WENATCHEE — Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday announced that the Town Toyota Center would be a COVID-19 vaccination site, taking the local health district and medical officials by surprise.
The Chelan-Douglas Health District has almost no details on what it means that the Town Toyota Center will be a vaccination site, Chelan-Douglas Health Officer Malcolm Butler said in an email Wednesday. It is still in talks with state officials. Town Toyota Center General Manager Mark Miller said he found out about it when he was watching King 5 News.
No one at the state has reached out to him, Miller said. When asked almost any question by a reporter, Miller said, “I don’t know.”
The Town Toyota Center is one of four sites around the state that Inslee announced during a Monday press conference for vaccine distribution including:
- The Spokane Arena
- Benton County Fairgrounds
- Clark County Fairgrounds
The new sites are part of a state push to vaccinate 45,000 people a day, according to a governor’s office news release.
Inslee also announced that they would begin vaccinating the second phase of people that includes people 65 years and older and people 50 years and older who live in multi-generational housing. The second phase used to be for people 70 years and older, but the state reduced the age requirement to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible, Inslee said.
Despite the lack of information, dozens of people have been showing up to the COVID-19 testing being down at the Town Toyota Center inquiring about being vaccinated.
It sounds like the health district will have a meeting with state officials Wednesday afternoon on those details, Andrew Canning, Confluence Health spokesperson, said Wednesday.
“It seems like that information is changing on a regular basis,” Canning said. “Or we haven’t had a steady stream of, ‘here’s how they’re going to be allocated every week.'”
Confluence Health has been flooded with calls from residents asking about COVID-19 vaccinations, he said. It’s call center received about 3,000 phone calls on Tuesday alone.
Confluence Health has also stopped making appointments for people to get their first dose of the vaccine, Canning said. It needs to reserve its existing supply for people who need to get their second shot.
“We don’t want to get into a position where we’ve released all of the first doses and then can’t give those second doses to people who are scheduled for next week, for instance,” he said.
If people want to know when they will qualify to be vaccinated and supplies will be available, they should download the Washington Phase Finder app or website, Canning said. The Phase Finder website can be accessed at findyourphasewa.org/.
Confluence Health is also setting up a hotline people can call for vaccination questions that it will release Friday, he said.
“At least someone will be able to talk to a human and ask a question,” Canning said. “Because we’re hearing a ton of frustration about, ‘I dialed so and so, and I dialed here, and I just keep getting directed to multiple sources.'”
For those who do qualify to get vaccinated, though, medical centers have been struggling with getting vaccines from the state, said Katharine Bohm, Columbia Valley Community Health (CVCH) spokesperson. Each week the medical center puts in a request for vaccines, but it has consistently receiving less than what its asked for.
They’ve gotten about 10 vials, 100 doses, a week, she said.
“It’s slower starting than I think everyone was hoping for, but we have the infrastructure in place to be able to do three or four vaccines clinics both on site and off site,” Bohm said. “And a big focus of ours is going to be working with our partners in the agricultural industry.”
The slow start to the vaccination process has caused CVCH to focus on vaccinating patients 85 years and older for now, she said.
Both CVCH and Confluence Health recommend people check their website for vaccination information, Bohm said. Both companies will be updating their websites frequently.
