A bulletin from Public Health of Seattle/King County
Due to the national delay in H1N1 vaccine production, the supplies we have in the community aren’t enough to meet the demand right now, and it’s been a challenge for many to find vaccine.
With the latest deliveries this week, King County has received approximately 165,000 doses of vaccine total since shipments began, and approximately 90,000 more doses are in the process of being ordered and shipped to King County.
Given the shortage, our current focus is on getting most of the available supplies to health care providers, so that they can vaccinate patients who are most at risk. As more vaccine becomes available, we’ll continue to provide it to health care providers to vaccinate more of their patients, so we encourage people in the priority groups to continue to stay in touch with their health care providers about vaccine availability.
To provide another option for people prioritized to receive H1N1 vaccine, Public Health is also allocating a limited portion of new vaccine supplies for distribution more widely through public venues. The 15,000 doses of vaccine we made available to pharmacies this week is the beginning of our widening distribution strategy.
For next week, a limited number of pharmacies will be receiving an additional 7,500 doses of vaccine to distribute. As participating pharmacies start taking new appointments or open up new walk-up clinics, this information will be posted on our Web site on an ongoing basis as they receive vaccine; go to www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/preparedness/pandemicflu/swineflu/pharmacies.aspx for the updated list and what people need to know before they go. Our experience is that appointments go quickly, so people should check back to the site often. Pharmacies will continue to receive new allocations of vaccine in future weeks.
For more information about our distribution strategy and where vaccine has been shipped to date, visit www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/preparedness/pandemicflu/swineflu/distribution.aspx
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