|
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
In addition to the weekly updates, today’s spotlight will be on how eligible Oregonians can sign up to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Folks have been really patient with all the confusion (thank you!), so I hope this information provides some clarity.
On Monday of this week, vaccine eligibility was expanded to Oregonians who are at least 80 years old. For people who have been able to get appointments this week, I was glad to hear about the smooth process many experienced at the Oregon Convention Center and the drive-thru option at the Portland Airport.
There are about 168,000 Oregonians older than 80 in the state, and there were 20,000 doses allocated statewide this week for that population due to the continued limited vaccine supply around the country. The state is also continuing to distribute vaccines to individuals in Phase 1A, educators, tribal populations, and (following a federal court ruling) adults in prison custody.
We will all have to be patient over these coming months as the federal government works to increase the number of vaccines coming to the states.
Here is the timeline for additional age groups becoming eligible:
You can sign up for appointments through a “chatbot” on the Oregon Health Authority COVID-19 Vaccine website. The chatbot, which is available in English and Spanish, will ask you questions to determine if you are eligible and then help you make an appointment. You can find the chatbot here by clicking on the orange circle at the bottom right of the webpage.
Click the orange circle in the bottom right to open the chatbot, which will ask you a series of questions to determine whether you are eligible to receive the vaccine.
If you are eligible and appointments are available at a given location, like they are currently at Legacy Woodburn Health Center in Marion County, you’ll get taken to a screen like this that gives you time slots to sign up for:
As of now, if you are searching for a vaccine appointment at the Oregon Convention Center, new appointments have been booked but will be opened on a weekly basis based on vaccine supply.
I’d also suggest checking out the Get Vaccinated Oregon tool, which can be found here. The tool can do the following things:
- Tell you if you are currently eligible to receive a vaccine.
- Send you alerts with important vaccine eligibility updates.
- Help you find a vaccination provider when you are eligible.
Once you go through the questionnaire to determine whether or not you are eligible, you will be able to sign up for vaccine eligibility updates and vaccination provider information.
To get these updates, you will be asked to provide your name, contact information, whether this will be your first COVID-19 vaccine dose, and if you are willing to answer questions about your age, gender, race, and ethnicity. Don’t forget to check the box that reads “Create profile with this info.” This will allow you to create a password so you can log in each time you use the Get Vaccinated Oregon tool.
The locator map is currently only listing mass vaccination sites that have time slot openings. Hopefully, providers will soon be able to include their own locations and events in the map.
This tool does not allow you to schedule a vaccination appointment, but can lead you to some of these links for more general information on vaccines:
- Go here to find county-by-county vaccine information.
- Go here to see a map of vaccine sites.
- Go here to see frequently asked questions.
- Go here to see the K-12 Educator and Staff FAQ.
- Go here for frequently asked questions for older adults.
Additionally, you can call 211 or 1-866-698-6155 (open 6 am-7 pm daily) and an operator will help you through this process. Wait times may be long due to high call volumes, and you can choose the option for a call back instead of waiting on hold.
While my office can’t fix everything, if you have specific feedback on how things are going, please email my office. We can compile that feedback and pass it along to OHA.
We saw some really encouraging developments in the latest Oregon Health Authority COVID-19 Weekly Report, which can be read in full here. Below are some of the highlights:
- During Monday, February 1, through Sunday, February 7, 2021, OHA recorded 4,049 new cases of COVID-19 infection, a 15% decrease from the previous week’s total and the lowest weekly total in 3 months.
- This occurred in the face of a 6% drop in testing, along with a decrease in test positivity: 4.2% of those tested during the past week had a positive result, the lowest proportion testing positive since the week of November 15–21.
- Patients newly hospitalized with COVID-19 also fell 8% to 230 patients.
- There were 66 Oregonians who died in association with COVID-19, the lowest weekly tally since the week of November 16–22.
This is great news. Your efforts and sacrifices are paying off. Thank you!
These last couple of months have been really hard. We’ve lost nearly 475,000 Americans to this virus, and Oregon recently exceeded 2,000 deaths.
Despite everything, I hope you stay hopeful with me. We’ll get through this.
As COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths have continued to decrease, Governor Brown this week updated the County Risk Levels across the state, which also go into effect tomorrow. Twelve counties improved in risk level, with 10 improving from Extreme Risk for the first time since November.
The three Portland metro counties (Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas) were among the 10 counties to improve, moving from Extreme Risk to High Risk. This means restaurants in these counties will be able to return to indoor dining and gyms can reopen with capacity limits. Restaurants can be filled to 25% capacity or 50 people, whichever is fewer. Groups are limited to six people from no more than two households. Similarly, gyms can allow up to 50 people inside, or 25% of capacity, whichever is fewer. More guidance details can be found here.
