses the last two weeks of the calendar year.