|
|
Welcome to the COVID-19 Vaccine Partner Newsletter! Here you'll find the latest news and information on COVID-19 vaccine related topics.
|
|
Q: IS THE COVID-19 BIVALENT BOOSTER AGE ELIGIBILITY CHANGING?
A: Recently you may have received notices about pre-ordering for the baby pediatric bivalent booster for children 6 months and older. While the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced the expected authorization of the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine for children in this age group in early to mid-December, we are still waiting for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to vote. While we wait for the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), we can still rely on the primary COVID-19 vaccine series for the pediatric population as it has shown to be effective in preventing severe illness.
Information and updates on pre-ordering can be found in the Clinical Updates section below.
|
|
NEW RESOURCE ON IMPORTANCE OF COVID-19 BOOSTERS
Did you know that 76% of eligible people still have not received their updated bivalent booster? Everyone 5 years and older is eligible for an updated booster 2 months after completing their primary series or last booster dose. The time to get up to date with your COVID-19 vaccines is now.
We have created a new resource: COVID-19 Vaccine Boosters: The Facts Are in the Stats (PDF) resource highlighting nationwide and statewide data on the severity of COVID-19 and the importance of staying up to date with COVID-19 vaccines. This resource can be displayed in health care settings and given to patients.
|
|
UPDATED SNAPSHOT OF THE COVID-19 VACCINES NOW AVAILABLE
The Snapshot of the COVID-19 Vaccines document has been updated with information on 5 year+ bivalent boosters and Novavax boosters. This document provides a general overview and comparison of all the COVID-19 vaccines, discusses vaccine schedules, eligibility for boosters, and more! Now available in English, Spanish, and 36 additional languages. Additional languages can be found on the Resources and Recommendations page under the vaccine tab.
|
|
DOH PROVIDES NEW RESOURCES TO MITIGATE HOSPITAL OVERFLOW IN RISE OF RESPIRATORY ILLNESS
With Flu, RSV, and COVID-19 on the rise and causing illness throughout Washington right now, our hospitals are overflowing. New DOH resources highlight how to recognize the emergency warning signs of these respiratory illnesses in attempts to mitigate hospital overflow and help Washingtonians know when it's time to seek help. The below images can be utilized for Facebook/Twitter and Instagram!
Learn more about flu and COVID-19 prevention at www.doh.wa.gov
|
|
CDC RELEASES TWO STUDIES ON EFFECTIVENESS OF BIVALENT COVID-19 BOOSTER AND PAXLOVID
CDC released two new studies last week, one on effectiveness of the updated (bivalent) COVID-19 booster and one on the effectiveness of Paxlovid for reducing hospitalization. The links to the studies and summary messages on vaccine effectiveness are below.
- Vaccine effectiveness data show that updated (bivalent) boosters help protect against COVID-19 illness and COVID-19-associated death.
- Early surveillance data posted to COVID Data Tracker show that people who received the updated (bivalent) booster dose were 15 times less likely to die from COVID-19 compared to people who were not vaccinated.
- Getting the updated (bivalent) booster restored protection that had decreased over time since receiving the last vaccine dose.
- CDC also published an MMWR with early vaccine effectiveness (VE) data that showed that the updated (bivalent) booster provided additional protection from COVID-19 illness in people who had already received a monovalent booster dose or multiple monovalent booster doses.
- The updated (bivalent) booster protects against the original strain of the virus and BA.4 and BA.5 variants, so this holiday season, stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccines to prevent severe disease and death. CDC recommends that people ages 5 years and older get one updated (bivalent) booster if it has been at least 2 months since they got their last COVID-19 dose (either primary series or original monovalent booster).
- CDC is making these early data available to the public and will continue to monitor VE data, respond to the trends we see, and evaluate VE against emerging variants.
