COVID-19 Updates for Providers

Requested actions

• Be aware, on February 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their guidance for COVID-19 vaccination to include:
  • For people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised:
    • People who have completed a primary series of an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) are recommended to receive an mRNA booster dose 3 months (instead of 5 months) after the last primary dose.
    • People who have received a single Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine should receive one additional dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine and one booster dose (preferably mRNA) for a total of 3 vaccine doses.
    • Clarification that people who have completed their primary series of 3 mRNA doses should receive an mRNA vaccine booster dose—to make a total of 4 doses.
  • For those who previously received passive COVID-19 antibody products:
    • Simplification that people do not need to wait for any period prior to COVID-19 vaccination.
• Strongly recommend patients get vaccinated. You are patients’ most trusted source of vaccine information.
• Be aware, the US Food and Drug Administration postponed their advisory committee meeting to give more time to review available evidence on 3 doses of COVID-19 vaccine for children 6 months to 4 years.
• Increase access to COVID-19 therapeutics. Enroll to become a provider by emailing mcm@doh.wa.gov or prescribe patients available products. You can find:
  • Available doses in your area with HHS’ COVID-19 therapeutics locator.
  • More information and resources on DOH’s therapeutics for providers page.
• Tell patients how to access, use and interpret at-home antigen test kits. Direct patients to the many COVID-19 testing sites in Pierce County.
• Print and share our flyer about how to access antigen tests.
• Tell patients with mild to moderate illness how to care for themselves at home and when to go to the emergency department.

COVID-19 vaccine

• COVID-19 vaccine clinical considerations, CDC.
• Booster dose updates, FDA.
• EUA and FDA-approved vaccine information:
  • Comirnaty/Pfizer-BioNTech.
  • Spikevax/Moderna.
  • Johnson & Johnson.
• COVID-19 vaccine locator, Washington State Department of Health (DOH).
• COVID-19 vaccine for providers, Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.
• COVID-19 vaccine provider toolkit and resources, DOH.
• COVID-19 vaccination for providers, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• Clinical considerations for COVID-19 vaccination and guidance for managing anaphylaxis, CDC.
• COVID-19 vaccine quick reference guide for healthcare professionals, CDC.
• COVID-19 vaccine training module on best practices for providers, CDC.

COVID-19 testing

• K–12 test requirements to return to school, DOH.
• Antigen test guidance, CDC.

COVID-19 test processing

Labs report varying amounts of time to process COVID-19 tests. To support faster turnaround, we encourage providers to use in-state labs. The table below shows COVID-19 test processing times for in-state private labs.

Lab	Time to process test	Tests processed daily
FidaLab	24–30 hours	5,000
Kaiser	24 hours	700–800
LabCorp	24–48 hours	Unknown
Northwest Pathology	48–72 hours	20,000
Quest	24–48 hours	700
UW Virology	24–48 hours	10,000–11,000
Atlas Genomic	24–48 hours	10,000

COVID-19 therapies

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) allocates monoclonal antibodies and oral antivirals to each state. DOH distributes doses to enrolled providers. Providers must enroll in Healthcare Partner Ordering Portal (HPoP) to manage COVID-19 therapies. Email mcm@doh.wa.gov for support enrolling.

• Once enrolled, to request a supply of monoclonal antibodies or therapeutics, complete a smart sheet.

Supplies of all therapies are current limited. Safeway and independent pharmacies may have oral antivirals. Hospital-associated systems may have monoclonal antibodies. All therapies must be dispensed by prescription. Therapies from Safeway are intended to be delivered to patients’ homes. Patients with questions about accessing their medication should call the pharmacy.

You can find:

• Available doses in your area with HHS’ COVID-19 therapeutics locator.
• More information and resources on DOH’s therapeutics for providers page.

COVID-19 prevention

Share with patients:

• What to do if you test positive for COVID-19.
• What to do if you were exposed to someone with COVID-19.

Immediately report COVID-19

You can leave us a non-urgent confidential report on our 24-hour Communicable Disease Report Line, 360-778-6150.

Contacting the Health Department

Contact Whatcom County Health and Community Services at 360-778-6100

• 360-778-6100 Main Call Line – available M-F 8:30am to 4:30pm.
  • Afterhours Answering Service – available after 4:30pm and weekends, call 360-778-6100 and press 2 to be connected to the on-call manager or health officer.
• 360-778-6150 Communicable Disease Report Line – 24 hours a day 7 days a week
• 360-778-6103 Confidential Communicable Disease Fax – 24 hours a day 7 days a week
• 509 Girard Street, Bellingham WA 98225

Additional resources

• Our COVID-19 page for healthcare providers.
• Washington COVID-19 risk assessment dashboard.
• CDC guidance for healthcare providers and facilities.
• DOH COVID-19 data dashboard.
• DOH COVID-19 page.
• CDC COVID-19 page.
• Pierce County COVID-19 response and recovery page.
• Pierce County personal protective equipment (PPE) requests.
• SARS-CoV-2 sequencing and variants in Washington.