Anxious Whatcom residents jam phone lines seeking appointments for COVID-19 vaccine
The Bellingham Herald 1/21/2021 Kie Relyea, The Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Wash.)
Jan. 21 Anxious to know when they can be vaccinated against COVID-19, droves of Whatcom County residents are calling health care providers jamming their phone lines for hours, even crashing them.
Family Care Network has reported fielding thousands of inquiries.
PeaceHealth said it is experiencing a 4,000% increase in daily queries from the community.
The Whatcom County Health Department has reported getting an ever increasing number of calls, as has Unity Care NW. We are struggling to keep up with phone inquiries about vaccine availability while also answering calls from patients who are trying to access needed medical care, said Michele Anderson, spokesperson for Family Care Network, which is the primary care provider for nearly 100,000 patients in Whatcom and Skagit counties.
Base Camp deploys rapid COVID tests for admittance into Bellingham homeless shelter
The Bellingham Herald 12/18/2020 Kie Relyea, The Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Wash.)
Dec. 18 BELLINGHAM The operator of Base Camp is turning to rapid COVID-19 testing to help screen people who want to be admitted to the homeless shelter in Bellingham.
The shelter has been a little over half of its capacity in recent weeks, in part, because of restrictions Lighthouse Mission Ministries put into place after a COVID-19 outbreak was linked to Base Camp and Camp 210, a homeless tent encampment at City Hall and the Bellingham Public Library.
The low capacity was a concern for city of Bellingham and Whatcom County government officials, both of which have contributed funding for the shelter space to allow for social distancing during the new coronavirus pandemic.