March 26, 2021
Today we are excited to announce that Oregon's vaccine eligibility timeline is being moved up. On April 5, Group 7 will be eligible for vaccination. That includes frontline workers, people ages 16 to 44 with underlying conditions and people living in multigenerational homes. (See the linked infographic for definitions of frontline workers and underlying conditions.)
In more good news, the general population will still become eligible by May 1, but some counties may move that date up to April 26 if they confirm they are ready to move forward.
Here are more highlights from today’s announcement:
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OHA expects to have enough supplies to meet the new timeline.
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Approximately eight out of 10 people who are eligible for the vaccine in Oregon have received at least one vaccination and 25% of all people in Oregon have gotten at least one shot. The national average is 26%.
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Cases and hospitalizations continue to drop. Our rolling seven-day case average of new cases as of yesterday was 315. That’s a decline of 73% since Jan. 1 and 52% since the beginning of February. Among U.S. states, Oregon is fourth lowest in cumulative daily cases per 100,000 people.
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Oregon’s testing capacity exceeds the demand for testing. Since COVID-19 cases are decreasing, the need for testing has also decreased. And test positivity has decreased to a positivity rate of 2.2% as of March 14.
Beginning March 29, the vaccine information tool (or chatbot) that has been helping people in the tri-county area (Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington) schedule vaccination appointments at the Oregon Convention Center and other locations will be discontinued. Going forward, all vaccination registrations and notifications will be handled through the Get Vaccinated Oregon (GVO) tool, which also can be found at covidvaccine.oregon.gov.
Also, beginning today, the GVO tool no longer accepts landline phone numbers as a method of contact. Using these automated calls as a response for the GVO was confusing to landline users who have been warned by the Oregon Department of Justice to be careful of automated calls.
There are approximately 200 people in the GVO who registered with a landline as their primary contact and no other way to contact them. In addition, approximately 300 people provided a landline and some other form of contact.
Anyone who registered for the GVO with a landline will be contacted for support with vaccine access. Many of those who registered in the GVO with a landline registered through 211. Anyone whose preferred method of contact is a landline can continue to call 211 for support in accessing vaccine (or toll free, 1-866-698-6155 or TTY dial 711 and 1-866-698-6155).
The Oregon State Public Health Laboratory (OSPHL) has continually worked to modernize and improve testing for COVID-19 in Oregon. As part of this effort, OSPHL announced that COVID-19 viral genome sequencing will be performed at OSPHL for specimens of public health significance beginning Monday, March 29. Sequencing at OSPHL will enhance public health response by providing timely sequencing results for variants of interest, concern and high consequence.
OSPHL and state epidemiologists have collaborated to provide the Criteria for Requesting COVID-19 Sequencing at OSPHL. This guidance outlines:
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The situations in which COVID-19 sequencing at OSPHL will be approved,
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How to request sequencing at OSPHL, and
- Specimen types that will be accepted.
If you would like to request sequencing, please follow the instructions in the Criteria for Requesting COVID-19 Sequencing at OSPHL.
There are three new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,373, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 12:01 a.m. today.
OHA also reported 505 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 163,295.
Today, OHA reported that 41,716 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 25,541 doses were administered on March 25 and 16,175 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on March 25.
Oregon has now administered a total of 826,177 first and second doses of Pfizer, 791,858 first and second doses of Moderna and 36,674 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize.
To date, 1,021,995 doses of Pfizer, 1,003,700 doses of Moderna and 61,200 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines 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: Baker (3), Benton (14), Clackamas (74), Clatsop (5), Columbia (9), Coos (15), Crook (2), Deschutes (26), Douglas (11), Grant (4), Harney (2), Hood River (1), Jackson (30), Jefferson (2), Josephine (16), Klamath (6), Lane (25), Lincoln (2), Linn (11), Malheur (3), Marion (27), Multnomah (108), Polk (14), Tillamook (8), Umatilla (7), Union (1), Wallowa (1), Wasco (1), Washington (67) and Yamhill (10).
Note: Due to a delay in laboratory reporting, OHA received a large quantity of approximately 5,800 electronic laboratory reports (ELRs) on March 25 for Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. The reports are from Jan. 20, 2021, through March 23, 2021. As a result, daily ELR totals and case counts are higher for March 25 than anticipated for these three counties.
Oregon’s 2,371st COVID-19 death is a 74-year-old woman in Coos County who died on March 1 at her residence. The death certificate listed COVID-19 disease or SARS-CoV-2 as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death. She had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 2,372nd COVID-19 death is an 81-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on March 10 and died on March 24 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 2,373rd COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old man in Douglas County who tested positive on March 6 and died on March 24 at Mercy Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.
Note: Additional information is now known about Oregon’s 2,369th death, a 56-year-old woman in Coos County. She died on March 21.
COVID-19 hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 108, which is the same as yesterday. There are 18 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is one 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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