March 16, 2021
Nicole R. Butler-Hooton, Oregon’s 2021 Teacher of the Year, is a second-grade teacher at Irving Elementary. Butler-Hooten’s story on Oregon’s Teacher of the Year webpage says that her “teaching style goes beyond instruction and serves to build lasting relationships with students and families.”
As a teacher and a Siletz and Apache tribal member, Butler-Hooton felt it was important to get the COVID-19 vaccine. She shared:
I got vaccinated against COVID-19 because I want to feel safe to be around my family members and friends. I want to feel safe returning to the classroom and teaching. The evidence has shown that it can help bring an end to the pandemic. In addition, Indigenous communities have been disproportionately affected by coronavirus, and I know I am more likely to have a negative outcome than many of my colleagues if I get sick. I believe the vaccine is safe.
The first vaccine I experienced a sore arm, lethargy, and a mild headache. I was back to normal within a few days. The second vaccine caused me to experience severe flu-like symptoms for two days following. I had a high fever, chills, headache, body aches, and nausea.
 Nicole R. Butler-Hooton after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
Many of us are eagerly awaiting our turn to be vaccinated and hearing from others about their experiences taking the vaccine. You may have noticed that some people have side effects and others don’t. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), side effects are normal signs that your body is building protection. Having side effects may make it difficult to do daily activities, but they should go away in a few days. Some people have no side effects, but the vaccine is still working.
See the graphic below for a list of common side effects and what you can do to relieve them.
Renters in Oregon must take a step to be covered under the current statewide eviction moratorium that will last until June 30, 2021. With limited exceptions, landlords cannot evict renters for nonpayment or without cause until July of 2021 — if renters sign and return a form to their landlord if they can’t afford their rent. Renters who do not return the form are not protected, and can be evicted!
In order to be protected from eviction, you will need to take the following steps:
- Download the declaration of financial hardship form.
- Sign the declaration of financial hardship form.
- Return the form to your landlord as soon as possible (keep a copy for your records!) Renters can return the form by text, email, first class mail, personal delivery, or fax.
Find the form here: courts.oregon.gov. If you have questions or need legal information you can contact one of these agencies:
Renters can give the form to their landlord at any time, up until the first appearance in eviction court. But renters should give the form to their landlords as soon as possible.
Please help spread the word in multiple languages by using the social media toolkit.
 
Today, OHA launches a new blog, which features stories and information about COVID-19 vaccines in Oregon. It is another place to read and share some of the content from this newsletter. You can find it on the vaccine page at covidvaccine.oregon.gov or at covidblog.oregon.gov.
There are 22 new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon raising, the state’s death toll to 2,346, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 12:01 a.m. today.
OHA also reported 267 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 160,050.
Note: Due to a delay in laboratory reporting, OHA received a large quantity of approximately 9,000 negative electronic laboratory results (ELRs) on March 15, 2021. The tests are from Aug. 1, 2020, through March 10, 2021. As a result, daily ELR totals are higher than usual for March 15 and percent positivity is lower than anticipated.
Vaccinations in Oregon
Today, OHA cannot provide updates for newly administered first and second doses or cumulative doses administered due to a server outage that affected the ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS) in Oregon and four other jurisdictions. This multi-state outage affected the ability of providers to submit administered vaccine doses, and Oregon’s data totals may be affected in coming days as providers catch up in data entry.
To date, 1,731,755 doses have been delivered to sites reporting to ALERT IIS. Please see the daily media release from March 15 for the last update on vaccination data.
These data are preliminary and subject to change. OHA's dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data.
Cases and deaths
Note: Details of today’s reported deaths will be included in an updated news release, which will be published here.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Benton (3), Clackamas (28), Coos (3), Crook (2), Curry (5), Deschutes (15), Douglas (13), Harney (1), Jackson (18), Jefferson (2), Josephine (13), Klamath (7), Lake (2), Lane (12), Lincoln (3), Linn (5), Marion (34), Multnomah (50), Polk (4), Tillamook (3), Umatilla (18), Union (3), Wasco (1), Washington (20) and Yamhill (2).
COVID-19 hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 119, which is one more than yesterday. There are 25 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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