Gov. Steve Sisolak announced Nevada will receive about 164,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this month. But that amount is shy of what’s needed to vaccinate everyone identified for the first round.
The state has identified 173,000 Nevadans in tier one to receive the two-dose vaccine. This group includes frontline health care workers, staff and residents in long-term care facilities and law enforcement.
During a call with press Friday, Candace McDaniel, the bureau chief of the Bureau of Child, Family and Community Wellness, Division of Public and Behavioral Health, explained who will be prioritized based on what’s available.
“When we look at that very first line, you know, the really critical health care workforce who are at this time experiencing the surge. We’re working very closely with all of the hospitals and the [Nevada] Hospital Association, who have been tremendous partners in really identifying those in their particular entities who are truly on those front lines,” McDaniel said.
But immunizing those front line workers will require a staggered strategy to minimize the potential effects on staffing, which is already stretched thin. That’s what Shannon Bennett, immunization program manager for the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health, said during a press conference earlier this week.
“An important consideration when vaccinating medical facility staff is the potential for anticipated side effects. As with other vaccines, a low-grade fever and a sore arm are an indication the vaccine is doing its job, but it may impact our medical workforce’s ability to do theirs for a short amount of time,” Bennett said.
And with the surge in hospitalizations in Nevada, having sufficient staff is crucial. Here in Washoe County, about 90% of staffed hospital beds are occupied. That’s why local and state officials have put out calls for volunteers.
The governor’s Battle Born Medical Corps has 2,600 volunteers registered with nursing backgrounds. That’s according to Julia Peek, the deputy administrator for the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health. Peek recently said the state is currently looking for help with COVID-19 testing.
“We’re looking for microbiologists, laboratorians, lab techs [and] the individuals that can run the machines,” Peek said. “We were looking at developing some satellite sites for our laboratories out in our rural communities, specifically in Churchill and Elko, that helps on both courier time but also processing time. So we’re getting that equipment ordered, and we need qualified individuals that can run those machines.”
The Washoe County Health District has also put out multiple calls for volunteers with health care training for their Medical Reserve Corps. They are still bracing for a surge from the Thanksgiving holiday — and the upcoming ones as well.
Lucia Starbuck is a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project.
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