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Welcome to the COVID-19 Vaccine Partner Newsletter! Here you'll find the latest news and information on COVID-19 vaccine related topics.
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Q: CAN WE STILL ORDER MODERNA MONOVALENT COVID-19 VACCINES?
A: All Moderna adult (12 years+) and pediatric (6 years-11 years) monovalent COVID-19 vaccines will reach their expiry in early April. Moderna is not seeking a shelf-life extension for these vaccines. Ordering for Moderna adult (12 years+) and pediatric (6 years-11 years) monovalent COVID-19 vaccines will end on March 13th at 12:00pm (noon). Ordering for Moderna bivalent vaccines for all age groups will remain available.
Administration sites should be mindful of patients starting their primary series with Moderna adult (12 years+) or pediatric (6 years-11 years) monovalent vaccines. Depending on the date, they may not be able to complete their primary series with this product. In this case, a different COVID-19 vaccine may be administered to complete the primary series at a minimum interval of 28 days from the last COVID-19 vaccine dose. Pfizer (5 years+) and Novavax (12 years+) monovalent vaccines remain available for ordering for primary series vaccination. There is ample supply of both products, and providers can order additional supply.
As products continue to expire and retire, please ensure your inventories are up to date in the WAIIS and VaccineFinder.
WAIIS Inventory Management
VaccineFinder Inventory Management
We will continue to share more information on this topic with you all as we receive it.
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COVID-19 PANDEMIC: WHERE ARE WE AT TODAY?
On February 24, 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) met to discuss the latest COVID-19 vaccine data, as well as potential updates to future COVID-19 vaccination efforts. The discussion included an update on vaccine safety, a risk-benefit assessment of the updated COVID-19 vaccines, and anticipated vaccine updates later this year.
CDC presented new data showing that the updated vaccines protect people against current variants, and the committee expressed support for streamlining and simplifying COVID-19 vaccine recommendations this fall. This includes phasing out the original (monovalent) vaccines and replacing them with the updated (bivalent) vaccines. This change would affect only the people who have not yet received their primary vaccination series, and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration must authorize it before CDC can make a recommendation.
At this point in the pandemic, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have been decreasing for several weeks, and much of the country has protection against circulating strains either through vaccination, previous infection, or a combination of both.
- As of March 1, 2023, the current 7-day average of weekly new cases (32,374) decreased 5.1% compared with the previous 7-day average (34,102).
- As of March 1, 2023, 672.1 million vaccine doses have been administered in the United States. Overall, about 230.1 million people, or 69.3% of the total U.S. population, have completed a primary series. About 53.7 million people, or 16.2% of the U.S. population, have received an updated booster dose.
- The current 7-day daily average of hospitalizations for February 22–28, 2023 (3,318), has decreased 7.9% from the prior 7-day average (3,604) from the week before.
- The current 7-day average of new deaths (327) decreased 3.3% compared with the previous 7-day average (338).
It is important to remember that new subvariants continue to emerge—and even if you had COVID-19 before, reinfection is possible and can cause serious illness. CDC encourages the millions of people in the United States who haven’t gotten a COVID-19 vaccine since the fall, when the updated vaccines were released, to do so now to better protect themselves from severe illness and death.
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2023 IMMUNIZE WASHINGTON AWARDS ARE APPROACHING, SURVEY FOR PROVIDERS
The Health Plan Partnership - a cooperative alliance of the Department of Health, Washington State Health Care Authority, Governor Jay Inslee and all the major health plans in Washington - is proud to celebrate the ninth year of the Immunize Washington Awards. Immunize Washington aims to increase immunization rates at the clinic level, encourage clinics to measure their immunization rates, recognize providers for their immunization efforts, and help Washington meet national goals for child and teen vaccines. Clinics, providers, and health care professionals can self-nominate for an Immunize WA Award beginning June 1st, 2023. View more information on our Provider Flyer. All awardees will be announced in August and will receive an official certificate for their clinic to honor their achievement.
As we prepare for the 2023 Awards, please take our survey in order to provide feedback and help us improve your Immunize WA Awards experience! Survey is open Friday, March 10th-Friday, March 24th.
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EMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION FOR COVID-19/FLU HOME TEST
At-home COVID-19 testing continues to be one of our best tools to prevent the spread of the virus, alongside getting vaccinated and boosted. As the virus continues to evolve, at-home testing helps you to determine if you have COVID-19 so you can prevent spreading it to others.
