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OHA Director Pat Allen speaking at today's news conference: "I want give you an update on how we ramped up to reach @OregonGovBrown's target of 12,000 vaccinations and our plans to sustain that effort as we move forward."
"I also want to tell you how we plan to offer vaccinations to educators and people over 65 – despite our disappointment that the federal government has told us they cannot fully deliver on the doses they’ve promised Oregon."
“We’ve seen how chaotic the expansion of vaccinations has been to seniors in other states. We are taking steps to anticipate and mitigate similar challenges here.”
"We’re going to take a different approach that stays true to our strategy to prioritize the hardest-hit and most at-risk, based on data. But the approach we take completely depends on Oregon getting a reliable supply of doses from the federal government."
"I also want to share some new tools Oregonians can use to learn when they can expect to be vaccinated and where they can go to get immunized."
“And please hear this: I want to underscore the importance of keeping our commitment to priority communities in phase 1a, especially people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”
"First, I want to echo Governor Brown’s disappointment that the federal government is not actually able to provide the additional doses Secretary Azar pledged earlier this week."
"In Oregon, we expected to receive about 200,000 doses, which would have sped the vaccinations of educators and seniors. I wrote Sec. Azar last night to tell him how troubled I am by this development and to ask HHS to clarify. So far, I haven't received a response."
"While I’m deeply disappointed to learn the federal government may not actually have the reserves Secretary Azar promised, we intend to fulfill our commitment to educators and seniors. We’ll need to adjust our timelines."
"Today, Oregon added a total of 26,936 additional COVID-19 vaccinations to the state’s vaccine registry. Of these, 10,618 first & second doses were reported yesterday – and that total will grow as additional vaccinations that occurred on Jan. 14th are reported to the registry."
"Oregon vaccination sites have administered a total of 173,073 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Oregon is tied for 24th in the nation in vaccines distributed at 39%. The nat'l. average is 36%. We're 30th in the nation in the % of our pop. vaccinated at 2.8%."
“Based on this metric, we’re also ahead of all our surrounding neighbors in Washington, California, Idaho and Nevada.”
"I know we all want vaccinations to go faster in Oregon, despite the fact these data show we’re in line with most states – and ahead of all our neighbors. I want vaccinations to go faster too."
"We should have recognized that our well-tested and high-performing system for distributing flu vaccines would not translate to the demands of distributing the COVID-19 vaccines."
"We should have anticipated the unique challenges these new vaccines posed. For example, we needed a better hub system to distribute the new vaccines, with their ultra-cold storage requirements and time-limited handling demands."
"We should have anticipated the challenges we’d face in vaccinating the wide range of groups in Phase 1A. We needed to recognize we’d have to work with many sites that had little experience organizing vaccinations."
"We needed to provide better training to partners. They needed to know more about what to expect when vaccines arrived, so they could quickly organize roll-outs."
"They needed to better understand how to log their data, so Oregon’s numbers weren’t artificially depressed by slow data entry and we could make more informed allocation decisions."
"We’ve adjusted. Like the virus, COVID-19 vaccines have presented us with unprecedented difficulties. But, in the same way Oregonians are making changes in their lives to keep each other safe, our health care and public health systems are adapting to administer vaccines faster."
"In the space of a month, we are building new systems for administering vaccines and connecting people to vaccination sites."
"Oregon isn’t alone – as we climb the state rankings in the pace of distributing the vaccines, it becomes clearer and clearer that other states are struggling in similar ways."
"But here, the changes we announced last week to speed up the pace of Oregon’s COVID-19 vaccinations efforts has paid off, especially our decisions to simplify the prioritization rules for Phase 1A groups and to streamline the supply allocation process."
"As a result, the number of doses administered per day over the past week more than doubled and we met Governor Brown’s goal to deliver 12,000 doses per day. On Mon. Jan. 4, when the Governor announced her target, Oregon vaccination sites administered 5,142 doses."
"On Fri. Jan. 8th, after we simplified the prioritization process for people in Phase 1A & delivered more doses to high-throughput locations, such as Salem Health’s clinic at the state fairgrounds, sites admin. 12,283 doses. On Jan. 12 & 13, 12,171 & 13,100 doses respectively."
"But let’s be clear. The state can’t achieve our goal to deliver vaccinations quickly, efficiently and equitably, all on its own."
"I’m grateful for the hard work that nurses, schedulers, data analysts and so many other staff in hospitals, local health clinics, tribal health centers and other sites have put into ramping up vaccinations for Oregonians."
"As of today, Oregon has vaccinated ~40% of the Phase 1A population. We expect ~56% ppl in Phase 1A groups – or 225,000 health care workers, first responders and staff and residents in long-term care facilities – if vaccinations continue at our current rate by Jan. 23."