Here is the list of new County Risk Levels, as of Friday, February 12. These levels will be reassessed in two weeks.
Extreme Risk (14): Benton, Coos, Crook, Jackson, Jefferson, Josephine, Lane, Malheur, Marion, Polk, Umatilla, Union, Wasco, Yamhill
High Risk (11): Clackamas (moved from Extreme), Clatsop (moved from Extreme), Columbia (moved from Extreme), Deschutes (moved from Extreme), Douglas, Hood River (moved from Extreme), Klamath (moved from Extreme), Linn (moved from Extreme), Lincoln, Multnomah (moved from Extreme), Washington (moved from Extreme)
Moderate Risk (2): Lake (moved from Lower), Morrow (moved from Extreme)
Lower Risk (9): Baker (moved from High), Curry, Gilliam, Grant (moved from Moderate), Harney, Sherman, Tillamook, Wallowa, Wheeler
These developments, while encouraging, do not mean it’s time to let our guard down.
This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend wearing two masks in order to protect against more contagious coronavirus variants. Multiple new mutations have been detected in Oregon, and the variant from the United Kingdom was recently detected in a student at the University of Washington.
Please do not presume you are immune because you’ve already recovered from COVID-19. We’re continuing to learn new information about these mutations and need to keep our guard up, especially as more counties gradually reopen. Otherwise, more lives will be at risk and we’ll see more counties go back to the Extreme Risk level.
Reminder – the House Special Committee on Wildfire Recovery will take virtual public testimony at 5:30 pm on Monday and Wednesday next week to hear from Oregonians impacted by the Labor Day wildfires. Testimony will be organized by each region of the state affected by the wildfires. Please note the date and time window for testimony from your region.
I was frustrated to read this story from Jefferson Public Radio about the high number of disaster assistance claims Oregonians have made to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that have been denied.
If you or someone you know has had their claim denied, you may be able to correct the reasons for the denial. Applicants could potentially have been deemed ineligible for up to 12 different types of assistance and each type has its own set of requirements for eligibility. The denial could have been due to missing documents or incorrect information. A list of contacts to replace documents is available here. Don't reapply for assistance, as duplicate applications may need to be reviewed as possible fraud.
If you are experiencing food scarcity and need emergency food, the Oregon Food Bank works with a statewide network of partner agencies to distribute food to hungry people. For more information, go here.
Help is also available for counseling. The Safe+Strong Helpline is available for both children and adults who are struggling with stress, anxiety or other disaster-related depression-like symptoms. For help, call 800-923-4357 or visit the Safe+Strong website here.
-
Project Turnkey is a critical tool to address both the housing crisis during the pandemic and help Oregonians who have been displaced by the wildfires. Kudos to the communities who are utilizing the emergency funding the state approved last year to purchase motels for transitional housing. Oregon Public Broadcasting covered a $5 million motel purchase approved in Bend here and The Oregonian covered a $4.2 million purchase in Ashland here.
- I’m glad Representative Paul Holvey (D-Eugene) has introduced House Bill 2009 to provide foreclosure protections through the end of August, which The Oregonian covered here. We have to learn from the policy mistakes of the Great Recession and keep Oregonians housed.
- Governor Brown announced the Oregon Health Authority will be revising its guidance for outdoor sports, as well as the exemption for college sports. Outdoor contact sports can resume this week based on county risk levels and under heightened health and safety protocols, as The Oregonian reported here.
- The Statesman Journal reported here the City of Detroit will receive a $1 million grant to restore running water. The town's water treatment facility burned during last year's Labor Day fires.
- Kudos to Senator Michael Dembrow (D-Southeast Portland) for his amazing commitment to his daily COVID-19 emails since the start of the pandemic, as covered here by Willamette Week.
- The Oregon Health Authority reported 621 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing the statewide total of new and presumptive cases to 149,082. The OHA also reported 12 more deaths, meaning 2,056 Oregonians have died of the coronavirus. As of today, 163,406 Oregonians have been fully vaccinated. There have been 623,907 total doses administered. You can click the images below for links to interactive data tables about coronavirus and vaccines in Oregon.
To read past newsletters, you can go to this link. For up to date information, please check this link to the Oregon Health Authority where regular updates are posted: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ERD/Pages/News-Releases.aspx
Please email me at Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov if you have specific concerns that have not been addressed by the OHA. Our office will do all we can to help and protect all Oregonians.
Thank you for reading! We will get through this together.
Best,
Tina Kotek
State Representative
House District 44
Speaker of the House
email: Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1200
address: 900 Court St NE, H-269, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kotek
| 
