By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – Clallam County health officials exceeded expectations over the weekend by vaccinating 2,364 people at events in Sequim, Port Angeles and Forks, and are working furiously this week to expand the infrastructure needed to begin an ambitious goal of vaccinating 4500 people per week in February and beyond.

County Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry says this week they are acquiring vaccine and laying the logistical framework needed to sustain mass vaccinations of 4,500 people per week starting February 2. The effort includes building a scheduling platform for the Sequim site, acquiring additional server capacity, hiring additional part time staff, expanding and training volunteer forces, and building an expanded base of operations at the Port Angeles site.

Also in the works this week is the creation of a program to vaccinate elderly folks who are homebound.

It’s a lot of work, but the goal is a more efficient and sustainable program of widespread vaccinations through the summer.

Dr. Berry last week described the effort to vaccinate our citizens as a race against an expanding number of cases here to achieve so-called herd immunity, thought to be 70-75% of the population.

If our county gets the anticipated vaccine, Dr. Berry says they should be able to move through the 1B1 group (65 years and older), and start vaccinating 1B2 in early March, if not sooner.