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SEATTLE - Washington state has reached its goal of vaccinating 45,000 people per day against COVID-19, health officials said Friday evening.
This comes as Gov. Jay Inslee fast-tracked many groups in Washington state to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, including workers in agriculture, food processing, grocery stores, public transit, firefighters, law enforcement, as well as workers in corrections, prisons, jails, and detention centers.
Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to announce that the state can move into Phase 1B, Tier 2 of vaccinations, allowing for a new group to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Department of Health said in a news release that the daily goal had been reached and that more than 1.8 million vaccine doses had been administered in the state. That’s 77% of the 2.4 million doses that have been delivered to the state’s providers and long-term care programs, officials said.
This weekend, 5000 single-dose shots of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will soon be available at the new vaccination site at the Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett. The new mass vaccination site will be open for appointments only.
"This site will be using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. So we’re excited that this will be certainly the first in the county and we believe, perhaps, the first in the state that will be rolling out use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. And just a short note for the folks who are looking at where vaccines are available, the bottom line is that the best vaccine is the one that you’re able to get," said Jason Beirmann, Emergency Manager for Snohomish County.
The state also has been told to expect an increase in weekly dose allocations in the next few weeks. Although health officials said this means the state is moving in the right direction, the state is still not able to provide all the doses that providers request.
The state also on Friday reported 784 new coronavirus cases and nine additional deaths. Those numbers bring the state’s totals to 343,868 cases and 5,041 deaths, state health officials said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story