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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
I wanted to provide an update on vaccine scheduling and eligibility before the weekend.
After yesterday’s newsletter, I heard again loud and clear that scheduling a vaccine appointment has been incredibly frustrating. My office has been responding to emails from many seniors who have had challenges signing up, and I know these problems have been especially difficult in the Portland metro area.
People have been very patient – AND this needs to get better. With more individuals getting added to the eligibility pool, there’s heightened concern about access to vaccines. I hear the concern and hopefully today’s update will help.
The Oregon Health Authority is changing how people can get a vaccine at the Oregon Convention Center. Starting Monday, the appointment system will change to notifying people when they have an appointment. If you have registered to sign up for a vaccine through the Get Vaccinated Oregon tool here, which I described in this newsletter two weeks ago, the OHA will be transferring your name and information to officials working at the Oregon Convention Center. They will then contact you about an appointment. The hope is this will stop the long wait times on the phone and limit the website glitches that have made this process aggravating.
If you live in the Portland metro area, the best way to get signed up will be by registering on the Get Vaccinated Oregon website. Calling 211 is still an option, but the recommendation is to get an account through Get Vaccinated Oregon if you can.
This is late-breaking information, so there will likely be more information next week.
Additionally, you can also try the retail pharmacies for an appointment:
Lastly, staff from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will soon start supporting workers at the Oregon Convention Center, Portland International Airport, and Hillsboro Stadium vaccination sites, as well as with sites at the Deschutes and Salem fairgrounds.
Thank you to everyone who is trying to get vaccinated. Hopefully these developments will improve the process.
Today, Governor Brown and public health officials provided an update on when the remainder of Oregonians will become eligible to receive the vaccine.
Starting this coming Monday, all seniors (65 and older) will be eligible to receive the vaccine. Until March 29, Oregon will continue to only vaccinate these individuals: seniors, educators, adults in custody as required by a recent Oregon court decision, and any remaining individuals eligible in the Phase 1a category (e.g., health care workers).
The OHA has said there will continue to be shortages in our vaccine supply for the first two weeks of March. This means it will continue to be challenging to get appointments.
The good news is that this situation should be better in mid-March as more vaccines are on pace to come from the federal government. The OHA says Oregon vaccine sites can administer more than three times the number of doses they’re currently administering. Our state received about 111,000 first doses this week. The hope is that this will increase to as many as 205,000 doses per week in the coming months, which will help the state add more distribution sites.
OHA director Pat Allen said the hope is that all Oregonians will have at least their first dose by August or September.
Starting on March 29, eligibility will expand to individuals in the first wave of the 1b category. This will be:
- Adults age 45 to 64 with underlying health conditions as defined by the CDC:
- Cancer
- Chronic kidney disease
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Down syndrome
- Heart conditions (such as heart failure and coronary artery disease)
- Weakened immune state from solid organ transplant or HIV
- Obesity (body mass index of 30 or higher)
- Pregnancy
- Sickle cell disease
- Type 2 diabetes
- Seasonally-impacted frontline workers, such as migrant seasonal farm workers, seafood and agricultural workers, and food processing workers
- Currently displaced victims of the September 2020 wildfires
- Wildland firefighters
- People living in low-income and congregate senior housing
- Individuals experiencing houselessness
No later than May 1, the following groups of Oregonians will be eligible in the second wave of the 1b category:
- All other frontline workers as defined by the CDC
- Individuals age 16-45 with underlying health conditions
- Multigenerational household members
No later than June 1, Phase 2 of vaccination will begin with all adults aged 45 to 64. And, no later than July 1, all Oregonians 16 and over will be eligible to receive a vaccine.
I know this is a longer road than any of us have wanted to take. Sunday will mark the one-year anniversary since the first diagnosed COVID-19 case was identified in Oregon. Since then, we have lost more than 2,000 Oregonians. But Oregon has also been a leader, compared to other states, in controlling the spread of the virus and saving lives.
I’m hopeful scheduling challenges that have developed over the last few weeks will improve quickly. And as always, please continue all you’re doing to stop the spread, particularly as we are faced with more contagious mutations of the virus.
As Dr. Anthony Fauci has said, viruses don't mutate unless they replicate. If you can prevent them from replicating, then you will diminish the potential of their mutating.
- The Oregon Health Authority announced 336 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing the statewide total of new and presumptive cases to 154,878. The OHA also reported two more deaths, meaning 2,206 Oregonians have died of the coronavirus. As of today, 317,267 Oregonians have been fully vaccinated. There have been 911,644 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
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