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VACCINATION: Tentative dates set for expanding eligibility

March 4, 2021 3:15 pm
|      30 COMMENTS
 |   Coronavirus | West Seattle news

3:15 PM: Governor Inslee has just announced tentative dates for expanding COVID-19 vaccination eligibility in our state. They’re tentative, he said, because it depends on vaccine supply meeting (or beating) current projections. They include (but are not limited to):

*March 22nd – second tier of Phase 1B, also to include “critical” workers including grocery, farm, food processing, public transit, law enforcement, firefighters

*April 12th – ages 50+ with two or more co-morbidities

*April 26th – ages 16+ with (CORRECTED) two or more co-morbidities

More details to come – we’ll link and update as soon as it’s available in writing. The governor also spent part of his briefing (update: archived video will be here soon) urging that schools get back to in-person learning, insisting that it can be done safely; we’ll have a separate update on the Seattle Public Schools situation later.

ADDED 4:08 PM: Here’s the governor’s graphic with the key points we noted above:

ADDED 6:03 PM: Here’s the state document with full details about current and future (tentative) expansion.

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30 Replies to "VACCINATION: Tentative dates set for expanding eligibility"

  • I need a shot! March 4, 2021 (3:42 pm)

    This is absurd. It doesn’t matter who is eligible if there isn’t enough vaccine to go around. Before announcing the newly eligible, the powers that be should make sure the current eligible can get a shot.  With this system where you have to hunt down a place and time to get vaccinated, adding more people to the list will bog down those who have been trying to get a shot but haven’t been able to.

  • winniegirl March 4, 2021 (4:19 pm)

    and again restaurant workers are left to work in cramped quarters with no emergency pay and no hope for a vaccine until after May.  Other states have figured this out.  Restaurant work is high risk – there is data on this. What’s going on?

    • flimflam March 4, 2021 (5:36 pm)

      i was about to post something similar but i’ve been whining quite a bit about it here lately and was hesitant. at least grocery workers are around masked people – restaurant workers are faced  with maskless customers all day. at the place i work i’m forced to remind someone wandering through the place without their mask to the bathroom to “PLEASE, WEAR YOUR MASK WHEN YOU  GET U FROM THE TABLE!”

      • winniegirl March 4, 2021 (7:22 pm)

        I hear you! I work in the kitchen, but we’re all crammed in there.  I see friends in NY and CA posting about getting their vaccine and I’m so happy for them but frustrated by the lack of understanding here.  People are saying that restaurants are a luxury, but tell that to the people who work in them or own them, or rely on them after a long day at their own jobs.  As an industry that employs more people than almost any other you would think that there would be some consideration.  But the lack of government support for the industry was probably a precursor to the vaccine rollout.

  • skeeter March 4, 2021 (5:13 pm)

    This projected timeline has me scratching my head.  Even by April 26 only a small portion of Washingtonians will be eligible.  How in the world will we be fully vaccinated by the end of May like President Biden predicted?  

    • WSB March 4, 2021 (5:19 pm)

      If you read closely, the declaration was that there would be enough vaccine for everyone by then, not that everyone (who wants to be) would be vaccinated. However, the pace has certainly picked up dramatically. Today’s briefing noted that two recent days in the state saw more than 60,000 inoculations given, far above the target of 45K per day (which is just a bit above the 7-day average of 43,764 that he cited).

      • Jamie March 4, 2021 (5:51 pm)

        With the new J&J vaccine and increased production from the other companies, the New York Times is now reporting that we could get to 4M+ vaccine doses delivered each day in the US. Washington State also seems to be rapidly improving the vaccine delivery sites and associated infrastructure.I am cautiously optimistic that everyone but our 12-year-old will be vaccinated by June.

  • Auntie March 4, 2021 (6:05 pm)

    This is just plain stupid. There are thousands of people just here in West Seattle who are eligible now and have not been able to get an appointment. The governor may seem like he is being magnanimous, so fabulous, by including more people, but what is the point if nobody can get an appointment??

    • WSB March 4, 2021 (6:13 pm)

      The last-minute openings at the West Seattle site for today and tomorrow still had room according to a reader who booked his a few hours ago – though for 65+ only at last report. The governor sounded very confident that he has reason to believe supply will increase enough to make those “tentative” expansion dates happen.

  • trickycoolj March 4, 2021 (6:22 pm)

    Meanwhile I’ve heard of non-eligible people snapping up last minute doses at close of business various places before doses have to be trashed for the day. Might as well open the whole thing up and stop putting one group against another. Getting a vaccine is going to be like getting a new game console or limited edition sneakers at this rate. 

  • AM March 4, 2021 (6:45 pm)

    For everyone who is eligible but having trouble finding an appointment – there is a group on Facebook called “Find a COVID shot WA” full of volunteers who can help! I highly recommend it. If you don’t have Facebook, I recommend asking a friend or family member to join and post for you.

