EAST WENATCHEE — In case the H1N1 flu pandemic hits Chelan and Douglas counties particularly hard, the local health district and county commissioners have taken steps toward having emergency measures readily available.

In the past few days, the Chelan-Douglas Health District and commissioners in the two counties signed declarations of emergency for the pandemic flu.

The declarations do “not indicate that the severity of the H1N1 virus has changed,” said Mary Small, the district’s director of community health and preparedness. “This is just planning for the future in case things get worse.”

The declarations, signed between Friday and Wednesday, allow some changes in the way health care is delivered. Those changes would be implemented if local providers become overwhelmed with patients having flu-like symptoms, Small said. Among the changes would be allowing hospitals to set up off-site centers to treat flu patients and expanding the types of medical personnel who can give flu vaccinations.

Locally, those changes would affect Central Washington Hospital, where officials said they would erect a large tent or place a trailer in one of their parking lots, and the Wenatchee Valley Medical Center. Officials there said they have designated their sleep center building on Miller Street for emergency care.

Preparations for the declarations were started more than a week ago. That was when school absentee rates were high and officials at local hospitals and clinics were saying they were seeing a lot of people with flu-like symptoms, although they were still able to treat those people with existing staff.

Small said hospitals and clinics are still seeing more people with flu-like symptoms than normal but school absentee rates have declined in the past week. As of midafternoon on Wednesday, Small said, no school had called in to report more than a 10 percent absentee rate. Small said most of the flu circulating now is the 2009 H1N1 flu.

The only bad news is that H1N1 vaccine continues to arrive more slowly than expected, prompting health officials to push mass vaccination clinics from the second to the third week of November, Small said. As of Monday, she said, health-care providers in the two counties have received 8,400 doses of vaccine. The district had expected about twice that amount by this time.

This is also the situation nationwide, where vaccine availability is not meeting demand, according to health officials. That is because it is taking longer to produce the vaccine than originally expected.

Dee Riggs: 664-7147

deeriggs@wenatcheeworld.com