OLYMPIA, Wash. — On Wednesday, Washington state reached "an incredibly sad milestone" by surpassing 5,000 COVID-19-related deaths during the pandemic, the state's secretary of health said.
During a news conference Thursday, Dr. Umair Shah asked that people to take a moment of silence to "remember all those who have unfortunately been impacted and those who we have lost."
"Together, we will heal. We will recover,” Shah added.
On a more positive note, the state reported that over 1.7 million COVID vaccine doses have been administered so far in Washington. That's about 80% of the supply the state has received from the federal government.
The state's average for shots in arms is currently about 43,000 a day. That’s getting close to the 45,000 a day goal it set several weeks ago after opening some mass vaccination sites, including one in Clark County.
The current eligibility pool in the state just grew when Gov. Jay Inslee added educators and child care workers, after President Joe Biden directed states to get educators and child care workers vaccinated by the end of March. Inslee complied by adding them to the currently eligible group.
“This directive just speeds up this process and adds 260,000 people to our eligibility list here in Washington state,” said Lacy Fehrenbach, who is deputy secretary of health in charge of the state's COVID response.
Fehrenbach said the federal pharmacy program will be the main source for this newly added group. The federal government is sending 65,000 doses this week and 72,000 doses next week to Washington pharmacies in the program, which will focus on the newly added group.
“We've been told that the providers in this program will prioritize educators and child care workers at their sites through the end of March," she said.
About 300,000 doses for mass vaccination sites and other providers, along with an additional 60,900 doses of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine, are also flowing from the federal government into Washington this week.
State health officials hope everyone who is eligible will try and book an appointment, even if they've been frustrated trying to book one in the past. Right now about half of those 65 and older in Washington have been vaccinated.
“We want to make sure that we continue to emphasize who's eligible and try and get as many vaccinated before we open up our next grouping,” said Shah.