Gov. Jay Inslee today announced the rollback of three counties not meeting the Phase 3 Healthy Washington metrics for reopening activities.
The three counties returning to Phase 2 are:
Cowlitz County
Whitman County
âThese metric trends are driven by the virus and we must continue to do everything we can to sharpen our focus and keep COVID-19 activity down. We are so close to the end of the tunnel here â we have made tremendous progress and we must keep our focus,â
Inslee said. âItâs like a football game; we have done 95 yards on a 99 yard-drive. We canât let up now. These are not punitive actions; they are to save lives and protect public health.â
KXLY
April 30, 2021 8:23 PM Matthew Kincanon
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Alessandra Tarantino
OLYMPIA, Wash. The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) announced they are publishing race and ethnicity vaccination data on their COVID-19 data dashboard to help counties address inequities.
The county-level data were first released in a report on April 23 and include a race and ethnicity breakdown for people with at least one vaccine dose and people who are fully vaccinated.
For comparison purposes, the dashboard provides each county’s population distribution by race and ethnicity, including one set of percentages for people 16 and older and another for all ages.
Since race and ethnicity groups don’t always make up the same proportion of the population across all age groups, and only people 16 and older are currently eligible for vaccine, the most accurate comparison for understanding which groups may be underrepresented is using the population data for people 1
KXLY
April 30, 2021 5:41 PM Matthew Kincanon
Updated:
OLYMPIA, Wash. The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) announced Ferry County, the site of a COVID superspreader event in Republic, has gone back to Phase 2 under the state’s Roadmap to Recovery Plan.
“We are deeply concerned about the rapid growth in disease in Ferry Co. and the strain that has put on their local healthcare system,” DOH said on its Twitter page.
DOH fully supports Northeast Tri County Health District’s to move Ferry County back to Phase 2, effective immediately and ahead of the state’s review cycle.
“We have seen throughout the pandemic how quick action to curtail transmission reduces the impacts of severe disease and protects the healthcare system,” DOH said. “This swift action is necessary protect the community and get Ferry County back on the path towards economic recovery sooner.”
VANCOUVER The day after the fire chief of Point Roberts, Wash., made an appeal to U.S. and Canadian officials to be permitted to give Canadians excess doses of COVID-19 vaccine, B.C.’s top doctor confirmed a number of cross-border discussions have been underway. “You know the people I’ve been concerned about are cross-border truckers,” provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Thursday afternoon. “I’m not aware of any programs that have started at this point,” Henry said. “But that’s something we talk about.” Saskatchewan and Manitoba have already worked out deals that allow truckers to be vaccinated in North Dakota.
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.