April 21, 2021
Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that serves the members of Washington and Yamhill counties through access to high quality, culturally appropriate health care. For more than 46 years Virginia Garcia has offered care to those most vulnerable in their communities.
When COVID-19 began to affect people in Oregon, Virginia Garcia immediately began to see the impact it was having on the communities they served. In addition to providing testing in the clinics, they began taking services into the community, eventually creating a response team dedicated solely to outreach events. Virginia Garcia was the first community health center in the state to begin offering drive through testing services at the Hillsboro Stadium – increasing accessibility for their patients and the community at large.
Over the summer, with an awareness that Black, Indigenous and People of Color were impacted by COVID-19 at a higher rate than others, the newly formed Covid Response (CoRe) Team began partnering with other community-based organizations that served these groups to hold 15 different community events between June and November. Ultimately, more than 2,000 people were screened at these events.
Virginia Garcia also provided testing resources like educational handouts, informational videos and television commercials about how to stay safe during the holiday season focused on the communities they serve.
Once the vaccine became available, the CoRe Team added vaccination events to their toolkit. Currently the team splits their time focusing on ensuring equitable access of testing and vaccinations by providing both free testing services at the Hillsboro Clinic location to anyone in the community and vaccine events targeted at providing the vaccine to individuals who would otherwise not have access.
"Our patients were the hardest hit by the pandemic," said Misty Downey, CoRe Team program manager. "The work that the CoRe Team does each week is critical to ensuring the most vulnerable populations have access to the vaccine."
Last Tuesday, Virginia Garcia had their first mobile clinic vaccination event of the season where, with the help of volunteers, vaccinated almost 300 people. These mobile vaccination clinics will be offered every Tuesday to vulnerable populations like migrant and seasonal farmworkers who would otherwise have difficulty getting to a vaccination clinic. Virginia Garcia’s goal is to provide 30,000 vaccinations in 12 weeks.
On April 13, they vaccinated another 104 individuals, even after having to change out their vaccine from Johnson & Johnson to Moderna at the last minute. The need to schedule and provide second shots will be an added challenge, but they are actively working to make arrangements with the camps and nurseries to get those second clinics scheduled.
Staying true to their commitment to the community, Virginia Garcia is working to bring equity and fair access to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Worker after being vaccinated at a mobile clinic
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Now that 16 and 17-year-olds are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, you may have questions about how this age group can get the vaccine. OHA Senior Health Advisor, Dr. Emilio DeBess discusses vaccination for this group in a short video. Click on the image below to watch.
The Center for Health Statistics is excited to offer another option for the public to order or change vital record certificates. Required order forms and supporting documentation can now be submitted in a secure drop box located at the Portland State Office Building.
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Address of Portland State Office Building: 800 NE Oregon Street Portland, OR 97232
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The drop box is located at the west door of the Portland State Office Building (located in the parking lot).
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Visit Oregon Vital Records website or watch the Drop Box video for more information on how to order by using the Drop Box.
The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report, released today, shows a fourth consecutive week of surging daily cases and higher hospitalizations than the previous week.
OHA reported 4,742 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, April 12 through Sunday, April 18. That represents a 27% increase from the previous week and marks the fourth consecutive week in which daily cases have increased by at least 20%.
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New COVID-19 related hospitalizations rose to 171, up from 156 last week.
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There were 19 reported COVID-19 related deaths.
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There were 113,817 tests for COVID-19 for the week of April 11 through April 17. The percentage of positive tests was 5.3%.
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People 70 years of age and older have accounted for 40% of COVID-19 related hospitalizations and 76% of COVID-19 related deaths.
Today’s COVID-19 Weekly Outbreak Report shows 24 active COVID-19 outbreaks in senior living communities and congregate living settings, with three or more confirmed cases and one or more COVID-19 related deaths.
There are six new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,466, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reported at 12:01 a.m. today.
OHA reported 989 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 177,134.
Today, OHA reported that 39,882 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 26,407 doses were administered on April 20 and 13,475 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on April 20. Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize.
The 7-day running average is now 33,933 doses per day.
Oregon has now administered a total of 1,369,371 doses of Pfizer, 1,153,611 doses of Moderna and 90,301 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. As of today, 1,065,266 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series. There are 1,635,625 who have had at least one dose.
To date,1,683,045 doses of Pfizer,1,411,700 doses of Moderna and 215,500 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.
Note: Reported case counts and electronic laboratory report (ELR) totals were lower than expected yesterday due to unexpected downtime of Opera, Oregon’s COVID-19 case database, which occurred during business hours. ELRs that were delayed from the downtime were processed yesterday and contribute to today’s high case count.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (6), Benton (24), Clackamas (61), Clatsop (7), Columbia (7), Coos (2), Crook (4), Curry (5), Deschutes (99), Douglas (7), Grant (10), Harney (2), Hood River (5), Jackson (93), Jefferson (3), Josephine (23), Klamath (34), Lake (3), Lane (82), Linn (33), Malheur (3), Marion (114), Morrow (3), Multnomah (167), Polk (20), Tillamook (5), Umatilla (16), Wallowa (1), Wasco (3), Washington (134) and Yamhill (13).
Oregon’s 2,461st COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old man from Douglas County who tested positive on April 16 and died on April 13 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 2,462nd COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old man from Benton County who tested positive on April 16 and died on April 19 at his residence. He had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 2,463rd COVID-19 death is a 67-year-old man from Jackson County who tested positive on March 29 and died on April 18 at Asante Ashland Community Hospital. He had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 2,464th COVID-19 death is a 42-year-old man from Jackson County who tested positive on March 25 and died on April 18 at Asante Rogue Valley Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 2,465th COVID-19 death is a 48-year-old man from Multnomah County who tested positive on March 28 and died on April 16 at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center. He had no underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 2,466th COVID-19 death is a 56-year-old man from Multnomah County who tested positive on April 1 and died on April 16 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.
COVID-19 hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 272, which is 17 more than yesterday. There are 65 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is seven 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.
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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