  • JenT March 4, 2021 (7:27 pm)

    Washington did a decent job of keeping the rate of COVID low, compared to other states.  But our vaccine rollout is an absolute embarrassment.  According to the New York Times daily tracker, we still rank #28. My 31 year old sister in Texas, who has one co-morbidity, is able to get her vaccine as of this week, as soon as she can secure a spot.  My family in Houston have been super impressed with the rollout, which is saying something since Texas has handled COVID abysmally and they just went through a week without water and electricity.  I really do hope that we catch up and start progressing the way other states have been. This has been an incredibly disheartening process so far here, especially since Washington has some of the world’s leading public health expertise. 

  • East Coast Cynic March 4, 2021 (7:32 pm)

    I would qualify for the age range of April 12, but one comorbidity short:(.  At least we’re on the verge of getting an enormous surge in supply. It is really disgraceful that a red state like Texas that knocks federal government assistance has been able to get more of their people shots than we have.

  • Friend O'Dinghus March 4, 2021 (7:34 pm)

    I for one will continue waiting my turn with dignity and grace. I am now tentatively eligible in six week’s time, and I am ecstatic. Spring creeps ever closer, and we have just a little longer to go to minimize per capita infection and death rates in our fair state. I am so much happier about where we are now than where we were in November, that’s for dang sure!

    • WSB March 4, 2021 (7:51 pm)

      Actually it hasn’t, according to news coverage.
      https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/as-gov-abbott-prepares-to-reopen-texas-state-ranks-48th-in-covid-vaccination-rate

      • JenT March 4, 2021 (8:56 pm)

        There’s not much of a margin between Washington (#28) and Texas (#48), with 16% receiving one dose so far in WA and 14% receiving one dose so far in TX.  And they lost 2 weeks with the winter blackout.  Why isn’t our stadium mass site already up and running like it has been in Houston?  Maybe Inslee put too much faith early on in big companies and their “experts.”  All those Starbucks logistics folks who were seconded, for example, what have they been doing all this time?  That was reported on January 18, and on January 22, Washington “partnered with Microsoft and Costco.”  To what end?  Meanwhile Houston has FEMA and the National Guard on site at their stadiums, delivering 6,000 shots a day. And Lumen Field is only going to do 5,000 a week to start?! It’s truly mind-boggling.

        • NorthAdmirals March 5, 2021 (8:28 am)

          The government only picked a few places for those FEMA sites. Mostly in cities with a high black population or low vaccine distribution. Those FEMA sites get their own allocations separate from the states. It seems unlikely Seattle will participate in that but I imagine when our vaccine supply goes up they’ll start more mass sites here 

    • NorthAdmirals March 4, 2021 (8:39 pm)

      You can find numbers here https://covidvax.live/

      Texas has done 14% to Washington states 15.96%. The average for the US 16.39% – so we’re both below average for the US. 

  • GHill March 4, 2021 (7:54 pm)

    Has anyone heard about parents of children with disabilities being part of a specific phase? I’ve read about issues with this in California for those getting vaccines but not heard anything in WA. I’m younger and happy to wait longer but as things open up more, it does mean greater risk to our family. We have hours of therapy in our home and outside our home. The therapists were just recently vaccinated but we are not. Maybe that should give us reprieve but restrictions continue to loosen and relying on others to follow guidance is futile. We don’t have a choice to stop therapy for our child as it would be very detrimental. Wondering if others have similar experiences and trying to figure out where we fit in if at all.

  • Lisa March 4, 2021 (9:34 pm)

    I’ve heard from people from Seattle to Florida that even with being fully vaccinated, they still won’t go outside their home because the vaccine is not 100%. I respectfully ask people that if your plan is to stay shut in, then let others get the vaccine first. I don’t know why anyone would bother getting it and then refuse to leave their home.

  • Timeslid March 4, 2021 (10:19 pm)

    Plus so many line jumpers. True colors come out with my friends and neighbors. I don’t know what to say. Well I do and I did. 

    • uncle loco March 5, 2021 (5:48 am)

      Those are the same people who were hoarding all of the TP.

    • flimflam March 5, 2021 (7:21 am)

      seriously. the owner of restaurant i work in did so – he even approached me the other day and told me exactly how/where i could get a vaccine if i didn’t mind the “moral aspect”….i was sort of at a loss for words to be honest.

  • Smittytheclown March 5, 2021 (5:39 am)

    I’m just being patient and will continue distancing and masking for two more months.  By then we will be able to walk in and get one on demand. Is my prediction.  In fact,, by May I bet they are begging people to come in.  The next 60 days are going to move much quicker than this plan.

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