Seattle hospitals rush to use hundreds of COVID-19 vaccines after freezer failure
Updated Jan 29, 2021;
Posted Jan 29, 2021
A line stretched for several blocks outside UW Medicine – Northwest early Friday, Jan. 29, 2021 after a freezer failure prompted an all-night COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Seattle. Hospitals rushed out COVID-19 vaccines to hundreds of people in the middle of the night after a freezer they were being stored in failed. (Evan Bush /The Seattle Times via AP)AP
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Seattle hospitals rushed out COVID-19 vaccines to hundreds of people in the middle of the night after a freezer they were being stored in failed.
KING 5.
On Monday (January 25), the Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA) warned this recent strain of the virus could overwhelm local hospitals if there s a surge in new cases. Officials added the variant, which originated from the United Kingdom, is more contagious.
Reporters said state leaders were able to make the COVID-19 vaccine more accessible despite recent concerns over vaccine supply. Gov.
Jay Inslee announced Tuesday (January 26) that Washington will also be getting a 16 percent increase to its vaccine allotment in the coming weeks. The federal government recently announced they agreed to purchase 200 million more vaccine doses.
The association expressed concerns over people double booking appointments as vaccination sites run out of doses. That concern goes to not only the people who need the shots and are unable to get them, but also to the potential for waste if the doses once thawed out can t find enough arms,
Hospital officials around Washington say they’re most worried about supply as they prepare to ramp up their Covid vaccination efforts. They say the demand
The more contagious U.K. variant of COVID-19 has been detected in Washington state and hospital leaders are now urging people to be even more cautious.
We DO NOT have extra vaccine doses and will not be able to accommodate walk-ins.
But that message wasn t always there.
When Jenna Anderson-O Neil saw on Facebook that her cousin had been vaccinated against Covid-19 on January 14, she was perplexed.
Anderson-O Neil s cousin is in her mid-twenties, has no underlying health conditions, and doesn t work in a health care setting. She wondered how her cousin could have gotten vaccinated before her 65-year-old mother who has underlying health conditions and, was at that time ineligible.
But still, her cousin had managed to book an evening time appointment online to get the shot at Swedish s Seattle University clinic.