Welcome to the COVID-19 Vaccine Partner Newsletter!  Here you'll find the latest news and information on COVID-19 vaccine related topics.

• Latest News
• Clinical Updates
• Training and Events
• Resources

Q:  ARE COVID-19 VACCINES BEING ADDED TO THE CHILDHOOD IMMUNIZATION SCHEDULE? 

A:  The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has unanimously voted to add the COVID-19 vaccine to the recommended immunization schedule for children and adults. The schedule, updated every fall to go into effect the following year, is meant to help guide providers in determining when to administer a number of important vaccinations, particularly for children. The CDC is expected to approve the recommendation.

The recommended immunization schedule is not a vaccine mandate. States and local jurisdictions make their own rules about which vaccines are required for school attendance. In fact, there are vaccines included on the schedule now, such as seasonal flu shots, that many jurisdictions don’t require for children to attend school. This is not a new recommendation, the COVID-19 vaccine has been recommended and available to people 6 months of age and older since June 2022. Matthew Daley, a senior investigator at the Institute for Health Research at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, said in an interview post-ACIP vote "...there is symbolism in adding Covid-19 to the childhood immunization schedule, and that symbolism is that we view this as routine and that we view this as COVID is here to stay.”

As federal funds for COVID-19 vaccination are expected to run out in the next year, the CDC's recommended vaccination schedule will also be important for the uninsured and underinsured populations. The immunization schedule provides guidance to insurance providers, which tend to cover vaccines on the list. 

Latest News

COMMUNITY MEDIA OUTREACH MATERIALS

The COVID-19 Community Media Outreach program focuses on connecting with priority communities who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and experienced access barriers to COVID-19 information, resources and vaccines. The Community Media Outreach has the following resource documents that provide a summary of efforts that the program completed between October 2020 through September 2022:

• Community Media Outreach program overview (PDF): Provides goals, impacts, and growth
• Community Media Outreach program results in each community (PDF): Provides key themes, activities, and highlights to organization outreach campaigns

More information can be located on the Supporting COVID-19 Health Equity Through Community Engagement webpage.

UPDATED RESOURCE ON IMPORTANCE OF PEDIATRIC COVID-19 VACCINATION

Did you know that only 8% of children 6 months-4 years old in Washington state have completed their primary COVID-19 vaccine series? And 33% of children 5-11 years old? The time to vaccinate children against COVID-19 is now.

We have updated our Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccines: The Facts Are in the Stats resource highlighting nationwide and statewide data on the severity of COVID-19 in children and the importance of vaccination. This resource can be displayed in health care settings and sent to the parents/guardians of pediatric patients.

CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION TRACKS COVID DATA WEEKLY

Did you know that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitors and tracks COVID data on a weekly basis? CDC is closely tracking a wide range of data related to the coronavirus. This resource provides you with all the most recent and relevant information regarding COVID throughout the United States. Through this data tracking page, you can find information such as COVID Variant Monitoring, Trends in number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, Vaccine effectiveness information, and much more! 

You can subscribe to the weekly review here.

COVID-19 K-12 SCHOOLS AND CHILD CARE GUIDANCE

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) Guidance to Prevent and Respond to COVID-19 in K-12 Schools and Child Cares has been updated as of October 25^th and goes into effect on Nov 1^st. This update was made in response to the rescission of COVID-19 emergency proclamations and state of emergency. This guidance, in accordance with the Department of Health’s mission to protect and improve the health of all people in Washington State, supports K-12 schools, child care/early learning, and school partners to achieve our shared goal of maintaining safe, in-person learning and mitigating the spread of COVID-19.  Many of the K-12 and child care COVID-19 guidance requirements have shifted to recommendations. To minimize the spread of COVID-19 and other illnesses, K-12 schools and child cares should continue to use best practices and lessons learned since the beginning of the pandemic, including masking, testing, and improving ventilation, as part of everyday infectious disease prevention. 

INCLEMENT WEATHER REMINDER AND RESOURCES FOR PROVIDERS

Planning for Inclement Weather & Power outages

When inclement weather is expected, power outages and shipping delays are also possible. It's always a good time to remember the resources and processes in place to safeguard the publicly funded vaccines at clinics around Washington and ensure your vaccine management plan is up to date.

As a provider in the Washington State COVID-19 Vaccine Program, please ensure vaccines maintain stable temperatures. If you experience a power outage, please refer to the COVID-19 Temperature Excursion Guide.

If vaccines need to be moved to an alternative location, please remember emergency transport does not require prior approval. If vaccines are transported, ensure that a digital data logger is used to record vaccine temperatures while in transit.

Report all temperature excursions to COVID.vaccine@doh.wa.gov and remember that when a temperature excursion occurs, no matter how brief, the manufacturers of each vaccine involved in the excursion should be contacted to verify vaccine viability. Please refer to the additional resources below for more information.

Resources:

Vaccine Temperature Excursion Guide

Vaccine Transport Guidelines

DOH Storage and Handling Webpage

COVID-19 VACCINE FORWARD CAPACITY SURVEY

The Washington State Department of Health has committed in the state’s ForWArd Plan to supporting vaccination efforts throughout the state. We are committed to maintaining the system-wide capacity to administer 30,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine per day and the ability to surge to 60,000 doses daily within seven days as needed.  A survey will be used to measure the maximum capacity, on a monthly basis, that enrolled COVID-19 Vaccine Providers have to administer COVID-19 vaccines to patients.

Thank you for your participation in the October COVID-19 Provider Capacity survey. Your answers in the last survey showed that we are ready to meet this goal in the ForWArd Plan!  Please take a few moments to answer the questions in the next survey to help us measure provider capacity to meet these state goals. The survey will be sent on November 1st and will be closing on November 9th.

