'What are you waiting for?': Washington officials urge vaccinations amid concerns over demand

Washington officials are concerned about what could be a slowdown in demand for the COVID-19 vaccine as a majority of people in the state are still not yet fully vaccinated. 

Every adult 16 and older became eligible to get the vaccine on April 15 and officials are urging people to get the shots as soon as they can to protect themselves and the community. 

"We're so close, but we need everybody's help and we are concerned about what looks like some slowdown in vaccination rates and numbers," said Michele Roberts, who leads the COVID-19 vaccine planning and distribution team at the Department of Health. "So if you haven't been vaccinated yet, what are you waiting for?"

According to the most recent data, more than 54% of adults 16 and older in the state have received at least one dose of the vaccine and nearly 39% of eligible adults are fully vaccinated. That means more than 60% of adults in the state -- and nearly 70% of all residents in the state -- are not yet fully protected from the virus, giving it plenty of opportunities to continue spreading in the community. 

In recent days, there have been thousands of open appointments at Seattle and King County vaccine clinics. Officials have moved to allow people to go to several sites and get the shots without an appointment to make it even easier for people looking for slots. Safeway and Albertsons pharmacies, along with CVS stores, are also now accepting walk-ins to get the vaccine in Washington. 

People can even get a vaccine at a Mariners or Sounders home game, no appointment needed.

"We absolutely have the capacity within the state of Washington ... But we also have to recognize that it's about demand as well, and demand is a concern for us at the Department of Health," Secretary of Health Umair Shah said. "The vaccine demand equation that we are seeing across the country of seeing a softening of that demand means that we have to continue to focus on: Don't hesitate, vaccinate."

He added the department is working to make it even easier to find an appointment and get a vaccine by working on several different initiatives. Those includes putting together public service announcement campaigns, working with community partners and helping provide other services to people, such as transportation to vaccine clinics. 

Shah also encouraged people who have been vaccinated to help others -- friends, family and neighbors -- get the vaccine, too. 

The urgings for people to get vaccinated come as the state continues to deal with high numbers of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. But the state may be turning a corner in the pandemic, officials said.

"Our modeling is showing that immunity has lowered transmission, but transmission is still worrisome for us," Shah said. 

"There is this real hope that we have as you start to see the flattening and you might even be able to argue that it's a little bit of a dip at the very end as we get closer in time and so we're hopeful that that is the beginning of an end to the fourth wave. But again, we don't know that and I want to caution everybody that it's oftentimes too soon to be able to predict if that is the case."

The rates of cases and hospitalizations also vary across regions. 

Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday was expected to announce rollbacks for a number of counties not meeting either metric on cases or hospitalizations needed to stay in the phase of the reopening plan they were in. But instead, he said the state would be taking a two-week pause, meaning no counties would be moved back or forward for the next two weeks.

That was in response to the plateau the state is seeing in its case rates. But, it's still possible disease activity could increase.

"Even though we're in a pause," Shah said, "it does not mean the pandemic is over by any stretch of the imagination."

The state was seeing a rate of about 254 new cases per 100,000 people over the 14 days prior to April 26, the most recent date the department has complete data for. As of April 23, the state was seeing a rate of about seven hospitalizations per 100,000 people over the previous seven days. After the two-week pause, state officials will reevaluate the data and determine whether counties will move back or remain in their current phase.

"The pause gives families and individuals the chance to get vaccinated to continue to drive down the case counts, while we ... continue to review data," Shah said. "We want to make sure to emphasize prevention measures."

Vaccines do seem to be working to prevent serious illness in people 65 and older, who became eligible toward the beginning of the state's rollout. Nearly 70% of people 65 and older across Washington have been fully vaccinated. Among younger adults. those numbers are far lower. Only about 22% of 18 to 34 year olds are fully vaccinated and 32% of 35 to 49 year olds. 

"We're trying to continue to reduce the strain on or health system and we are doing everything we can to make sure that our health system is robust and we have adequate capacity within our system," Shah said. "Seniors are increasingly vaccinated. That means seniors are increasingly protected and that means seniors are increasingly not as much of the proportion of what we're seeing in the hospitals as we were seeing previously. That means we have done our job with seniors."

But more needs to be done across all age groups, Shah said. 

"Our attention continues to focus not just on seniors," he said, "but on all Washingtonians who are eligible for vaccine."