County prepares for vaccine for 5-11 year olds

Snohomish County’s COVID-19 cases may be on the rise again with another week of increases as officials prepare for the vaccination of younger children.

“We continue to see our case rates increase for the second straight week,” said Dr. Chris Spitters, Snohomish Health District health officer, during a Nov. 2 press briefing.

There were 1,672 new cases in the county in the week ending Oct. 31.

That means the two-week daily case rate increased to 385 cases per 100,000 residents.

About two months ago the county reached its highest case rate ever with 481 cases per 100,000 residents.

Since then, there have seven straight weeks of decreasing cases.

Previous waves bottomed out at much lower rates with all of them below 90 cases per 100,000 residents.

“We’ve improved off the top of this fifth wave, but we’re plateauing or going up a touch at a much higher rate than previous waves,” said Spitters.

A lot of additional COVID spread is being caused by younger kids.

“The increase in COVID-19 we’re seeing in schools is obviously concerning,” said County Executive Dave Somers. “It’s really a barrier for full recovery for our businesses and workers."

There has only been one case of hospitalization for someone younger than 17 years old in the county in the most recent wave.

“But as we know, younger people can still transmit to older people and so it remains a serious concern,” said Somers.

Spitters said increased transmission was likely after a full return to school.

“There’s more contact and probably more contact outside of school, so there’s more transmission. I don’t think that should be a surprise,” he said. “This is the cost of having kids back in school for in-person learning."

Vaccination and safety measures will help mitigate that increase, he said, but they are not going to be perfect.

A vaccine dose for kids age 5 to 11 is coming to the county.

“We may have a green light as soon as tomorrow, however it may take several days to a week for this to come to fruition in terms of doses getting into children’s arms,” said Spitters.

The Western States Scientific Workgroup gave the approval for the vaccine for those kids on Nov. 3.

Manufacturers need to produce the needed supplies for the kids’ vaccine.

“This is not the same formulation that adults receive. It’s the same vaccine but in a different bottle and a different dose,” said Spitters. “It may be somewhat limited in the beginning as the manufacturer scales it up for nationwide supply."

There is anticipated to be high demand initially for the vaccines.

“Not everyone is going to be able to get their child vaccinated the first week,” said Spitters.

Parents are recommended to work through their child’s healthcare provider first or through their local pharmacy.

“We have been working behind the scenes to provide an adequate network and resources for the approximately 75,000 children who will soon be eligible for the Pfizer vaccine,” said Spitters.

The health district is working with school districts and local pharmacies to help everyone have access to the vaccine.

Mass vaccine sites are not expected for children age 5 to 11 as the drive-through setting is not expected to work as well with them.

“Younger kids often are not excited about getting vaccinated,” said Spitters. “In general kids tend to duck out and need to get a little more tender loving care or calm, quiet holding. And that’s just not amenable to do in a drive-through setting."

Spitters said that this fifth wave is unlikely to be the last of the COVID pandemic and that the current status quo could continue for months or years.

“The goal is to have vaccination and other prevention measures in place to keep a lid on transmission and mitigate severity of illness so we don’t swamp the hospitals, don’t have to close the schools too often and so that we can muddle through for the duration of this pandemic,” he said.