Debbie Cockrell: Weather slows delivery of WA vaccine shipments, but pharmacy program will expand next week
News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. 2/19/2021 Debbie Cockrell, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)
Feb. 18 Washington state health officials delivered some bad news and some good news regarding COVID-19 vaccines Thursday.
The bad news: Inclement weather on the East Coast has delayed shipment of vaccine deliveries to the state. We estimate that more than 90 percent of this week s allocation will arrive late because of the weather out east, said Acting Assistant Secretary of Health Michele Roberts at a Thursday briefing. Moderna vaccines have not yet shipped because of the weather. And Pfizer vaccines are limited right now.
Feb. 16 Pierce County reported 54 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, with three additional deaths. Totals were last measured by the county on Friday, before the holiday weekend. Here are the totals for previous days: Feb. 14: 72 Feb. 13: 106 Feb. 12: 211 The latest deaths included: A Lake Tapps/Sumner man in his 80s. A Puyallup man in his 80s. A Puyallup woman in her 80s. The .
Josephine Peterson: Service provider calls local COVID-19 hotel useless because some people can t get in
News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. 2/15/2021 Josephine Peterson, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)
Feb. 15 More people are using a Pierce County hotel set aside for those with COVID-19 than ever before, but homeless service providers have said those with mental or behavioral health illnesses have faced difficulty getting in the door.
Pierce County s Temporary Care Center opened in April last year at the Holiday Inn on South 84th and Hosmer streets in Tacoma. As of Jan. 26, 436 people had been admitted. January 2021 alone saw more than 158 people stay there.
Feb. 9 Pierce County reported 78 new COVID-19 cases Monday, with five additional deaths. The latest deaths involved: A Gig Harbor area woman in her 70s. A Tacoma woman in her 80s A Frederickson man in his 70s. A Tacoma woman in her 90s. A Gig Harbor area woman in her 90s. The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department no longer assigns underlying condition status to individual deaths it .
Handful of Washington schools are rapid testing staff, students for COVID-19. Is it working? By Hannah Furfaro, The Seattle Times
Published: February 8, 2021, 7:53am
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Every week, about two-thirds of teachers and staff in the White River School District, south of Enumclaw, voluntarily head to the school gymnasium or commons. There, nurses with swabs in hand test them for COVID-19.
Results are ready in just 15 minutes. In the past two months, about a dozen staff and students in this district of 3,700 children have received a positive result on the rapid test. Many weeks, everyone is in the clear.
Testing is voluntary and is mostly for teachers and staff. The district initially offered tests to elementary school students but is now using them more sparingly, such as when students return from breaks.