TUMWATER, Wash. — While the COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations across Washington state continue to decrease, health leaders are not declaring victory and leaving the fight just yet.
In fact, the state’s Department of Health is moving forward with its plan, aptly named “WA Forward,” which will ready the state to provide long-term, sustainable support for healthcare systems and vaccine equity while prepping for a potential future wave in the pandemic.
The new plan, which will be released to the public on Thursday, is based on three main elements: engagement, prevention, and system readiness.
State Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah said the first element will focus on outreach to communities and empowering them to take their health into their own hands by making them aware of the tools available to them. This means continued work with community partners to ensure patients are aware of vaccine availability and guidance that is aimed at keeping individuals healthy.
The prevention element looks to address ongoing outreach through things like vaccine caravans and clinics to close vaccine equity gaps and maintain the high rates of vaccination across the state. It also involves maintaining robust testing operations so that residents can stay as informed as possible about their own health.
“This is really very much focused on all of those tools. From vaccines to PPE to tests, all of those tools that we have really found to be so critical in this past road for us to continue to have access to as we move forward,” Shah said.
System readiness looks to maintain the data collection that the DOH has in place in order to track COVID in the community and any potential new variants. Shah said the state will also build out its ability to track hospital capacity and how the health care system across the state is doing in terms of admissions and bed availability.
The DOH said it is also ready to provide surge support if another wave like the recent omicron spike were to occur, increasing its daily vaccine capacity from 30,000 to 60,000 as well as providing more beds to hospitals.
“This is focusing on data monitoring, disease detection, but also what’s happening in our health care system and certainly treatments and therapeutics that are a part of that as well,” Shah said.
Meanwhile, case rates in the state have dropped to levels not seen since July of last year. State Epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist said that the latest genome sequencing report has found no new COVID-19 variants in the state.
“These areas of focus as we’ve laid them out will carry us through the next several months,” Shah said, adding that the WA Forward will guide us into safely “coexisting” with the virus.
As of March 7, more than 73% of the state's eligible population is fully vaccinated against the virus, and about 60% of that population has received their booster shot.