By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Lincoln County and Samaritan Health Systems are getting 1,675 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the state Tuesday, allowing it to reopen registration and add a third day to mass clinics this week at the county fairgrounds in Newport.
Lincoln County Public Health paused signups for the clinics Friday after a ultra-cold freezer from the Oregon Health Authority supposed to contain the Pfizer vaccine arrived empty.
The Oregon Health Authority promised 1,675 doses Tuesday — 975 to Samaritan and 700 to the county. The two groups are organizing the clinics.
With that, the county Tuesday morning re-opened a website to schedule appointments; 300 people had already signed up last week before the pause. The clinics begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday, with the county adding another clinic Friday.
Additionally, the county decided not to follow Gov. Kate Brown’s guidance on which members of the general public should be allowed to get their shots — opening this week’s appointments to educators and people over 75 years of age, in addition to health care workers, first responders and others in the so-called Group1A. Last week, after the federal government told states that it did not have extra doses as promised, Brown changed her directive on the order of vaccinations — starting with Oregonians ages 80 and older to begin vaccinations Feb. 8, followed by ages 75-plus on Feb. 15, 70-plus on Feb. 22 and 65-plus on March 1.
Lincoln County health officials decided that was too confusing and too many small groups, and are now inviting anyone over 75 to sign up.
“Lincoln County agencies are well prepared and are able to move onto this age group sooner,” the county said in its announcement Tuesday. “We are starting with age 75 and older in our county and will update the media when we are able to open to all people age 65 and older. People 65+ are a priority group due to their higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes.”
The clinics begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at the fairgrounds. Groups of 36 people will get their vaccinations every 30 minutes, said Susan Trachsel, spokeswoman for Lincoln County Public Health.
In addition, the county announced that its public health staff and paramedics from Pacific West Ambulance will go to three assisted living facilities — Sea Aire in Yachats and Oceanview and Lakeview in Lincoln City — to vaccinate staff and residents this week. That was supposed to have been done by Walgreens, under contract with the federal government, but it had struggled with supplies and organizing the shots — so the county stepped in.
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By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Lincoln County has paused signups for two mass vaccination clinics scheduled this week in Newport after it failed to receive the medicine from the state, following the revelation that the Trump Administration had promised to release reserves of vaccines that it did not have.
Last week Lincoln County Public Health had opened an online reservation system where health care providers and teachers could make appointments to receive the vaccinations Wednesday and Thursday at the county fairgrounds. It had hoped to vaccinate nearly 1,000 people, agency spokeswoman Susan Trachsel said Sunday, and 300 had already signed up.
But when an ultra-cold freezer used for Pfizer vaccines arrived Friday from the Oregon Health Authority, Trachsel said, “it was empty.”
While the county has stopped signups, it hopes to learn Monday or Tuesday that the OHA will send the vaccines it promised.
“We’re really hopeful the state will send the vaccine,” Trachsel said. “We’re trying to move forward as though we’re going to get it. But we’re also very frustrated.”
Lincoln County Public Health had also planned on taking over for Walgreens the completion of vaccinations of residents and staff at the five long-term care facilities and nursing homes in the county. Locally, she said, Walgreens was struggling with vaccine supplies and organizing the shots. But, she said, unless the county gets more vaccines from OHA “that will have to wait.”
Last week, Gov. Kate Brown greatly increased the types and number of people — educators and Oregonians over 65 — eligible to get the vaccine after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the Trump Administration would release reserves of vaccines to states in order to more rapidly increase the rate of shots being given. Oregon expected to get 200,000 more doses, so it began promising to release vaccines it had also held in reserve.
Brown was told by the head of the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed late Thursday that no such federal reserves existed and the state’s allocation of vaccines would remain flat. In a series of tweets Friday, Brown called the development “a deception on a national scale.”
“Oregon’s seniors, teachers, all of us, were depending on the promise of Oregon’s share of the federal reserve of vaccines being released to us,” the governor said.
Three days of Samaritan clinics
The issue did not affect three days of vaccination clinics, organized by Samaritan Health Services, in Newport and Lincoln City that ended Sunday. Those clinics were also for people in the so-called Phase 1A group — workers in health and dental services, corrections, nursing homes and long-term care facilities. When signups for those occupations lagged, the county put out the word to the Lincoln County School District and the appointments quickly filled up with educators and staff.
Samaritan has already vaccinated an estimated 400 hospital and clinic staff. Pacific West Ambulance, North Lincoln Fire District, Newport Fire Department and the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office have been coordinating vaccination of first responders.
Even before last week’s developments, there were almost daily changes at the state and federal level that meant constant adjustments in plans by local health care providers to get two doses of vaccines into the arms of nearly 40,000 Lincoln County residents by the end of the summer.
