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Lines for H1N1 vaccinations moving briskly
WENATCHEE, Nov 17, 2009 (The Wenatchee World - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The first day of H1N1 vaccinations by appointment went smoothly, Bev Neher told the Chelan-Douglas Health District board at its November meeting Monday.
Neher, the district's nursing director, estimated nearly 500 people got vaccinated Monday and no one had to wait in line more than 30 minutes. Mostly only waited about 20 minutes.
"It's better than having people wait out in the cold for hours," she said.
Health district officials had been planning to hold mass vaccination clinics, where people would show up for vaccinations without appointments but they changed their minds last week. Neher said officials decided to do appointments after seeing photos of long lines at mass clinics elsewhere in the country.
After the meeting, Neher said appointments were still being made for today through Friday. The number to call for an appointment is 667-7474.
She said she would not know until later today if the district will get enough vaccine to schedule appointments for Tuesday and Wednesday next week, but the call center will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Wednesday of Thanksgiving week, then it will reopen at 9 a.m. Nov. 30.
Through Monday, the call center has received 2,377 calls, said Mary Small, director of community health and preparedness at the health district.
The district expects to vaccinate 500 people each day, from Monday through Thursday of this week.
To date, she said, everyone in high-risk groups who has called for an appointment has gotten one. Those groups include ages 2 through 24, ages 25 through 64 with high-risk conditions, caretakers of infants under age 6 months, health-care workers and pregnant women.
While callers experienced long wait times on the phone to make an appointment last week, the wait time has gone down to about eight minutes, Small said. A computer system shows that the longest wait times -- 35 to 48 minutes -- are for the first few hours after the call center opens at 9 a.m.
In Okanogan County, no mass immunization clinics or immunizations by appointment are planned at this time, said Lauri Jones, community health director. "All of our allocation has gone directly to medical providers and hospitals," she said. The county's allocation has been distributed to 16 clinics and three hospitals, including Colville Indian Health Service and Tribal Health in Omak.
As more vaccine becomes available, she said, public clinics may be held.
In Grant County, "the primary focus for our staff is school-based vaccinations," said Peggy Grigg, administrator of the Grant County Health District. She estimated that 30 to 35 percent of parents have sent back consent forms for their children to have the H1N1 vaccination.
When asked why district officials decided to focus on school-based clinics, Grigg responded by saying, "In general, research shows that children are one of the primary modes of transmission of these communicable diseases."
The vaccine has also been distributed to health-care providers in the county but there are two phone lines where people in high-risk groups can call to make an appointment to get vaccinated. The number is 754-6060 in Ephrata and 766-7960 in Moses Lake. Vaccinations take place in the Moses Lake office. Grigg said she has not heard of long phone-line waits or callers being turned away because there was not enough vaccine.
In other business before the Chelan-Douglas Health District on Monday, administrator Barry Kling said he expects to submit to the board in December a 2010 budget of $3,160,954, which is $72,389 less than the 2009 budget. The difference is being made up by laying off a supervisor in the environmental section. That area of the health district has been hard hit by the recession and the resulting lack of building going on in the Wenatchee Valley. After the meeting, Marc Marquis, environmental health director, said his office aproved 549 septic permits in 2007, 406 in 2008, and, 249 to date in 2009.
Dee Riggs: 664-7147
deeriggs@wenatcheeworld.com
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http://www.wenworld.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Wenatchee World, Wash.
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