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Situation Report #155

February 16th, 2021 - Posted in Alerts, Uncategorized

COVID-19 Vashon Situation Report The Vashon Emergency Operations Center produces this briefing for our emergency workers and for the community. The situation report is published Tuesday and Friday and includes information on Vashon community response actions and support.


You can read the full text of today’s report as a PDF and access older ones at:
https://vashonbeprepared.org/News/SitReps


Sign up to receive these emails at www.VoiceofVashon.org/alertsignup


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Vashon Vaccine Availability: 


Overview: Washington state continues to prioritize completing second doses for all patients who have received their first dose. However, vaccine supplies to Washington state are currently falling short of the overall demand for vaccine doses. This is resulting in statewide second-dose allocation challenges. System changes also led to delayed delivery of this week’s anticipated second-dose vaccine supply to Vashon Pharmacy. Consequently, appointments for second-dose vaccinations from Vashon Pharmacy are being rescheduled to next week. Second doses (also known as vaccine boosters) that are received next week will still be administered within the CDC’s recommended window after the first dose, for both Moderna and Pfizer.


Vashon Pharmacy: After two snow-day cancellations, operations resumed today at Vashon Pharmacy’s vaccination drive-through operation. The anticipated supply of second-dose vaccine was delayed (see Overview, above), resulting in second-dose appointments being postponed to the same times and days next week.  Patients are being notified via automated phone messages about the rescheduling.  The small supply of vaccine left over from the two snow-days will be used to administer first doses to folks whose appointments got rescheduled from last Saturday and Monday to this Wednesday.  The drive-through vaccination site hours this week will remain 9am till noon, and 1pm to 4pm, as in past weeks.


Sea Mar at Sunrise Ridge and Vashon Natural Medicine do not have vaccine available for the general public this week, although Sea Mar did receive a small quantity to do the required second doses for patients who received their first injections at Sea Mar.


Washington Department of Health (DOH) will focus on second doses of COVID-19 vaccine this week, meaning appointments to get a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine will be extremely limited in Washington State the week of Feb. 14.  Vaccine shipments in Washington have been delayed this week due to weather conditions.  DOH will prioritize state and local mobile vaccination teams for long-term care facilities and adult family homes; mass vaccination sites in King, Pierce, Snohomish, and Spokane counties; and other sites throughout the state that address equity.  Dr. Umair A. Shah, Secretary of Health said, “While the limited availability of first doses will be challenging this coming week, focusing on second doses will help pave the way for an improved and more sustainable allocation of vaccines in future weeks.”  https://www.doh.wa.gov


VashonBePrepared continues to support the three providers who are approved by the state to do vaccinations on Vashon. They are Vashon Pharmacy, Sea Mar at Sunrise Ridge, and Vashon Natural Medicine. The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) recommends that you check the following four websites to see if there is updated information beyond what we compile in these Situation Reports, which are published Tuesday and Friday.
VashonBePrepared.org/COVID-Vaccine
VashonPharmacy.com/covid
SeaMar.org/covid-vaccine
VashonNaturalMed.com


Reminder for the health and safety of yourselves and others, even after receiving your first and second vaccine dose:
We all will still need to mask up
We’ll still potentially be vulnerable to any mutated variants of the virus
We’ll still potentially be able to spread the virus to others
The vaccine is highly effective, but some people may still get infected, most likely with mild illness


Current Virus Statistics: 


Vashon Island COVID-19 Case Count as of 2/12/21:*
104 confirmed positive cases, 1 new case since last Situation Report on Friday
Date of last positive test: February 14
1 new positive in past 7 days and 6 positives in the past 14 days  
3 people have been hospitalized. Date of last hospitalization: December 28
2 Vashon deaths per the King County dashboard, last death reported 1/1/21


King County COVID-19 Case Count as of 2/16/21:*
80,317 confirmed positive cases, 636 new since last Situation Report on Friday
1,321 deaths, 3 new since last Situation Report on Friday


Washington State COVID-19 Case Count as of 2/15/21:*
329,746 confirmed positive cases, 2,579 new since last Situation Report Friday
4,709 deaths, 34 since last Situation Report on Friday


*Note 1:  The statistics above are from the Public Health – Seattle & King County dashboard as of the date listed. Numbers may not be complete, as data processing lags and the actual number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths may not yet match the dashboard.


Note 2: Federal law prohibits Public Health – Seattle & King County (PHSKC) from releasing the names of patients (HIPAA Act). For consistency of day-to-day data reporting for Vashon, the EOC uses only the Zip code data from the Public Health – Seattle & King County dashboard


Local COVID Activity:


Vashon Community Care (VCC) Executive Director Wendy Kleppe reported that the results of last Friday’s COVID-19 tests of residents and staff were negative. That makes three rounds of tests with no further positive COVID-19 cases. Kleppe noted that they await instructions from Public Health – Seattle & King County as to whether any further testing or other steps will be needed.


