Under pressure from federal officials, Kate Brown, governor of Oregon, announced Tuesday that she will allow all Oregonians 65 and older to be eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations from Jan. 23.
On his own initiative, Brown also said that he would allow childcare, preschool and K-12 school workers to receive vaccinations with the elderly group.
Brown’s decision to extend vaccinations to older Oregonians was in response to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar earlier in the day that all states start vaccinating Americans who are 65 or older and people with underlying conditions, which they ‘ have a higher risk of serious consequences. complications of COVID-19. Azar said the federal government would no longer hold the second doses of the vaccine before it was sent out – and it would release more doses to vaccinate this new group of vulnerable Americans.
In a Tuesday news release, Brown did not address her plans for Oregonians with underlying conditions, and the governor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for clarification. But it appears that people with underlying conditions will not be prioritized immediately before vaccination, as Brown does not mention it.
Brown said there was only one caveat to exporting the vaccines to the elderly and educators – that the federal government send more vaccinations as promised. Charles Boyle, a spokesman for the governor’s office, said he did not know how many vaccines would still come to Oregon.
“While this is an unexpected change of course from the federal government, receiving more vaccines is welcome news for states – and Oregon is ready to spend all necessary resources to promote distribution with our healthcare partners,” Brown said in a written statement. statement said.
Brown offered no details on where eligible Oregonians could go to be vaccinated soon. State leaders are still working on a system to get the information out.
“If you’re an Oregonian who’s just eligible for vaccination, I ask for your patience,” Brown continued. ‘Please do not call your doctor’s office or healthcare provider with questions about when you can be vaccinated. Today’s news came without prior notice from the federal government. Oregon healthcare providers are working as quickly as possible to shift their vaccine distribution plans to meet this sudden change in national leadership.
It is unclear how many residents will include the new extended guidelines. Currently, the state has allowed an estimated 500,000 Oregonians to be vaccinated as part of Phase 1a. It mostly includes health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, but it may allow other people, including prison and prison workers and veterinary care workers.
The governor did not say how many childcare, preschool and K-12 employees there are in the state. According to US census figures, there are approximately 767,000 people aged 65 and over in Oregon. About 21 000 of them are at most eligible as part of phase 1a because they live in long-term care facilities.
The expansion of the pool of eligible vaccine recipients will put a huge amount of pressure on a huge vaccination system in the state. According to the state, 115,060 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines made it into the arms of residents, out of 321,425 doses sent to Oregon so far, according to the CDC. This means that about 36% of the available stock has been used – a significant improvement from the 25% used about a week ago.
But on December 16, when the first vaccines were injected into health workers, vaccinations went much slower than expected. Oregon’s initial implementation has been plagued by inefficient planning, but government officials say reforms are underway.
Over the past week, an average of 7,600 doses have been administered every day. The governor has set a target of 12,000 a day by next week, but acknowledges that the pace will have to accelerate significantly in the coming weeks.
Patrick Allen, the director of the Oregon Health Authority, said it would take 12,000 daily shots a day, and it would take until 2022 to vaccinate 70% of the state’s population – about 3 million people – with the two doses. regimen of the vaccines. . Seventy percent is the minimum required by public health experts to achieve herd immunity, and this is the point that seriously prevents the virus from spreading easily through the community.
This is an evolving story. Check back on OregonLive.com for updates.
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– Aimee Green; [email protected]; @o_aimee