PORT ANGELES — Clallam and Jefferson county officials expect to receive their first batch of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine sometime this week.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine Friday.
The Associated Press reported that some locales could begin receiving batches of the vaccine as early as Monday, but local officials have not received word what day vaccines might arrive on the North Olympic Peninsula. They expect them to arrive early in the week, however.
Each county will receive a single batch of 975 doses. These will not be available to the general public. First in line to receive the vaccine are frontline health care workers and first responders, followed by patients and staff at long-term care facilities.
Officials don’t expect that all members of the public will be fully vaccinated until April or possibly June.
New cases
County officials said that a spurt in new cases appears to have slowed down for the moment. Clallam County had one new case confirmed Friday and nine Saturday for a total of 620 cases since March.
There are 86 active cases in the county and the listed infection rate over the past two weeks was 180 per 100,000, still in the high-risk category, but down from an infection rate of well over 200 per 100,000 through much of November.
“We’re seeing a lot of promising signs that we’re headed in the right direction,” said Dr. Allison Unthank, Clallam County health officer, during her Friday weekly COVID-19 update.
She said there were some cases tied to the Thanksgiving weekend, but that Clallam County did not receive a feared huge surge from the holiday. Other parts of the nation did.
“People were cautious and I think it’s starting to pay off,” she said.
Jefferson County had one new positive Friday and no reported positives Saturday, said Dr. Tom Locke, Jefferson County health officer.
Jefferson County has had 191 positive cases since March and has 14 active cases in quarantine.
The listed infection rate for Jefferson County is 110 per 100,000 over the past two weeks, again down considerably from November, but still in the high risk category.
Vaccine update
Unthank said that the amount of vaccine arriving in Clallam. Clallam will be a good start, but that, “it’s not as much as we would like. We won’t have enough for all of our health care workers.”
Locke expects “a lot of judgment calls” about which health care providers and first responders should receive the vaccine first.
Unthank expects another shipment within three weeks of the first since the people getting the initial shots must then get a second one within four weeks.
After that, she expects shipments to “exponentially increase.”
Within about two weeks after the second vaccination, people will be 90 percent to 95 percent protected against the virus, Unthank said.
She stressed that while people are being vaccinated, residents need to continue to take safety measures, such as wearing masks in public, maintaining six feet distance from others and avoiding large gatherings.
“We will not all be safe until the majority of us are vaccinated,” she said.
Unthank acknowledged that this has been a difficult year for everyone, but said it won’t be too much longer before the vaccine starts making a difference.
“I think it will be a good step in the right direction. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re not quite there yet,” she said.
”This has been a very difficult response. This has gone on longer and harder than I think any of us anticipated.”
Locke agreed.
“This is kind of the end game,” he said.
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Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be reached at labossiere@peninsuladailynews.com.
