Pacific County Health & Human Services partnering with local hospitals to administer COVID-19 vaccine

Pacific County Health & Human Services is partnering with Ocean Beach Hospital in Ilwaco and Willapa Harbor Hospital in South Bend to administer the COVID19 vaccine to local health care workers and staff and residents of long-term care facilities in accordance with Washington State Department of Health vaccination allocation guidelines. Drive-through vaccination clinics will start this week and continue through January. Pacific County Health & Human Services will announce when we move into future phases of vaccine allocation. 

If you are a front line healthcare worker or work at a long-term care facility and would like to get the COVID-19 vaccine, please make an appointment by calling the Pacific County Emergency Operations Center at (360) 875-9407 or (360) 642-9407. The Emergency Operations Center is open Monday-Friday, 8am-4pm, closed on January 1 for the New Year Day holiday.

It is the goal of Pacific County to enable everyone in the county to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Unfortunately, there is not enough vaccine to offer it to everyone yet. More vaccine is on its way, but it’ll be a while before it’s broadly available. In the meantime, Pacific County is following the allocation guidelines from the Washington State Department of Health (DOH). 

“We know there are many critical workers – in many sectors that are at high risk. Other people are at risk for severe illness or death because of their health conditions, living conditions, and other factors,” said Katie Lindstrom, Pacific County Health & Human Services Director. “It is our goal over time to ensure all residents of Pacific County receive access to COVID-19 vaccine. But we appreciate your patience as we follow the guidance from Washington State Department of Health and focus on front line health care workers and workers at long-term care facilities first.” 

To decide which groups get the vaccine first, Washington State Department of Health considered a number of different inputs, such as scientific evidence, local data, federal guidance, conversations with Washington expert advisory groups, and community feedback.

Based upon this input, DOH determined that in the first phase (“Phase 1A”) their key objectives are to (1) protect our state’s medical surge capacity and (2) prevent infections among the population with the highest number of hospitalizations and deaths. 

Pacific County Health & Human Services will announce when we move into future phases.

You can review the current phase1a eligibility at www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1600/coronavirus/VaccineAllocationPhase1A.pdf.