The FDA has issued an Emergency Use Authorization for the first over-the-counter at home test that can detect both COVID-19 and flu infection. It is a single-use at-home nasal-swab test kit. It provides results in about 30 minutes for Influenza A, Influenza B and COVID-19 infection. There is a risk of a false positive result. Individuals who test positive should take precautions to not spread the virus. They should also reach out to their health care providers for additional diagnostic and treatment plans. Individuals who test negative and are having symptoms of respiratory illness should seek follow up care regardless of test results.
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PUBLIC HEALTH COMMUNICATIONS COLLABORATIVE SEEKS PARTNER INPUT
Earlier this month, Public Health Communications Collaborative (PHCC) released their Plain Language for Public Health guide to help support public health communicators in creating messaging that advances health literacy, builds trust, and promotes overall community health. The guide received positive response from communicators across the country—and now they want to learn more about how you’re applying plain language best practices and any other feedback you have about this resource. As PHCC continues to develop more skills-based communications resources like this one, they also want to hear what other kinds of resources would be most useful to you.
Do you have feedback on the new Plain Language for Public Health guide? What other kinds of skills-based communications resources would you find most valuable from PHCC? Share your thoughts here.
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SIMPLIFYING THE FUTURE OF COVID-19 VACCINE SCHEDULES AND FORMULATIONS
ACIP met last month to discuss many topics including possibly taking monovalent mRNA COVID-19 formulations off the shelf. There were many factors they considered as they reviewed the current safety and efficacy of the vaccine, current variants circulating, hospitalization and COVD-19 case rates as well as vaccine uptake percentages. The importance to simplify the vaccine schedule was highlighted with added emphasis on concerns for vaccine and message fatigue. There was much favor voiced to the simplification of formulations currently made available and positive support shared throughout the ACIP workgroup. As of now, there is no change in our current practices of providing COVID-19 vaccinations. You can find all of the slide presentations and videos covering this most recent ACIP meeting at the following links:
ACIP February 22-24, 2023 Presentation Slides | Immunization Practices | CDC
ACIP Live Meeting Archive - February 22-24, 2023 (cdc.gov)
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COVID-19 VACCINE TRANSPORT REQUIREMENTS
If transfer of COVID-19 vaccine is needed, the following process must be completed prior to the first vaccines being transported:
•Complete the CDC Redistribution Agreement.
•Complete a COVID-19 Vaccine Transfer Request in IIS at least 24 hours before each intended movement of vaccine
•Ensure receiving provider is enrolled and approved as a COVID-19 vaccine provider with Department of Health
•Ensure that the receiving facility is within 1 hour drive of the distributing facility
•COVID Transportation guidelines begin on page 55 of the CDC Storage and Handling Toolkit
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CHANGE FOR MINIMUM ORDER QUANTITY
Great news! The minimum ordering quantity for Moderna bivalent booster for under 6 years is now 20 doses rather than 100 doses. This change has gone into effect within the Immunization Information System (IIS) as of 3/9/2023. Ancillary kits will continue to be sent out in increments of 100, however providers are still able to opt out of ancillary kits by including a comment in the comments field of the order.
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WEBINAR: THE FUTURE OF COVID-19 VACCINES
Wednesday, March 15th - 9:00AM PST
Another Current Issues in Vaccines webinar is being offered by the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, American Academy of Pediatrics, and Nesbitt School of Pharmacy at Wilkes University.
This program was developed to meet the educational needs of physicians, nurses, public health personnel, community pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and other professionals working in the area of immunizations.
Educational objectives
- Interpret and employ new or updated vaccine information
- Discuss vaccine-related information with patients and their families
- Provide science-based resources to patients and their families who are seeking additional information
- Discuss the expectations related to how COVID-19 vaccines will be used in the future
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POWER OF PROVIDERS OFFERS WEBINAR ON LONG COVID
A recent national telephone survey suggests 14% of adults in Washington (15.1% in the nation) have experienced long COVID. Join your peers in learning about Long COVID from experts at the UW Post COVID Rehabilitation and Recovery Clinic by registering for Part Two of our webinar series: Long COVID: A Deep Dive into Symptoms and Treatment Options to Support Patients.
Friday, March 24th - 12:00 PM PST
This series is an equity-driven project to help address disparities in post-COVID treatment access across Washington state by sharing the knowledge of specialists with general practitioners. The UW Post-COVID Rehabilitation and Recovery Clinic is the only specialist clinic for Long COVID treatment in the Pacific Northwest. In these webinars they will discuss their treatment methods, clinical findings, and the current state of the research on this topic.
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FOR SCHOOLS AND CHILD CARE FACILITIES
FOR LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES
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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.
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This newsletter summarizes content beginning the week of February 26, 2023 and was sent out on March 10, 2023. |
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