Jan. 28, 2021
Liam Russell is 16 years old and a junior at Corvallis High School. He uses a power wheelchair for mobility and likes to read, draw, hang out with his friends and to go out to eat good food. He’s been doing distance learning since March of last year. Liam and his parents will get their second doses of the Pfizer vaccine (which is recommended for ages 16 and older) this coming Monday, Feb. 1.
Liam shares: “I got the COVID-19 vaccine to protect myself, my family, and my community. I knew that because of my disability, COVID was more serious for me. I took the vaccine because I believe in science, and I know that every vaccine given is another step toward herd immunity. For me, the vaccine is the light at the end of a year-long tunnel. Even though my friends and I have been able to hang out together outside, socially distanced, with masks, it’s just not the same. I also miss my school community. I miss seeing my teachers in person. I really look forward to having my senior year be in person again. When quarantine is over and it is safe, I want to go to Portland and eat some great food, like Din Tai Fung or Queen of Sheba, and maybe go to Powell’s Books.”
As OHA learns more about when and where vaccinations are available, information will continue to be posted at covidvaccine.oregon.gov and vacunacovid.oregon.gov.
 Liam (16) with his little sister, Ada (8).
Josephine County Public Health (JCPH) staff found themselves with a dilemma this week: Waste vaccine or find people who needed it. And when they shared their story on Facebook, it went, well, viral.
Jason Roberts, Web and Public Information Officer for Josephine County, said, “We are extremely appreciative of the national and international attention our intrepid public health professionals have rightfully gotten for their efforts to not waste a drop of the COVID-19 vaccine during Tuesday’s snowstorm. What’s more, so many members of the public have expressed their support of this unexpected, unorthodox vaccination clinic. These are extraordinary times, and it’s great to see extraordinary people going above and beyond.”
Here's the story they shared on their Facebook page on Tuesday:
When Josephine County Public Health staff and volunteers concluded their mass vaccination event at the Illinois Valley High School (IVHS) this afternoon, they never guessed they might be setting up an impromptu clinic on the way back to Grants Pass. But that's exactly what happened when a snowstorm stranded about 20 personnel on Highway 199 near Hayes Hill.
At the end of the IVHS clinic, the team had six doses of COVID-19 vaccinations left to administer. Recipients had been identified in Grants Pass, but the snow meant those doses wouldn't make it to them before they expired. Not wanting to waste any doses, dedicated JCPH staff members began walking from car to car, offering stranded motorists a chance at receiving the vaccine (with an ambulance from AMR-Josephine County on hand for safety).
In the end, all six doses were administered, including one to a Josephine County Sheriff's Office employee who had arrived too late for the IVHS clinic but, ended up stopped with the others on her way back to Grants Pass.
JCPH Director Mike Weber said it was one of the coolest operations he'd been a part of.
 
There are six new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 1,930, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 12:01 a.m. today.
OHA also reported 750 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 140,783.
Vaccinations in Oregon: Today, OHA reported that 19,010 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 12,292 doses were administered on Jan. 27 and 6,718 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Jan. 27.
Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the state’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).
Oregon has now administered a cumulative total of 359,370 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. To date, 606,725 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
These data are preliminary and subject to change. OHA's dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data, and Oregon’s dashboard has been updated today.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Benton (15), Clackamas (62), Clatsop (6), Columbia (4), Coos (26), Crook (2), Deschutes (37), Douglas (20), Harney (2), Hood River (5), Jackson (25), Jefferson (4), Josephine (22), Klamath (16), Lake (3), Lane (72), Lincoln (6), Linn (12), Malheur (8), Marion (90), Morrow (2), Multnomah(174), Polk (12), Tillamook (1), Umatilla (24), Union (3), Wasco (12), Washington (73) and Yamhill (12).
OHA no longer lists individual cases of COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon in its daily media releases. We share aggregated COVID-19 related deaths on OHA’s public dashboards, which are updated daily. A breakdown of today’s reported deaths by age category is included below.
New deaths by age group:
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<29
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0
|
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30-39
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0
|
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40-49
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0
|
|
50-59
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0
|
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60-69
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1
|
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70-79
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1
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80+
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4
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Total
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6
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Note: Due to unscheduled downtime with Opera (Oregon’s COVID-19 case database), electronic laboratory report processing is backlogged. The backlog, which affects laboratory reports and case counts, will be processed over the next couple of days.
COVID-19 hospitalizations: The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 291, which is 11 fewer than yesterday. There are 72 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU beds) which is two fewer than yesterday. The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity. More information about hospital capacity can be found here.
Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations
To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit our webpage, which has a breakdown of distribution and other useful information.
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