Vashon Vaccine Doses Reported: Because Public Health – Seattle & King County’s data reporting tends to lag behind what has actually occurred, the correct number of vaccine doses received on Vashon may be higher than reported by the county. As of February 16th, 20.2% of Vashon’s residents over age 16 have received at least one dose. That percentage increases with age groupings, to 59.8% over 65 and 58.1% of Vashon residents over 75 having received at least one dose. COVID-19 data for King County shows that on a per-100K basis, Vashon has by far the lowest rate of positive tests, hospitalizations and deaths, and the highest rate of vaccinations.  https://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/data/vaccination.aspx 


New Developments since Last Report:


Researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington have released their latest model, which predicts a COVID-19 death toll of 614,503 Americans by June 1 — down slightly from the previous forecast released last week, which projected 631,000 deaths.  Warmer weather and wider vaccination could help drive transmission down between now and August, according to the IHME.  Progress could also be reversed if people let their guards down, said IHME.  “Transmission has been contained over the winter through mask wearing, decreased mobility, and avoidance of high-risk settings such as indoor dining,” IHME said. “As daily case counts decline and vaccination increases, behaviors are likely to change towards increased risk of transmission.”  https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america  


Governor Inslee also authorized the Department of Commerce to distribute another $87 million for additional rental assistance and business assistance programs. That distribution will be split evenly toward those goals, about $43.5 million each, funded through the state’s Disaster Response Account.  The additional $43.5 million going to business assistance grants can be used to provide for expenses for businesses impacted by the pandemic. These funds can be used for rent, mortgage and utility assistance, technical assistance, and to help prevent permanent closure of a business.   Visit https://www.commerce.wa.gov


Governor Inslee’s Healthy Washington – Roadmap to Recovery has made some clarifications for child care, youth development, and day camps. The guidance includes license-exempt programs operated in a manner that complies with the child and staff cohorting and group size, and not programs where parents remain on-site for purposes other than employment, or Play and Learn groups where parents and caregivers remain on-site. The full guidance is at  https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1600/coronavirus/DOH-OSPI-DYCF-SchoolsChildCareGuidance.pdf  


President Joe Biden is extending a ban on housing foreclosures to June 30 to help homeowners struggling during the coronavirus pandemic.  The moratorium on foreclosures of federally guaranteed mortgages had been set to expire on March 31.  The White House says more than 10 million homeowners are behind on mortgage payments and Biden’s actions are to help keep people in their homes amid “a housing affordability crisis” triggered by the pandemic. 


Progress on Community Support Operations:


Emergency Operations Center (EOC): The EOC and other elements of our island emergency response coalition were activated in response to the pandemic emergency on March 12th, over eleven months ago (342 days). Four operational priorities established by the Incident Commander, Fire Chief Charlie Krimmert, and approved by the VashonBePrepared Board, continue to guide our work: health, food security, housing security, and economic recovery.


Winter storms caused weekend service disruptions: With the onset of snowfall and temperatures down to the teens starting last Friday afternoon, travel and other outdoor pandemic response activities were curtailed. The drive-through vaccination site at Vashon Pharmacy was forced to cancel both Saturday and Monday operations, due to snow accumulations in excess of 10 inches that made travel challenging and potentially unsafe for patients, vaccination site volunteers, and pharmacy staff. Last Saturday’s and Monday’s appointments were rescheduled to Wednesday February 17th, using automated phone messages to patients, as well as calls by pharmacy staff. Voice of Vashon Emergency Alerts were also issued via emails, social media, and 1650AM to announce the closures.


Vax Access: Requests for assistance with vaccination appointments are steadily diminishing, suggesting that the demand for vaccinations from folks currently eligible has mostly been met. It’s expected that as Washington state progresses through subsequent tiers, there may be new demand for assistance from the program. The program continues to serve people experiencing significant barriers to making vaccination appointments.


Volunteers: With multiple programs currently active, volunteer hours remain high. For the most recent reporting period that ended on February 15th, 47 volunteers contributed 535 hours of work to VashonBePrepared’s pandemic emergency response. That brings the total contributed hours to 23,470 since the activation began. At the FEMA reimbursement grant rate of $31.72/hour, VashonBePrepared volunteers have logged nearly $744,481 of in-kind value available to be applied to the 25% match requirement for reimbursement grants. The total includes hours contributed by the Vashon EOC Team, Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), and Community Care Team (CCT). The total doesn’t include Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) hours; the considerable hours by CERT are logged using a separate system. VashonBePrepared gives thanks as well for the many hours of extra work logged during the pandemic in support of the Vashon community, by the staff and volunteers at local social services agencies.

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Thank you Windermere Vashon for helping to make these alerts possible


Vashon-Maury Island Emergency Alerts    Alerts are broadcast on 1650AM, KVSH 101.9FM and the VoV free streaming app. They are published in text here, as well as VashonBePrepared.organd VoiceOfVashon.org, and the VoV Facebook page.
We encourage you to develop your 1650AM listening habit because an AM radio signal may be your only source of information in a serious island emergency.

Voice of Vashon thanks Windermere Vashon Real Estate for their support making 1650AM and this alert possible.


~ Your Emergency Alert Team