In a letter to Azar, the director of the Oregon Health Authority said Friday if the state did not receive the increased shipment of doses, as promised, the ramifications could be dire.
“If true, this is extremely disturbing, and puts our plans to expand eligibility at grave risk,” Patrick Allen wrote. “Those plans were made on the basis of reliance on your statement about ‘releasing the entire supply’ you have in reserve. If this information is accurate, we will be unable to begin vaccinating our vulnerable seniors on Jan. 23, as planned.”
Instead of opening vaccinations to all residents ages 65 and older starting Jan. 23, as the governor announced days earlier, Brown said Friday she’d now allow Oregonians ages 80 and older to start vaccinations Feb. 8, followed by ages 75-plus on Feb. 15, 70-plus on Feb. 22 and 65-plus on March 1.
At the same time, Brown said she would move forward with her plans to prioritize the state’s day care, preschool and K-12 school employees — allowing them to receive vaccinations starting immediately, with most eligible beginning Jan. 25.
Trachsel said Lincoln County was ready to vaccinate residents over 65 years of age. “We just need vaccines,” she said. “Give us the vaccines and we’ll get it done.”
Sudden changes double those eligible
Statewide, the changes last week meant a more than doubling of the number of Oregonians eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination during the first phase of the rollout, according to The Lund Report, a Portland-based nonprofit which covers the health care industry.
The state’s vaccination campaign began about three weeks ago. The Phase 1A group includes 500,000 Oregonians, including hospital staff, other health care personnel, long-term care residents, dentists, emergency responders and others.
Brown’s decision to add seniors into the Phase 1A group adds 700,000 to the list of those eligible, according to the Lund Report. Educators and school staff now in the Phase 1A group added another 115,000.
The state has received about 325,000 Pfizer and Moderna doses. So far, health care providers have given more than 110,000 Oregonians one injection; 9,500 people have received both shots, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
Brown’s goal is to vaccinate 12,000 Oregonians a day – a mark reached last week, the OHA said.
The changes caused a frenzy among some members of the public who have been chafing under coronavirus restrictions for 10 months and who want to know when and where to get their shots. That led Lincoln County to re-staff its call center – first activated last June after the coronavirus outbreak at Pacific Seafood — late last week to help answer calls and questions that had been going to non-health officials and other county employees.
Was slowly ramping up
Starting with a trickle in mid-December, Lincoln County health providers had started to see a slow increase in the number of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
The Oregon Health Authority last week sent 770 doses to various providers in Lincoln County – for a total of 1,700 since distribution started three weeks ago. As of early last week, nearly 1,300 shots have been given.
Samaritan used its shipment of 670 doses for its weekend clinics. Lincoln County Public Health is getting 100 doses a week that it uses at its community health centers in Newport and Lincoln City.
The health care and emergency medical organizations in Lincoln County that are planning the clinics examined how larger, public clinics are working elsewhere, including one organized last weekend by union members and Oregon Health Science University, and Salem Health Hospital’s ongoing clinic at the state fairgrounds.
They say Lincoln County residents can help by paying attention to alerts from health organizations and understanding where they land in the state’s four-phase rollout of vaccines. These are:
- Phase 1A – which is the current focus — covers everyone from health care workers to educators and, starting Jan. 23, people over 65;
- Phase 1B includes people over 75, frontline essential workers, ranging from workers in seafood plants to grocery stores, manufacturing, and postal workers;
- Phase 1C includes adults with high-risk medical conditions, transportation workers, food service, construction, finance, legal and media.
- Phase 2 covers the general public.
If the county gets the vaccines it had been promised, Trachsel said county officials had hoped they could finish the first vaccinations of the original members of the Phase 1A group, including educators, by the end of January “if not sooner.” That would allow it to start vaccinating the many more people who are in Phase 1B.
Lincoln County will announce via its website, social media, community groups, partners and the media when it is ready to move from Phase 1A to Phase 1B.
Trachsel estimated Phase 1B vaccinations could be completed by mid-March. People in the Phase 1C group could be getting their vaccinations in April “if we’re lucky,” Trachsel said.
“It’s all dependent on how many vaccines they give us,” she said. “We’re setting up the infrastructure to get everyone through.”
The public health department also has lots of information and links on its COVID-19 and vaccine website and regular notices are sent out via the county’s emergency notification system.
The agency is also discussing with other partners how and where to set up vaccination clinics in more rural parts of the county and how to get shots to people who cannot leave their homes. It is also asking for volunteers to help at the clinics – everything from medical professionals who can help administer vaccines to monitoring patients to helping set up and tear down.
Residents of smaller communities like Yachats can expect drive-through or walk-in clinics once enough vaccine doses become available, Trachsel said.
“We’ve been planning this for a year,” she said. “We’re ready. That what public health agencies do. We’ll be ready when we get the vaccines.”