WA Releases Dashboard To Track Vaccine Distribution

Gig Harbor WA

20 January, 2021

4:55 PM

Description

OLYMPIA, WA — Washington's Department of Health has released a new tool that the public can use to track the state's vaccine rollout. It's an expansion on the state's longstanding COVID-19 Data Dashboard, a new feature that gives closer look at which counties are receiving and administering the most doses. (Washington State Department of Health)One noteworthy feature is the bar in the center of the dashboard — a meter tracking how many doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are being administered on average over the past seven days. On Monday, Gov. Jay Inslee announced that the state had set a goal of tripling daily vaccinations, from an average of 13,000 to 15,000 vaccinations a day up to 45,000 daily doses administered. According to the latest update to the dashboard, the state administered an average 14,064 doses daily in week ending Jan. 16. The dashboard also tracks another important metric: the percentage of delivered doses given. Currently, it shows that a total 607,350 vaccine doses have been distributed to health care providers across Washington. Another 88,725 have been set aside for a long-term care facility vaccination program, but only 294,386 vaccines have been administered — just 42.29 percent of the doses received. That's a problem the state hopes to fix: Inslee's announcement Monday included a new mandate requiring vaccine providers to administer 95 percent of their allocated vaccines within one week of receiving those doses. Health officials say they're hopeful this new tool will more transparency into the state's distribution efforts. "Ensuring access to this type of data is an important part of our commitment to equity, innovation and engagement," said Secretary of Health Umair A. Shah, MD. "The dashboard will provide a critical window for the public to understand what's happening in our vaccine response." Finally, the dashboard also provides information on vaccinations at a county level: for example the latest update shows that King County has performed the most vaccinations, with 109,120 doses administered. King is followed by Pierce County, where 33,845 doses have been given. The COVID-19 Data Dashboard can be found here, the new data on vaccinations is listed under the "Vaccinations" tab on the far right. The DOH says they plan to add further metrics to the dashboard in the near future.