St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham to get first doses of COVID-19 vaccine in Whatcom The Bellingham Herald 12/15/2020 Kie Relyea, The Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Wash.) Dec. 14—PeaceHealth will receive the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Whatcom County, with 975 doses expected at its Bellingham hospital on Thursday, Dec. 17. Medical workers at its St. Joseph hospital will be the first to receive the vaccine in the county and among the first in Washington state. "In alignment with guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health, PeaceHealth is prioritizing the first doses of vaccines for healthcare workers who provide hands-on care to confirmed COVID-19 positive patients, as well as other higher-risk groups of caregivers providing face-to-face patient care," Dr. Sudhakar Karlapudi, chief medical officer for PeaceHealth Northwest, said to The Bellingham Herald on Monday, Dec. 14.