Spokane public health officials say a Covid mass vaccination site at the Spokane Arena could be up and running by next Monday.
Last Monday, Governor Jay Inslee announced the arena would be one of a handful of sites outside the Seattle metro area that would open to vaccinate large numbers of people.Kayla Myers from the Spokane Regional Health District’s Covid task force says plans for that are not yet finalized, so the opening date could be the week after that. She says the new clinic will supplement, rather than replace, private vaccination clinics.
“There will be tandem efforts, so we will still want the providers who are vaccinating individuals to be vaccinating. We still want providers reaching out to their patient lists and doing efforts within their health care organizations," she said.
Inslee also gave providers permission to begin vaccinating people within a new group, known as Phase 1-B, people who are 65 or older.
Myers says some providers are ready for that and some aren’t.
“There are still a number of Phase 1-A individuals and Phase 1-A, Tier 2 individuals that are still signing up for appointments that are available. I think as soon as we work through that backlog, we will be opening up a lot more guidance and direction for providers to start seeing phase B individuals," she said.
She says some individual providers are fitting in patients in the new group. She says people should check with their health care company to find out specifics.