Health Advisory: COVID-19 Updates

| February 7, 2022

Actions Requested

  • Discuss a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine with immunocompromised patients. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends people ages 5 and older who are moderately or severely immunocompromised should get an additional primary shot (third dose) of an mRNA vaccine 28 days after receiving their second dose. An additional primary shot may prevent serious and possibly life-threatening COVID-19 in people who may not have responded well to their two-dose mRNA COVID-19 vaccine primary series. Currently, no additional primary shot is recommended for people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. For more information, refer to DOH Frequency Asked Questions.
  • Be aware, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full authorization to Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 years and older due to overwhelming evidence of its safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality. Moderna will now be referred to as Spikevax and has the same formulation as the EUA Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
  • Make a strong recommendation to patients to get vaccinated. You are the most trusted source of information when it comes to vaccines.
  • Be aware of a recent MMWR reporting that COVID-19 incidence and hospitalization rates in Los Angeles County among unvaccinated persons were 3.6 and 23.0 times, respectively, those of fully vaccinated persons with a booster, and 2.0 and 5.3 times, respectively, those among fully vaccinated persons without a booster. During both Delta and Omicron predominance, incidence and hospitalization rates were highest among unvaccinated persons and lowest among vaccinated persons with a booster.
  • Educate patients on how to access, use and interpret at-home antigen test kits. Ask patients to not go to local emergency departments for COVID-19 testing to reduce the burden on our hospital system. Direct people to our many COVID-19 testing sites in Kitsap County.
  • Educate patients on how to care for themselves at home with mild to moderate illness and when to access emergency departments for care.
  • Register online to learn more about Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C) at CDC’s Community Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) call “COVID-19 Updates: What Clinicians Need To Know About Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children” on Thursday February 10, 2022, 11am – 12pm.
  • Be aware Washington State Department of Health is scaling back Case Investigation and Contact Tracing (CICT) and will no longer be calling every positive case nor individuals identified as close contacts. CICT efforts will be focused on outbreaks, congregate living/high risk settings, those at highest risk or more severe illness, those with unusual illness presentations.
  • Report COVID-19 and other notifiable conditions to Kitsap Public Health 24/7 by calling (360) 728-2235 or use the Reportable Disease Fax Form and fax to (360) 813-1168 with any corresponding lab results.

 

COVID-19 Situation Update

As of February 4, Kitsap County has had 36,053 COVID-19 cases and 290 COVID-19 deaths. Our 7-day case rate of 791 per 100,000 shows a consistently decreasing trend over the past week. During the week ending January 29, we had 70 new COVID-19 hospitalizations among Kitsap residents. In the past 180 days, unvaccinated people ages 12-59 were 21.5 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID-19 than those fully vaccinated; 4 times more likely for those age 60 and older.

As of January 29, 75.9% of Kitsap County residents have initiated vaccination. Nearly 84,000 (30.8%) Kitsap residents have received an additional or booster vaccine dose. To date, only 33% of children age 5-11 have initiated vaccination. All subcounty areas of Kitsap County have at least 70% vaccination initiation rates among those age 12 and older. Differences in vaccination initiation rates persist across race/ethnicity groups, the gap between highest and lowest rate is 42%.

The chart below shows our most recent case rate, vaccination rate and COVID-19 cases trend over time:

COVID-19 vaccine

COVID-19 testing

COVID-19 therapeutics

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) allocates monoclonal antibody and oral antiviral supplies to each state. DOH distributes doses to enrolled providers. Providers must enroll in Healthcare Partner Ordering Portal (HPoP) to manage COVID-19 therapeutics. Email mcm@doh.wa.gov to register for HPoP training, held Tuesdays at 9 a.m.

COVID-19 prevention patient education

Share with patients:

Contacting the Health District

  • Call (360) 728-2235 and leave a message. Includes reporting notifiable conditions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Leave the patient’s name, date of birth and disease.
  • Fax (360) 813-1379

 

Additional Resources