Resources:
|
|
DOH COVID-19 PARTNER FEEDBACK NEEDED
The Washington State Department of Health would like to thank all our COVID-19 response partners for your contributions over the past two years, we would not be where we are today without all of you! This incident has tested our state’s public health and healthcare infrastructure in many ways, but through this, we have learned so much about best practices for emergency response. It is important that we evaluate our response efforts post incident to capture valuable lessons learned, and to do this DOH is conducting a COVID-19 After-Action Report (AAR) and Corrective Action/Improvement Plan (CAP/IP). This is a continuation of the In-Action Report linked here: https://doh.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/821-175-COVID19InActionOpAssessment.pdf.
To participate in the Partner Survey please click this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LDMLCCV. This survey will remain open until December 7, 2022. Your feedback in crucial as we continue to learn from COVID-19. Participation is optional and all responses will remain confidential. If you have any questions, or would like to share information in a one on one setting, please feel free to contact Amber McPherson at Amber.McPherson@doh.wa.gov.
Thank you for your time and continued partnership!
|
|
FREE HPV & COVID-19 VACCINE CLINIC
In partnership with the American Cancer Society, Providence Swedish is hosting a FREE vaccination event for HPV and COVID-19 vaccinations at Swedish’s primary care clinic in Redmond. All vaccines are administered at no-cost. All community members are welcome.
No appointments or registration necessary! Free, open parking lots located at each location.
REDMOND EVENT DETAILS:
WHEN: Wednesday, December 7th, from 3 – 5 p.m.
WHERE: Redmond Primary Care Clinic:
18100 NE Union Hill Road, Redmond, WA 98052, Floor 2
VACCINE ELIGIBILITY:
HPV: Ages 9 -19
COVID-19: Ages 6 months and older
For more information, contact SCI.Education@Swedish.org
or call 206-386-3200.
|
|
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 November 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 was sent on December 1st and will be closing on December 9th.
Please contact us at COVID.Vaccine@doh.wa.gov if you have any questions about this survey.
|
|
DOH WORKS WITH RUSSIAN- AND UKRANIAN- SPEAKING COMMUNITIES IN WASHINGTON
DOH has been helping local health jurisdictions and various community organizations in their work to aid refugees and recent arrivals from Ukraine, and other immigrants from Russia, Moldova, and other eastern European countries. Currently on its fourth year of funding from the CDC, DOH’s FSU Vaccine Hesitancy project aims at reducing misinformation and promoting vaccination and other preventative health practices in the Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking communities in the state of Washington. ‘FSU’ stands for ‘former Soviet Union’ and is a term applied to a considerable number of immigrants and refugees who moved to the United States following the collapse of the Soviet Union. This population has the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate of any community in Washington.
The FSU project is housed in the Health Promotion and Education (HPE) section of the Executive Office for Public Affairs and Equity (OPAE). HPE staff also work with the Refugee and Immigrant Health Program.
Since 2019, the program has:
- Gathered in-depth community feedback
- Made connections with community members throughout the state
- Funded community coordinators to do local outreach in the 5 counties with the highest Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking populations
- Run in-language outreach and media campaigns
- Created and translated hundreds of vaccine-related materials for the community
- Pivoted messaging to COVID-19 when the pandemic started
- Started a workgroup made up of community members and those serving them. This group grows every month and is incredibly active, doing work, helping each other, and supporting the project.
- Begun to build confidence in DOH within the community
- Launched a new health board (more on that in a minute)
- Created or funded the resources listed below.
One of the major tasks the FSU project did in 2022 was launch a health board for this community and help it gain nonprofit status. By creating an independent Slavic Health board (now called Nashi), DOH hopes to improve health promotion and education outreach efforts to Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking residents of Washington and connect folks to other services and cultural events. The health board plans events connecting people to needed resources and shares community needs with public health agencies.
Through this project, DOH has assembled a toolkit of various health promotion and education materials for the FSU community. This toolkit includes interviews with health specialists, printable PDFs, posters, and informational cards, and various articles discussing vaccine hesitancy and effective outreach strategies. Most materials are available in English, Russian, and Ukrainian.
