Cities across the United States started vaccinating people for coronavirus on Monday, but it will be a little longer before injections begin in Clark County.
PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center is expecting to receive several thousand doses of the vaccine as early as Tuesday. The plan is to start injecting front-line staff at the hospital as early as Wednesday.
PeaceHealth Southwest spokesperson Randy Querin said a small number of staff working with COVID-19 patients will be inoculated Wednesday. Efforts will scale up later in the week.
PeaceHealth Southwest is expected to share doses of the vaccine with PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center in Longview by Wednesday at the earliest; shots will be administered for front-line staff in Longview by Thursday at the earliest.
Querin said that PeaceHealth Southwest is developing plans to vaccinate other high-risk populations, such as those in senior care facilities or first responders, once there are enough vaccine doses available. However, the initial emphasis will be inoculating hospital staff.
Chastell Ely, a spokeswoman for Vancouver Clinic, said Vancouver Clinic is not expecting to receive the vaccine this week, but did say Vancouver Clinic hopes to have an announcement later this week as to when they would receive their first shipment of the vaccine.
Dr. Dominic Chan, who’s leading Legacy Health’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, told The Columbian in an interview last week that Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center might receive vaccine doses as early as next week.
Kaiser Permanente is not expecting vaccine shipments for its Clark County clinics this week, according to a company spokesman.
