Gov. Jay Inslee says Washington’s allocation of the COVID-19 vaccine will be cut by 40 percent next week - and other states are also seeing reductions.
In a Tweet Thursday the Democrat said the Centers for Disease Control told Washington about the reduced shipments.
“This is disruptive and frustrating. We need accurate, predictable numbers to plan and ensure on-the-ground success,” Inslee wrote. “No explanation was given.”
Authorities in Washington began vaccinating front-line health care workers this week. Officials had expected to receive another 74,100 doses of the Pfizer vaccine next week and 85,800 the week of Dec. 29. Washington now expects to receive about 45,000 doses next week.
Michele Roberts, one of the leaders of the Washington state Department of Health vaccine planning group, had said about 31,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have arrived in the state, and another 31,000 were expected this week.
If the Food and Drug Administration authorizes Moderna’s vaccine by Friday, officials expect nearly 184,000 doses of that version to arrive in Washington between next week and the end of the year.
The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States was in Washington in January. The state also saw the nation’s first deadly outbreak at a nursing home, at the LifeCare Center of Kirkland. Since the start of the pandemic there have been about 205,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in Washington and nearly 3,000 deaths.