Other resources developed by DOH or with help from community partners are listed below:
-
Online training for anybody working with FSU populations: This training provides continuing education credits and is a great resource for medical professionals and outreach workers. Immunity Community (immunitycommunitywa.org)
-
Vaccination Record Translation Service: Patients/clients are able to upload their Russian or Ukrainian vaccination records and have them translated. www.Vax4school.org
-
Vaccination Record Translation Guide: Medical professionals can use this guide to understand and translate Ukrainian and Russian vaccination records themselves. Ukraine-Vaccine-Record-Interpretation.pdf (srhd.org)
-
Vaccination Record Translation Webinar: Explains how to use the vaccination record translation guide. Ukraine Immunization Records Webinar - YouTube
-
"Plain Talk About Childhood Immunization” booklet: Available in multiple languages. Plain Talk about Childhood Immunization (wa.gov)
-
Psychological First Aid Training Webinar: Training developed to support clients affected by the war in Ukraine. Webinar Recording.mp4 | Powered by Box
If your work involves the FSU community and you would like to talk about vaccine confidence, refugee / arrival resources, or if you have questions regarding Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking communities in Washington, please reach out to program coordinator Vadim Kogan at vadim.kogan@doh.wa.gov or program assistant Vadim Gaynaliy at vadim.gaynaliy@doh.wa.gov
|
|
REMINDER - PLEASE UPDATE VACCINE LOCATOR!
When was the last time you updated Vaccine Locator? With respiratory illnesses on the rise in WA, and the holidays fast approaching, this is an important time to update Vaccine Locator. Please make sure people who want to get the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters can find them! Check to make sure your office location and contact information is current, and your complete vaccine offering is displayed. We also recommend noting if you only vaccinate existing patients.
Log in to WA HEALTH and update your information today!
|
|
NOW AVAILABLE! PRE-ORDERING FOR BABY PEDIATRIC BIVALENT BOOSTER VACCINE
The Washington Immunization Information System (WAIIS) is able to support ordering for the new bivalent 6mo-4/5 year vaccine products. Pre-ordering for providers is available in WAIIS now. The ordering plan for these products is as follows:
- 12/2/2022- Ordering opened for all providers at 8:00 am
- 12/5/2022- Ordering will close to all providers at 12:00 pm, at which time the orders will be approved
- After pre-ordering is complete, ordering will be unavailable in the WAIIS until Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) is granted
- If demand for these products exceeds supply, the Vaccine Ordering and Distribution (VOD) Team will reach out to Local Health Jurisdictions (LHJs) to determine the prioritization of orders for approval.
***Vaccine will not ship until EUA is granted.
Product details
Pfizer (6 months to 4 years):
- Packaged in 10-dose vials in cartons of 10 vials each (100 doses total)
- Minimum order quantity of 100
- Dose: 3mcg/0.2mL
- Providers will not be able to opt out of ancillary kits, as this product requires diluent
- Maroon cap identical to the monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech product for this age group
- New label identifying the product as a bivalent vaccine (i.e., Original and Omicron BA.4/BA.5)
Moderna (6 months to 5 years):
- Packaged in 2-dose vials in cartons of 10 vials each (20 doses total)
- Minimum order quantity of 100
- Dose: 10mcg/0.2mL
- Providers will be able to opt out of ancillary kits, no diluent required
- Vial with dark pink cap and yellow border on the label
|
|
CLARIFICATION FOR SINGLE DOSE VIAL (SDV) ORDERS
It has been brought to our attention that confusing language was displayed on a DOH website regarding SDV order deliveries. To clarify, SDV orders have been arriving at provider offices within the normal shipping time (24-48 hours after order approval) and will continue to arrive within that timeframe. The quantity of vaccine available for ordering continues to be limited, and the Washington State Department of Health will not be receiving more vaccine for SDVs until after January 1, 2023.
