The winter weather, which is hampering much of the United States, has delayed the shipment of 67,000 doses of COVID vaccines to Oregon, state officials said Wednesday.
The doses of Moderna should have arrived Tuesday, but not yet shipped as of Wednesday, an Oregon Health Authority spokesman said.
It is unclear whether shipments will be transported Thursday and arrive by Friday or later in the weekend, Erica Heartquist said in an email. It is also unclear how the delays will affect the already scheduled appointments, even though they are around 200,000 unused doses from Wednesday, which is probably enough to last at least a week.
The Oregon Health Authority announced Monday that the nationwide cold front is expected to delay vaccination loads this week. But officials did not respond for more than 48 hours to questions about the delays, citing agency personnel who were without power in Oregon.
The delayed vaccines included first doses earmarked for 15,700 elderly, 5,200 educators and 5,400 people in phase 1a, such as health workers, Oregonians with disabilities and others. Second doses for 37,700 Oregonians are also in order.
Heartquist did not say directly where Oregon’s vaccines came from, but the bad weather in Memphis hampered shipping. According to news reports, Memphis International Airport reported 5.3 inches of snow as of Monday. Another three centimeters of snow is expected for the area on Wednesday evening.
Oregon did receive 34,125 doses of Pfizer vaccine this week, including the first doses for 13,125 elderly, 6,100 educators, 6,125 people in phase 1a and 8,775 second doses. Oregon also allocated about 16,000 additional Pfizer doses to the federal program that sends doses directly to local pharmacies this week.
– Brad Schmidt; [email protected]; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt