COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Outlined For DC Residents

WASHINGTON, DC — District officials provided an update Thursday on when and who will be receiving the first round of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine once the Food and Drug Administration has approved it for use.

Even though the FDA may authorize the release of the vaccine in the next few days, Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt, director of the D.C. Department of Health, said vaccinations would not be immediately available to the public.

"While logistically the vaccine may be able to be deployed to communities within an a day of the emergency use authorization approval, there are still other things that need to be put in place at the community level to ensure that vaccinators and healthcare providers have all of the information that they need to safely vaccinate the public, And that members of the public can receive all of the information that they need from vaccinators or healthcare providers to make informed decisions about their choices," she said.

The District will implement the following phased approach for vaccinations:

• Phase 1A: Healthcare workers and first responders
• Phase 1B: Essential workers and at-risk residents
• Phase 2: Rest of Phase 1 populations and the general public
• Phase 3: General public

"Each phase does not have to be fully vaccinated before we move on to the next phase," Nesbitt said. "We will take into consideration factors such as acceptance and adoption of the vaccine before we make decisions of moving to a subsequent phase."

D.C. Health has been preparing its vaccination campaign since the summer, purchasing more than 184,000 needles and syringes, a million alcohol prep pads, Band-Aids, and other supplies needed to vaccinate the public.

In addition, D.C. Health issued a March 13 order to modify the scope of practice for certain licensed registered and certified healthcare providers, and paramedics, who would administer vaccines with the appropriate training and supervision. Currently, the District has 176 provider agreements with hospitals, pharmacies, long-term care facilities, clinics, emergency care, and other health-care facilities.

"These agreements will allow providers at those locations to order and administer the COVID-19 vaccine in Washington, D.C.," Nesbitt said.

Once the FDA has made its approval, six sites around the District will receive the first batch of vaccines in the initial distribution round of Phase 1A.

The six sites that have the necessary equipment to store the Pfizer vaccine are:

• MedStar Washington Hospital Center
• Howard University Hospital
• The George Washington University Hospital
• Children's National Hospital
• Kaiser Permanente
• MedStar Georgetown University Hospital

"All of the District's, acute care facilities are not noted here or all of our specialty hospitals because we have what we call a hub and spoke model," Nesbitt said. "That will allow those primary receiving facilities or institutions to partner with other healthcare sites and provider organizations to be able to vaccinate the initial Phase 1A healthcare worker groups."

Phase 1A includes the following groups:

• Full and part time hospital staff (33,850)
• Nursing and residential care facility employees (14,810)
• Outpatient providers and ancillary care providers (11,445)
• Home health providers (8,115)
• Health care providers in long-term care facilities (7,860)
• Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians (5,300)
• Emergency services and public safety personnel, such as Fire and EMS (3,170)
• Frontline pubic health personnel (550)

During Phase 1A, the six sites will receive the District's initial allotment of 6,825 doses, which will be delivered in seven boxes of 975 doses each.

"At the end of the day, vaccinating healthcare workers first ensures we have a healthy workforce that's available to take care of and treat sick people and protecting the workers helps to protect the patients," Nesbitt said.

Even though the first allotment of 6,825 doses will not vaccinate all 85,000 individuals identified as healthcare workers and first responders in Phase 1A, the federal government has told District officials they will receive sufficient doses to vaccinate the entire group.

Due to the complex storage requirements of the Pfizer vaccine, Nesbitt said that vaccine would be kept within the District's hospital infrastructure. But, as other types of vaccines become available, health officials will have more options.

"As the second vaccine comes on board, we'll have more flexibility to put that into more of our outpatient environments, our health centers who don't have that storage capacity," Nesbitt said. "So we'll be looking at some of the characteristics of each of those vaccines and making decisions based on that."

This will also make it easier to vaccinate more individuals in Phase 1A and other members of the general public starting with Phase 1B.

"Some people who are above the age of 65 are going to be eligible at certain periods of time and that certain health conditions are going to be eligible at a certain period of time," Nesbitt said. "And as those criteria are announced, they will receive instructions and we'll make those instructions public in all of the different ways that we do in terms of how to register."

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