Vaccine deliveries were paused from November 24 to November 27, in observance of the holiday. Normal deliveries resumed on November 28.
|
|
HOLIDAY DELIVERY SCHEDULE
|
|
MODERNA SHELF LIFE EXTENSION
 Moderna has verified the new expiry dates above and updated the Moderna Vial Expiration Checker: https://modernacovid19global.com/vial-lookup?#vialLookUpTool.
 If you have any of the monovalent Moderna COVID-19 vaccines above in stock:
- Hubs/depots should isolate and clearly label the vaccine in storage to avoid distribution errors and wait and see if their inventory is expiry extended.
- If storage space for isolation of vaccine is limited, awardees/partners should dispose of expired vaccine in accordance with state and local regulations to avoid administration errors. Providers may order replacements of expired monovalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
- Please be aware that monovalent vaccines may be short dated, pending approval of primary series bivalent.
- Providers are encouraged to maintain stock of monovalent COVID-19 vaccines to provide a safety net of availability until bivalent primary doses are approved.
- There will be rolling expiry dates of adult monovalent products. Replacement orders should be small and frequent to avoid large expiry losses.
Pfizer is expected to announce shelf-life extensions of all their TRIS products (i.e., all gray, orange, maroon for both monovalent & bivalent products). More information will be provided as it is made available.
|
|
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
|
|
REDISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT REMINDER
For clinics who are actively transferring or plan to transfer COVID-19 vaccine, the CDC requires that each clinic transferring vaccine must have a Redistribution Agreement. After receiving additional information from the CDC, it has been determined that it is no longer acceptable to have a single organization level Redistribution Agreement covering several facilities. If you have any questions or help determining if your redistribution agreement is completed at the facility level, email us at COVID.Vaccines@doh.wa.gov.
|
|
WEBINAR ON LONG COVID TODAY
There is a new webinar Power of Providers (POP) is offering on Long COVID, in addition to the Behavior Health Support Series for Health Care Workers. Links to webinars, and their recordings, can be found the POP member page: www.doh.wa.gov/POP
Webinar on Long COVID: The Landscape of Post-COVID-19 Conditions – Where We Are Now?
Speaker: Dr. Eric J. Chow, MD, MS, MPH
Chief of Communicable Disease Epidemiology and Immunization for Public Health- Seattle and King County
Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and in the Department of Epidemiology
December 2, noon to 1 p.m.
|
|
WEBINAR: LESSONS LEARNED FROM COVID-19 DRIVE-THROUGH CLINICS
The Washington State Department of Health is hosting a webinar on Monday, December 19, 2022 from 12pm to 1pm. Four speakers will share their unique COVID-19 drive-through vaccination clinic experiences. The speakers will describe their vaccination model, clinical tools used, communication and education efforts, lessons learned, and offer clinical resources for successful implementation of drive-through vaccination clinics. The webinar will be recorded and continuing education is available for nurses and pharmacists/pharmacy techs.
12:00pm – 1:00pm PT
Monday, December 19, 2022
|
|
POWER OF PROVIDERS OFFERS WEBINAR SERIES
Behavioral Health Support Refresher for Health Care Workers Webinar Series
Speaker: Kira Mauseth, Ph.D.
Washington State Department of Heath’s Behavioral Health Strike Team
Registration is open now
All webinars are from noon to 1 p.m.
The Work Starts Here: Supporting Employees with Long COVID
Speaker: Kyla Haggith BSN, RN, PCCN-K
Employee Health Services Clinic and Exposures Team, Harborview Medical Center
January 13, 12:00 to 1:00 PM PST
Find more information and register for the webinar
|
|
|
FOR SCHOOLS AND CHILD CARE FACILITIES
FOR LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES
|
|
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 November 20, 2022 and was sent out on December 2, 2022. |
|
|
|
|
