Grant County Fairgrounds holds first mass vaccination event

MOSES LAKE — A steady stream of cars snaked around cones throughout Saturday at the Grant County Fairgrounds, with 1,000 COVID-19 shots distributed for the first mass vaccination event in the county.

The event came together quickly, said Gretchen Youngren, executive director of development and communication at Samaritan Healthcare. Confirmation the facility would receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine came in the evening on Jan. 24. Because Samaritan is one of the main call-in locations to schedule a vaccine, all 1,000 appointments were filled by Wednesday morning, without publicity and before all of the logistics were put in place.

Commands and updates flowed through radios clipped to the waists of public health officials Saturday. Yellow-vested Samaritan staff and volunteers ran up and down the line of vehicles to check registration and insurance.

Once directed, cars pulled forward to a vaccination site in the form of the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, where the vaccines were drawn. In tents right outside, nurses delivered the shots.

The next stop was the waiting zone. Most folks have to wait 15 minutes while medical professionals check for any adverse effects of the vaccine. Patients with an egg allergy or bad reactions to any past vaccine have to wait a bit longer.

While the caravan filtered through, workers drummed keyboards, uploading medical data to the state Department of Health.

It’s quite the team effort, Grant County Health District administrator Theresa Adkinson said.

“It’s a big lift by Samaritan,” she said. “They are really taking a strong leadership role to make this happen.”

Youngren said it takes a village. In this case, it was called the Grant County Vaccine Task Force.

“We have Samaritan staff out here, but we couldn’t do it without the sheriff’s office, MLPD (Moses Lake Police Department), Moses Lake Fire (Department), AMR, and the entire emergency response team and also Theresa’s team at the health district,” she said.

Confluence Health, Moses Lake Community Health Center, Quincy Community Health Center, Mattawa Community Health Center, Columbia Basin Family Medicine, the Wahluke clinic of Columbia Basin Health Association, Quincy Valley Medical Center and Coulee Medical Center also provided support as members of the task force.

“It’s been such a partnership lift that we are proud to do this for our community, and we look forward to working with our community partners to continue doing them,” Youngren said.

On Feb. 20, the same 1,000 patients will return for their second dose, Youngren said. At that time, Samaritan hopes to be able to provide additional first doses for more of the community. If all works out, they will open the schedule 10 days in advance.

Grant County has 13 sites currently approved to receive and administer vaccines, Adkinson said. These sites are receiving vaccines in smaller quantities and creating waitlists, but the goal is to have them all up and running in the coming weeks for more options.

“Getting enough vaccines has been the biggest barrier,” Adkinson said. “We’re not sitting on vaccines. It comes in; it’s out the door.”

While vaccines became more available, Adkinson said it was important to launch the mass vaccination site to send a message to the state.

“We’re planning this so we can tell the state, ‘Send us vaccines. We’re ready to go.’ Friday we submitted our plans to the state and made it clear to them that Grant County is very ready to be our own mass vaccination site,” she said.

Youngren advises patients to check with their primary care provider for access to the vaccine as it becomes available through more clinics. To schedule an appointment through Samaritan, call 509-764-3335.

The Grant County Vaccine Task Force is just getting started, Adkinson said.

“We have months ahead of us,” she said. “It’s not one and done.”

Sam Fletcher can be reached via email at [email protected].