"We expect to have vaccinated approximately 300,000 people in Phase 1A groups, or three-quarters of people eligible, by Jan. 30."
"Between now and January 23rd, when educators and seniors become eligible for vaccinations, we will continue to improve data reporting with ongoing support to local vaccination sites and encourage sites to quickly draw down their remaining inventory of doses on hand."
"We'll also prioritize our allocations of vaccine doses to high-volume, high-throughput sites. In coming weeks, we are coordinating with hospitals and local public health partners to drive doses to large-scale vaccination clinics throughout the state, like @salemhealth's."
"We'll expand vaccinations to people at highest-risk in Phase 1A."
"Announced last wk., we will leverage our partnerships to bring mobile vaccination clinics to homes serving people w/ intellectual & dev. disabilities, adult foster homes, behav. health programs & other group settings that serve vulnerable ppl."
"I want to be clear: Oregon has a plan to vaccinate seniors and educators. But our plan is entirely contingent on receiving the doses of COVID-19 the federal government has promised states."
"On Tuesday Secretary Azar pledged to send states: ‘the full reserve of doses available … that have been held in physical reserve.’”
"If Oregon does not receive those doses, our timeline for quickly vaccinating educators and seniors is in jeopardy because states like Oregon have not been provided adequate supplies of vaccine from the federal government."
"In Oregon, we estimate there are approximately
100,000 educators and other staff who work in childcare, early learning and K-12 schools, and nearly 800,000 Oregonians 65 and older."
100,000 educators and other staff who work in childcare, early learning and K-12 schools, and nearly 800,000 Oregonians 65 and older."
"Until we received yesterday’s news, Oregon expected to receive between 135,000 and 225,000 Pfizer and Moderna second doses released from the federal reserve supply."
"That increased allocation would have increased Oregon’s supply from an expected 154,000 doses we knew we’d get next week to approximately 282,000 doses in total."
"With that surge supply – and our expected regular allotment of doses in coming weeks – we planned to stage a phased roll-out of vaccinations for seniors in the coming weeks. Once again, we need to adjust."
"We know we have far more educators and seniors than we have doses per week. We know that many seniors have been frustrated in other states that have expanded vaccinations to older adults."
"We'll open vaccinations to educators starting Jan. 25th, recognizing that a handful of counties have plans to begin slowly vaccinating their teachers this week depending on supply. We hope to vaccinate most educators w/in 2 weeks, but that depends on the doses we receive."
"We're taking an evidence-based approach to vaccinating Oregon seniors, that’s consistent with our principles of prioritizing people who are hardest-hit and most at risk. We propose to vaccinate seniors in 4 waves, if supplies allow."
"Wave 1: Seniors 80+. This population represents approximately 30% of COVID-19 deaths in Oregon. This initial wave will be eligible for vaccination starting Feb. 8th. Wave 2: Seniors 75+. Wave 3: Seniors 70+. Wave 4: We would expand eligibility to all Oregonians 65+."
"While we want to vaccinate seniors as soon as we can, our ability to immunize this vulnerable population solely depends on getting enough doses from the federal government. We'll do everything we can to make vaccinations easier to get for everyone who’s eligible."
"We’ll continue to encourage everyone eligible in Phase 1A to get a vaccination, as we open vaccinations to educators and seniors, and prioritize our vaccine allocations to high throughput vaccination sites."
"I appreciate the efforts of hospitals and other partners to organize these efforts. Right now, we have more interest than we have vaccines to provide. However, all the organizational work underway will help widen the pipeline as we receive additional vaccine supplies."
"In February, we asked to be included in a federal pharmacy program that will enable eligible Oregonians to go to certain retail pharmacies to obtain a COVID-19 vaccination. These allocations will be in addition to Oregon’s state allocation."
"In addition, we’ll continue to pursue state-level partnerships to expand the universe of retail pharmacy options for Oregonians."
"It’s not just important for give people more options to get vaccinated, we want to tell them when, where and how they can get immunized."
"Today on our website ( http://covidvaccine.oregon.gov ), people will find a new personalized, interactive guide that tells you if you're eligible based on your age and occupation, where you can get a vaccine based on your local county and vaccine facts and answers to your vaccine Qs."
"Next week, Oregonians will also be able to call and talk to someone who can direct them to vaccination events. We will have this call center available in coming days, before we expand vaccination eligibility to teachers."
"As we go forward, we’ll share information about other tools Oregonians can use to stay informed and receive alerts about their eligibility for a vaccine and where they can go to get immunized."
"I want to make this additional point clear: We continue to manage our stocks to ensure that people who receives a first does has their second dose set-aside for them. People should keep that fact in mind when they look at the doses on hand at vaccination sites."
