If you have employees that qualify to be vaccinated in Phase 1a, the Department of Health is urging them to get vaccinated in the next couple days before the state moves to Phase 1b.
Life Science Washington worked with the Washington Department of Health to make sure that the definition of “healthcare worker” includes life science industry employees known as Healthcare Industry Representatives (HCIRs) that work on site in hospitals or visit healthcare delivery facilities and that they qualify for vaccination in Phase 1a (see letter here). Workers that interact with COVID patients or who are exposed to or handle SARS-CoV-2 specimens also qualify in Phase 1a (complete guidance here).
We expect that other “essential” life science industry workers will be eligible for vaccination in Phase 2, but the state has not finalized guidance beyond Phase 1 at this point (see timeline here.)
The best way to get authorized to receive a vaccination in Phase 1a, is to use State’s online vaccine authorization tool: FindYourPhaseWA.org. Simply go to the website, answer questions about your eligibility, and the site will let you know when you are eligible, and (hopefully) where you can get vaccinated. Workers who are eligible can simply print out their authorization from the website and bring it to a vaccination site. The site is still in beta version until next week, but should work to certify qualified healthcare workers now.
Complete Washington State COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation Guidance can be found at the Department of Health’s COVID vaccination website.