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H1N1 vaccinations won’t begin again until next week while the Skagit County Department of Health awaits its next supply of vaccines.
The department had expected to receive the shipment today, but it did not come.
Health Director Peter Browning said when it arrives, the shipment will be the largest shipment yet of nasal spray and injectable vaccine to meet the high demand for the vaccine.
“It will be by far the largest we’ve gotten yet,” Browning said. “If we get what I expect, it will be a pretty significant supply.”
The Health Department ran out of the nasal spray Tuesday and used the remaining injectable vaccine doses today.
High demand for the vaccine kept nurses busy at the health department for three weeks. The nurses were working 10- to 12-hour work days while the Health Department brought in volunteers from the Medical Reserve Corps, a group of 80 volunteers with certified medical experience.
The demand will only increase as the county receives more of the injectable “dead” virus.
The injectable virus has been more popular, because the H1N1 cells are dead. But the vaccine so far has only been available to certain populations such as pregnant women, infants and people with chronic health conditions. Browning said the department hasn’t seen enough of those people receive the vaccination to offer it to anyone else.
But he did say the county would transition to giving more shots than nasal spray over the next two weeks. After that, they may offer the injectable virus to a larger population.
“We still haven’t seen all the pregnant women we need to, and we haven’t seen all the kids that we need to,” Browning said.
Browning said once vaccines become more readily available, nurses and volunteers will enter the schools and vaccinate willing students there.
Until then, any healthy adult or child ages 2 to 49 can receive the nasal spray at the health department.
The county does not charge for the vaccines. The clinic is open 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and is located behind the Skagit County Superior Courthouse.
