By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
More than 500 people on a long waiting list to get their COVID-19 shot will be able to do so Friday in another mass vaccination clinic at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds in Newport.
Lincoln County Public Health is pooling vaccine doses it is getting this week from the state with supplies from community partners to get 545 doses and clear up the waiting list that developed when people tried to sign up for three days of clinics last week at the fairgrounds. The county is contacting people still on the waiting list.
It’s also the “one last chance” for people in the so-called 1A group – health care and corrections workers and educators, for example – before moving on to residents over 75, said Susan Trachsel, LCPH spokeswoman.
More than 1,400 people got their first dose of the Moderna vaccine during those clinics last week.
Trachsel said the county is also looking for appropriate places to hold vaccination clinics in south Lincoln County and in Lincoln City.
“As soon as we get a more steady supply we need to expand the clinics,” she said. “But it’s hard to do if you don’t know what’s coming week to week.”
Lincoln County health officials say they have the plan, the partners and enough volunteers to stage mass clinics and reach into all the rural areas of the county if it could just get enough vaccines, an issue that has plagued providers nationwide.
“We’re just trying to ramp up,” Trachsel told YachatsNews. “We just need to get the vaccines.
The county has hired two people on temporary contracts to help – someone to oversee the vaccination clinics and another person to coordinate the many volunteers who are stepping up to help.
“We have lots of people volunteering,” Trachsel said.
She said the Oregon Health Authority is trying to move to a three-week cycle for vaccine distribution to help county health departments plan better. Currently, Lincoln County is being told each Friday the number of vaccine vials it is getting for the next week.
“It’s hard to plan,” Trachsel said. “The demand for this is huge. The phones are going nuts.”
Below is the story from last week’s clinics:
Samaritan Health Systems nurse Debra Fuller gives Signature Heathcare employee Micaela Kummer a dose of the Moderna vaccine Wednesday during the first day of a three-day mass vaccination clinic at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds in Newport.
By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The vaccinations couldn’t come soon enough for Micaela Kummer and Doug Dally on Wednesday.
Kummer works for Signature Healthcare, which provides home health care for clients in Lincoln County. Dally has a heart condition that would put him at great risk if he caught COVID-19.
The two were among the first 36 of more than 1,600 people scheduled to get their their first dose of the Moderna vaccine this week at a three-day mass clinic organized by Lincoln County Public Health, Samaritan Health Services and other local health partners.
“We’re super eager and excited,” Kummer said. “It gives us a sense of relief. We’re excited for everyone to get it and protect our community a little bit more.”
It almost didn’t happen.
The county was promised 970 Pfizer doses last week, but the Oregon Health Authority was not able to deliver them as expected Friday when the state learned that promised federal supplies did not really exist. The Newport clinic already had 300 people signed up – but everything was put on hold until Tuesday, when two shipments totaling 1,675 doses of the Moderna vaccine arrived.
The county re-opened registration for appointments at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, filled three days of vaccination appointments by noon and had a waiting list of 600 by the end of the day.
Debra Fuller gives a dose of the Moderna vaccine to Doug Dally of Newport on Wednesday.
Dally said he had some concerns when he found out that the OHA was still encouraging clinics to use Moderna batches despite reports in California – and two in Oregon – of adverse reactions to a particular batch of the vaccine.
“But it would be worse if I caught COVID,” Dally said.
The Oregon Health Authority is recommending use of nearly 27,000 doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine, The Oregonian newspaper reported Wednesday, using guidance they received from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
State officials did not say when they received that guidance from the CDC about Moderna’s vaccine lot 041L20A, a batch of about one million doses distributed nationwide.
California on Sunday halted inoculations from that batch after fewer than 10 people “appeared to be experiencing a possible severe allergic reactions” at the same vaccination clinic. Oregon is investigating two adverse reactions among people vaccinated from the same lot.
Oregon has received 57,400 doses from that batch across 118 locations, according to state officials, The Oregonian reported. As of Wednesday, 26,567 remained locally.
People showed up early to clinic
In Newport on Wednesday, people showed up two hours early to get in line – even though they had appointments to get their shots starting at 10 a.m.
Temperatures get checked at the front door of the Commons building at the county fairgrounds. Then comes a packet of material explaining the vaccine. If the person has all their paperwork filled out in advance they are escorted to a table placed around the main hall.
There they wait until a Samaritan nurse comes and quickly administers the shot. People are escorted to an adjacent room to schedule their second shot in four weeks, then sit and wait for 15 or 30 minutes to see if they have an adverse reaction. A Pacific West Ambulance paramedic is stationed nearby.
The process repeats itself with a new group of 36 people every 30 minutes.
Lincoln County Public Health already had plans developed over the years for mass clinics. But it has also been studying and picking up tips from vaccination operations at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem, two large clinics in Portland and elsewhere.
The clinic vaccinated 494 people Wednesday, Susan Trachsel, spokeswoman for Lincoln County Public Health, said Thursday.
Organizers stayed two hours past the 4 p.m. scheduled closing time to administer additional doses as it called in more people after finding nurses were getting 11-12 doses per vial instead of 10. There were also 75 cancellations or no-shows, Trachsel said, so as those became evident schedulers got on the phone to notify people on the waiting list.
“It’s working well,” said Trachsel. “We have a great group of community partners.”
The biggest problem Lincoln County clinic organizers have is not enough vaccines and not knowing from week-to-week how much they might be getting.
“We just don’t know how many more vaccines are coming our way,” LCPH deputy director Florence Pourtal told county commissioners Tuesday. “The moment we know vaccines are coming we will alert people.”
Trachsel said the county is not certain if or when it gets enough doses to hold large clinics. The health department is assured of a small supply of 100 doses a week, which allows it to administer doses at its two health clinics and reach out to people in places such as group homes and the corrections system, for example.
But not knowing when more vaccines might arrive makes it difficult to schedule and get notice to the public when larger clinics will operate.
Trachsel said LCPH will keep its operation set up at the fairgrounds so it alert the public quickly each week if it learns more vaccines are on the way.
More … “if the federal supplies come through”
The OHA is currently receiving 100,000 doses a week of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines; half of those are earmarked for the second of the two-dose regimen. Its projection of supplies shows no increase in that rate through February.
Jonathan Modie, a spokesman for the OHA, said the agency recognizes the week-to-week challenges of getting a set number of vaccines and planning clinics “such as the one in Newport.”
“That said, OHA recognizes the value of such events, and we are prioritizing our allocations of vaccine doses to high-volume sites such as these, as they definitely demonstrate how efficiently high-capacity vaccination clinics can immunize large numbers of people,” Modie said in an email.
Modie said the first few weeks of clinics vaccinating the first so-called Group 1A of people “will establish a solid foundation that will enable us to move into the next phase (vaccinating educators starting Jan. 25, then seniors starting Feb. 8) … if federal supplies come through, that is.”
But, Lincoln County has 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.”
In addition, the county announced this week that its public health staff and paramedics from Pacific West Ambulance will go to three assisted living facilities — Sea Aire in Yachats on Friday and Oceanview and Lakeview in Lincoln City on Thursday — to vaccinate staff and residents. 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.
The county estimates finishing those vaccinations will take 390 doses. It is also working on getting to residents of group homes and others – mostly homebound or without transportation — in the county who may not be able to get to a mass, public clinic.
