Oregon is redistributing vaccines as some counties are rushing to inoculate priority groups

Half of Oregon’s counties are accelerating vaccination deployment ahead of other counties, and state officials are more able to catch up with overwhelming regions such as the Portland region of the three counties. We are urging the advanced counties to temporarily reduce or withdraw vaccines.

State public health officials said redistribution was needed to get the entire state on track with priority groups for immunization.

Eighteen counties have sought to exceed 1a groups, including kindergarten-to-high school educators and healthcare professionals, caregivers, staff and caregivers. As a result, states have temporarily suspended or reduced vaccination allocations, allowing other counties to obtain more supply to complete vaccination of 1a group members.

Patrick Allen, director of health at Oregon, said the state is three-quarters of the way to vaccination of the Phase 1a group. The group is estimated to be between 300,000 and 400,000.

“I know not all counties are at the same stage,” Allen said at a press conference on Friday.

Public health officials couldn’t say at a press conference which county saw a complete shutdown of vaccine allocation as the state redirected supplies to catch up with other counties. Oregon Health officials did not respond to email follow-up requests for information about it.

Countys that have requested the movement of past teachers and 1a groups include Deschutes County and other counties, mainly Baker County, Malheur County, and Tillamook County, which stretch from eastern Oregon to the coast. In addition to the metropolitan areas of the three counties, other counties that are still vaccinated against group 1a and have a higher need for more vaccines include Umatilla, Pork and Columbia counties.

This week, the state has allowed approximately 150,000 kindergarten-to-high school educators, school support staff, early childhood instructors and associated workers to begin vaccination. This move means that older people over the age of 80 will not be vaccinated at least a second time. February week. However, this does not apply if you live in a care facility or have a caregiver at home. Since then, the state has been rolling out weekly vaccinations for younger seniors so that older people aged 65 and over can be vaccinated from the week of February 28th.

State public health officials said vaccination could be sped up if the federal government sent higher doses.

“I want to clarify,” Allen said. “Oregon has the infrastructure … the more vaccines we have, the faster we can vaccinate more people.”

To date, nearly 315,000 Oregons have started or completed the vaccination process. This requires two doses every few weeks. Of these, 63,089 are fully vaccinated.

The state wants to reach at least 70% of vaccinations in each priority group to achieve herd immunity. But so far, group vaccination rates vary from county to county.

For the elderly, the state predicts that by late April or early May, the population will be vaccinated with a “critical mass” and the next group, Phase 1b, will be able to begin in early May.

“As a state, it’s important to deal with changes in these regions,” Allen said.

Case, hospitalization plunge

The State Vaccine Advisory Board recommended on Thursday that the following four groups in the 1b category would move forward simultaneously after the state had vaccinated older people aged 65 and over.

These four groups are adults aged 16 to 64 with underlying illness, frontline workers, prisoners, and people living in low-income apartments. The state is working to define who is the frontline worker.

There are bright spots, but there are also storm clouds on the horizon.

State epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger said the state has seen a dramatic reduction in routine cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks. On December 1, there were 577 COVID-19-infected persons in a state hospital. As of Thursday, that number was 291 and was down almost 50%, Sidelinger said.

As of January 13, the infection rate was 0.81, and overall, less than one person is infected with COVID-19. Infection rates above 1.0 mean that more people will be infected with each new case and snowball to a wider range of problems.

“It’s pretty slow,” said Sidelinger.

But he said it was a “vulnerable balance” and that Oregon must continue to commit to the fight against the virus, especially when new variants of the virus enter the state.

A highly infectious British variant of the new coronavirus has emerged in Oregon along with a variant of Southern California. Oregon State University scientists said Friday They found a British stock called B.1.1.7 in Corvallis and Bend.

Oregon Health & Science University has discovered a variant in the Portland region. Earlier this month, the Oregon Department of Health reported cases in Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill County.

According to OSU, California stocks have been found in the United States since March in Corvallis, Albany, Forest Grove, Klamath Falls, Lincoln City and Silverton.

There is some evidence that California strains may block COVID-19 treatment in infected individuals who are dependent on antibodies. Mutations in British variants (and Brazilian and South African variants) that affect peplomer on the surface of the virus appear to make it more easily transmitted. There is also concern that the mutant may have some resistance to antibodies produced by existing vaccines.

The threat adds urgency to the difficult task of inoculating at least 70% of the population, which is a common benchmark for herd immunity.

(See related article: Universities are reporting more potentially problematic variants of the virus.)

State shift data release

Allen also defended the authorities’ move to reduce the daily disclosure of certain data about each person who died of COVID-19, including age. Authorities said this week when the state’s decision to vaccinate educators before the elderly is facing scrutiny, as about 90% of COVID-19 deaths involve people over the age of 60. Announced the decision after gathering criticisms of reducing information. Prior to the change, the state provided considerable details about each death, including age, whether it died at home or in the hospital, when it first tested positive for COVID-19, and whether there was an underlying illness. Was there.

Allen said the task of collecting detailed death information that the state had provided daily for almost a decade is now too “labor-intensive.” Allen said the death data would flow into a dashboard accessible to the general public to analyze trends, adding that the goal is to automate the process and free staff for other tasks. It was.

However, after Allen’s 11 am press conference, Governor Kate Brown tweeted that he had instructed health agencies to disclose all data on COVID. This includes each person’s age, where they died, whether they have an underlying health condition, and when. They tested positive.

“This allows for both daily timely updates and weekly complete and accurate information, in addition to daily data updates, including deaths reported by age group,” Brown said in a tweet. It was.

People on social media quickly pointed out that the state provided that information daily for almost a year.

“It will be even more timely for @OHAOregon to continue to provide this information every day like this week,” said a follower on Twitter.

Changes in indoor activities

Apart from this, the state on Friday allowed Indoor recreation facility to reopenAlthough there are strict restrictions.

For facilities over 500 square feet, the rules allow up to four separate groups at a time. Each group can accommodate up to 6 people, and each group must exercise in an enclosed area separate from the other groups. Up to 24 customers can be in one facility at a time. State regulations prohibit full contact sports.

Customers and staff need to practice increasing social distance. Each group can contain people from multiple households. However, members of different households must be at least 25 feet apart from each other, even if they belong to the same group.

According to Sidelinger, the rule reflects the increased risk of the virus being transmitted into the air as people breathe deeper and the masks get wet during exercise.

In a statement, 21 Planet Fitness in Oregon noted the large size of the facility and said they would like to continue to work with Brown on a solution with health authorities.

“Under the new guidelines, we are concerned that we will not be able to provide our members and guests with the fitness experience they are looking for,” the franchise owner said in a statement. “The average Planet Fitness is over 20,000 square feet and we are confident that we can provide enough distance to the fitness center so that members can safely participate in physical activity.”

Between May and November last year, there were 1.2 million check-ins at the Oregon Planet Fitness site.

Lynne Terry contributed to this report.

You can reach Benbotkin [email protected] Or on Twitter @ BenBotkin1.