The Oregon Health Authority declined to say Tuesday whether it plans to maintain a lottery system for Portland residents eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations at the Oregon Convention Center on March 29.
Government officials launched the lottery system for appointments at the large-scale clinic after frustrated seniors struggled last month to book slots in the “first come, first-first” online free-for-everything.
Expanding the lottery system beyond seniors can make sense – except that there is a problem: the existing registration still does not ask residents who sign important questions about their profession and underlying medical conditions, but two things are needed in the next wave to be eligible.
This suggests that Oregon may need to review the registration process and ask thousands to re-enroll or provide new information, or possibly go to another system for appointments at the convention center, the state’s largest vaccination site.
“If there are any changes to the current appointment security system on March 29, we will announce it and share it widely,” spokeswoman Rudy Owens said in an email to The Oregonian / OregonLive on Tuesday.
In less than two weeks, Oregonians from 45 to 64 years old with underlying conditions are eligible. So will some front-line workers that include jobs, including agriculture and food processing, plus people who are homeless or displaced by the wildfires in September last year.
Oregon’s current vaccination schedule for different groups moves to March 6 along Group 6, as outlined in this graph. (Graph appears on covidvaccine.oregon.gov)
Government officials estimate that it is possible that more than half a million Oregonians are eligible.
But many residents of the Portland area in the next wave were anxious after bumpy rollouts in February plunged by slow-moving sites and many mistakes. Residents watched and waited for details as the end of March approached.
Do Portland residents need to keep an eye on their watches, go online at exact times, and frantically click away to get an appointment, as seniors are currently doing for vaccinations at Portland International Airport, one of the other major vaccination sites in Portland?
Or will the state use its registry and lottery system, as with seniors who want appointments at the Oregon Convention Center, randomly select their names and then send links to vaccination times?
Beaverton resident Eric Johansen is one of the respondents awaiting answers.
“Thirteen days away – it’s getting a little close,” Johansen said Tuesday.
Johansen said he would be eligible on March 29 because he is 62 and has diabetes. But because the state’s website did not ask him if he had any underlying conditions when he previously registered, the first date on which he is eligible is June 1st. This is when healthy adults aged 45 to 64 can start booking appointments under the current state timeline.
Johansen said he recently logged on to the GetVaccinated.Oregon.gov registration website again and was relieved to see that the state has a notice at the top of his account informing him that he will have to return soon and have to answer a new set of questions. Owens, a spokesman for the Oregon Health Authority, told The Oregonian / OregonLive that changes could come later this week.
Johansen’s answers about his underlying condition will ultimately enable the website to accurately inform him when he is eligible – and to enter him in a lottery for appointments at the conference center, if that is the system that the state prefer to use.
But Johansen is not prepared to rely entirely on the lottery system. Already, he visited pharmacy websites because he wanted to see how many appointments were available, to think that it would be a good tool if the state’s system did not break out.
He recently found appointments at Costco stores in Albany and Roseburg, which offer some peace of mind, though he has not booked them because he does not yet qualify for them.
“It’s good that I’d retired,” Johansen, the city of the former Portland treasurer and debt manager, said with a laugh, “or I do not have time to do all this research.”
Tom McCarthy, a 58-year-old Gresham resident, said he would also be eligible on March 29 because he has lung disease and a body mass index of just over 30. He also noticed the same problem with GetVaccinated.Oregon.gov as Johansen did, but note that there may be many others who have not yet done so. .
“Of course I’m not going to wait another two months,” McCarthy said in an email. “… But I am worried that there will be many people who accept that the reason they have not yet received any (notice) is because their name has not yet been drawn at random from the large number of people in the qualifying pool.”
According to the Health Authority, more than 120,000 residents have registered with GetVaccinated.Oregon.gov, which also currently serves as the conference center’s lottery. for the elderly in Portland area.
Elsewhere in Oregon, the vaccination process will vary from country to country – and the Health Authority recommends that residents in their local provinces inquire about the reporting process to be used.
In total, the state estimates that more than 525,000 may be eligible by March 29. The state is not sure about the exact number because it did not count for some groups like pregnant women and firefighters, and some people in this coming wave have already been vaccinated.
State officials say weekly federal shipments to the state have increased rapidly since earlier this winter, and some previous problems should be avoided more easily.
In fact, Oregon officials have said they hope President Biden achieves his goal of being eligible for all Americans by May 1 – a timeline that Oregon plans to honor only when promised doses arrive.
McCarthy, a resident of Gresham, said he was thinking a lot about the immediate future.
‘I think about it, because when I get it “I’m probably one of those people who’s more likely to die, ” he said of COVID-19.
On March 29, he added: “is definitely on my calendar.”
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– Aimee Green; [email protected]; @o_aimee