Washington County is one of five counties in the state that will not be receiving additional COVID-19 vaccines in the next week, but that will not affect already scheduled clinics in the county.

Sources say that each county is required to distribute 80% of their allotted COVID-19 vaccines each week according to their population size. If they don’t administer 80%, the county will not receive the next week’s allocation of vaccines. Washington County Public Health announced Saturday that they were given notice Thursday that they would not receive the additional 300 doses initially allocated for the next week. The county held their first public mass vaccination clinic for those 65 years and older last Thursday, which was postponed from the weekend before due to weather.

Washington County Public Health states this was disappointing news, but it will not impact their scheduled clinic on February 22nd, or scheduled closed point-of-distribution clinics with school districts and second dose clinics. They’ve been assured by the state that with their plans going forward, the pause in allocation will only be for this week.