Local health officials today said they are receiving this week 16,000 more doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with 12,000 of those going to those receiving first-time doses.
The new supply of vaccine is going toward those 65 and older as well as workers in supply chain and logistics industries, news media personnel and airport workers.
“We have gone ahead and invited all those groups down throughout frontline supply chain through essential airport operations, and we’re currently working with the next group, which is all the other essential transportation groups, to figure out how large that employment size is so that we can start queuing them for either invites later this week or early next week,” said James English with the Washoe County Health District.
“For all seniors out there on our waitlist, please check your emails, your spam folders, your junk folders and your primary folders and look for an invite if you have been waiting for a vaccine invite from the Washoe County Health District [since] we are doing a massive push out today to the 65-plus population,” English added.
English said the new doses are a one-time increase in vaccine allocations, but they are hoping the large number of new doses continues.
“We’re hoping this is the start of a major ramp up,” he said. “This is a one-time increase in allocation. So we got approximately 70% more vaccine than our normal county allotment for this one week.”
The next workers being targeted will include restaurant employees and hospitality groups.
Employers should sign up their businesses at the county’s vaccine website (the form is at the bottom of the page): https://www.covid19washoevaccine.com/pages/prioritization-lanes
Officials continue to stress mask-wearing, social distancing and basic hygiene, especially since new strains of the coronavirus disease have been confirmed in the county.
