Feb. 8, 2021
Approximately 168,000 adults age 80 and older are now eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccination. While this is a welcome increase in vaccine eligibility for one of our most vulnerable communities, it is important to note that there is still not enough vaccine supply for everyone.
Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Director Patrick Allen said, “My promise to older Oregonians is this: If you want a vaccination, you will get one. But it may not be tomorrow, this week or even two weeks from now. But you will get one. And every Oregonian will get a vaccine sooner and more easily if we are patient, wait our turn and make sure others who go before us get their chance.”
Today, OHA piloted and launched a new tool to provide older adults information about COVID-19 vaccinations. The “Get Vaccinated Oregon” tool is in addition to other methods that are already available to help people in Oregon get connected to vaccines. With the new tool, older adults in Oregon have four primary ways to get linked to local vaccine information:
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Get Vaccinated Oregon is an eligibility and notification tool developed by Google, in partnership with the state of Oregon. You can find it at covidvaccine.oregon.gov or getvaccinated.oregon.gov. Users can answer basic questions to learn if they are eligible and get linked to information about vaccinations in their counties. Users can sign up for alerts to get notified about vaccination events or find out when they may become eligible.
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Vaccine Information chat bot on the covidvaccine.oregon.gov website allows anyone to find out if they’re eligible for a vaccine in Oregon or get answers to other questions about vaccines. The Vaccine Information chat bot also enables vaccine-eligible users who live in Clackamas, Columbia, Marion, Multnomah or Washington counties to schedule vaccine appointments through scheduling tools hosted by local health care providers. OHA developed and offered this scheduling feature in direct response to requests from health care providers in the region. The friendly Vaccine Information chat bot tool is an orange box that appears whenever a user accesses the covidvaccine.oregon.gov website.
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211: You can also text ORCOVID to 898211 to get text/SMS updates about vaccination clinics (this option is available in English and Spanish only) or email ORCOVID@211info.org. If you can’t get your COVID-19 vaccine question answered on the website, by text or by email, you can call 211 or 1-866-698-6155, which is open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, including holidays. Please be aware that wait times may be long due to high call volumes. As Governor Brown announced on Friday, the Oregon National Guard will help 211 answer phone calls, starting by the end of today.
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Licensed senior facilities: Residents and staff at most licensed facilities for older adults and people with disabilities are receiving on-site vaccinations through pharmacies enrolled in federal vaccination programs. Residents (or family members) can ask their facility operator when their residence is scheduled for a vaccination clinic.
Starting today, child care providers and staff at early learning centers can call a toll-free hotline to get assistance with:
- Symptoms or health issues that are concerning to them or staff
- Questions about when to exclude children from care or staff from work
- Steps to take if someone is positive for COVID-19
The hotline is a partnership between the Early Learning Division of the Oregon Department of Education and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).
“Our collaboration with OHSU will allow providers to have a more personalized response in their efforts to adapt and ensure child care remains safe for children and families during this emergency,” said Oregon Early Learning System Director Miriam Calderon.
Child care providers can call 1-833-647-8222 seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The hotline is a resource reserved for child care providers and staff at no cost. Language assistance is available.
There is one new COVID-19 related death in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,024, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 12:01 a.m. today.
OHA also reported 305 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 147,419.
Today, OHA reported that 18,255 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 10,515 doses were administered on Feb. 7 and 7,740 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Feb. 7.
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 572,400 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. To date, 734,950 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.
Today’s case count is the lowest since Oct. 19, when OHA reported 266 confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 in Oregon.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (2), Benton (5), Clackamas (27), Columbia (3), Coos (15), Crook (1), Curry (1), Deschutes (5), Douglas (11), Jackson (8), Jefferson (1), Josephine (10), Lane (30), Lincoln (2), Linn (5), Marion (27), Multnomah (66), Polk (7), Tillamook (2), Umatilla (5), Union (1), Wallowa (1), Wasco (2), Washington (51) and Yamhill (17).
Note: Updated information is known about Oregon’s 1,570th death originally reported on Jan 8. He is a 70-year-old man in Josephine County. He was originally reported to live in Jackson County.
Oregon’s 2,024th COVID-19 death is a 67-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Jan. 11 and died on Feb. 4 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.
COVID-19 hospitalizations:
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 221, which is nine fewer than yesterday. There are 55 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is two more 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 (English or Spanish), which has a breakdown of distribution and other information.
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