Please contact us at COVID.Vaccine@doh.wa.gov if you have any questions about this survey.

CDC PEDIATRIC BIVALENT DOCUMENT UPDATES

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated the following documents to include pediatric bivalent booster information:

Moderna:

• Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine: At-A-Glance
• Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines: Vaccine Preparation and Administration Summary

Pfizer: 

• Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine: At-A-Glance
• Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccines: Vaccine Preparation and Administration Summary

Clinical Updates

ACIP ADDS COVID-19 VACCINES TO THE VACCINES FOR CHILDREN PROGRAM

During last week’s ACIP meeting the team discussed adding the COVID-19 vaccine to the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program.  Having the COVID-19 vaccines available through this program ensures their availability for uninsured and underinsured children when the federal government ends public health emergency distribution.

STUDIES SUGGEST THOSE ELIGIBLE MAY BENEFIT FROM UPDATED BIVALENT BOOSTERS

Two studies published by the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) evaluated the Vaccine Effectiveness (VE) of the monovalent mRNA vaccines during Omicron variant predominance.  In both studies, researchers found decreasing VE over time.  Although COVID-19 vaccine protection was moderate after a primary series or booster dose, researcher do believe persons eligible may benefit from updated bivalent boosters that target circulating BA.4/BA.5 sublineages. You can find the full articles at the following links:

Effectiveness of Monovalent mRNA Vaccines against COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization among Immunocompetent Adults during BA.1/BA.2 and BA.4/BA.5 Predominant Periods of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant in the United States—IVY Network, 18 States, December 26, 2021–August 31, 2022

Effectiveness of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines against COVID-19–Associated Hospitalizations among Immunocompromised Adults during SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Predominance—VISION Network, 10 States, December 2021—August 2022 

LIMITED USE OF NOVAVAX AS BOOSTER RECOMMENDED

Last week the FDA authorized the use of Novavax as a booster. CDC followed with a recommendation for use of Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine as a booster dose. This recommendation is for those 18 years and up who cannot or will not receive a bivalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.  Furthermore, the booster can be given to anyone at least 6 months after they have completed any COVID-19 primary series and they have not received any other boosters.

Resources:

CDC Allows Novavax Monovalent COVID-19 Boosters for Adults Ages 18 and Older 

U.S. FDA Grants Emergency Use Authorization for Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine, Adjuvanted as a Booster for Adults

Fact Sheet for Healthcare Providers Administering Vaccine (Vaccination Providers) Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the Novavax COVID-19 Vaccine, Adjuvanted to Prevent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

CDC PROVIDES CONTACT INFORMATION FOR COVID-19 VACCINE COMPANIES

PFIZER DIGITAL DATA LOGGERS IN SHIPMENTS

For anyone experiencing issues with Digital Data Loggers in Pfizer Shippers, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided us with the following information to help troubleshoot:

• For troubleshooting any issues with the logger (e.g. no signal, low power mode, blank display), Controlant’s Receiving Instructions Websiteshares a range of logger instructions. 
• In case of network issues, go to Controlant’sData Upload Website, and follow the guidelines to perform a manual upload prior to returning logger. 

PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 VACCINE FORMULATION/PRESENTATION GUIDE

This resource is the Formulation/Presentation Guide which includes information about the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent (Original and Omicron BA.4/BA.5).

Link to the resource https://webfiles.pfizer.com/formulation-guide

Website for providers with information on the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine and the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent (Original and Omicron BA.4/BA.5:

Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine | Official HCP Site | Risk Info (cvdvaccine-us.com)

Training and Events

COVID-19 VACCINE TRAININGS

COVID-19 BIVALENT BOOSTER SAFETY AND ADMINISTRATION WEBINAR

Tuesday, November 8, 2022 - 12-1PM PST

The Washington State Department of Health will host a COVID-19 Bivalent Booster Safety and Administration Webinar on November 8, 2022 from 12pm-1pm. The webinar will cover safety data related to COVID-19 bivalent vaccine booster recommendations, and discuss the updated booster schedule for everyone 5 years and older. The webinar will be recorded and continuing education will be available for nurses.

Learning objectives:

1. Discuss safety studies for COVID-19 bivalent vaccines
2. Describe updated COVID-19 bivalent vaccine schedule
3. Identify strategies to prevent and address COVID-19 bivalent vaccine administration errors

CHILDHOOD VACCINE PROGRAM TRAINING

The Childhood Vaccine Program (CVP) Training Series has a webpage with all the previous recordings available for on demand viewing. Please check out the CVP training webpage to see what's coming up next and when you need a refresher on a previous topic.

Resources

FOR SCHOOLS AND CHILD CARE FACILITIES

• K-12 Schools 2022-2023 Requirements (PDF). 
• Higher Education Recommendations 2021-2022
  • This guidance reflects the CDC isolation and quarantine guidelines, including information on staying up to date with vaccinations against COVID-19.
• Symptom Decision Tree and Contact Tracing Checklist for K-12 Schools (PDF).
• COVID-19 Vaccines: Pediatric Vaccine Toolkit for Schools   This toolkit provides a variety of resources for schools, including parent handouts, backpack stuffers, and sample communications.

FOR LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES

• 2022 Interim Recommendations for COVID-19 Prevention and Control in Health Care Settings.
• What to Do If You Identify a COVID-19 Case in Your Hospital.
• LTCF Visitor Announcement Sign – Visitation rules signage.

SIGN UP FOR THIS NEWSLETTER!

If you aren't already signed up for the COVID-19 Vaccine Partner Newsletter, please visit the Department of Health's email subscribers page here. Once you enter your email, on the next page expand the Immunization topic, select the COVID-19 Vaccine Partner Newsletter, and click submit.

This newsletter summarizes content from the week of October 23, 2022 and was sent out on October 28, 2022.