Washington Department of Corrections begins COVID-19 vaccinations
Dec 29, 2020, 5:38 PM | Updated: 5:43 pm
A sign pleading for help hangs in a window at the Cook County jail complex on April 09, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The COVID-19 vaccine is now in the hands of the Washington Department of Corrections.
According to the Phase 1A vaccine dosing prioritization, the department began vaccinating staff and prisoners on Monday. The process will continue over the next several weeks, based on the state’s vaccine supply.
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The Phase 1A prioritization outlined by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) and Washington State Department of Health recommends that workers in health care settings who are most at risk be offered the first available doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. That includes health care workers at corrections facilities.
Also included in the prioritization is workers who care for people with COVID-19 and residents of long-term care facilities.
Those that are qualified to get the vaccine are staff working in the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center (CRCC) Sage East unit, which is a long-term care facility that houses elderly prisoners with chronic medical needs.
Geriatric prisoners with chronic medical needs living at the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center (CRCC) Sage East unit are also eligible to receive the vaccine. The facility houses fewer than 40 people. However, other long-term care patients who can’t live at the Sage East unit but have similar needs would also be eligible — about 20 people.
Employees in medical in-patient units at several corrections facilities and regional care facilities (RCF) who are caring for COVID-19 patients are eligible, as well as employees working in isolation units that include COVID-19 patients.
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