The COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna were released faster than any vaccine in history.  Luckily for people in the U.S., that speed didn’t replace integrity.

The COVID-19 vaccines were evaluated extensively in large-scale clinical trials. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires rigorous safety testing before it will approve any vaccine. Tens of thousands of people from many backgrounds and ages, including Oregonians, participated in vaccine testing.

Even though vaccines were approved quickly by use of an Emergency Use Authorization, the safety testing performed by the manufacturer generated sufficient evidence to convince the FDA that the vaccines were safe and effective.

To learn more about the vaccine review process, visit our vaccine webpage here and click on the image below for a CDC video about the process.

Vaccination sites across the state are now keeping up with Governor Kate Brown’s goal of administering 12,000 vaccinations per day. Oregon first hit the mark on    Jan. 8 with 12,039 total doses administered and tallied a record-high 15,094 doses administered on Jan. 15. For the seven-day-period of Jan. 12 through Jan. 18, Oregon averaged 12,289 vaccinations per day.

Oregon is now a week ahead of schedule in vaccinating our Phase 1a health care workers, first responders and people who live or work in nursing homes and other long-term care residences, with nearly two out of three people within Phase 1a already vaccinated. Child care providers and teachers can still plan to get vaccinated starting the week of Jan. 25, and people 80 and older will be eligible beginning on Feb. 8. To learn more about your eligibility for a COVID-19 vaccine, visit our COVID-19 webpage and start a chat with our Vaccine Information Tool.

You can also get an update about COVID-19 vaccinations by watching our COVID-19 Vaccine: Live Q&A

Two adverse events were linked to a specific lot of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine shipped to Oregon. OHA continues to monitor adverse events following administration of all COVID-19 vaccinations and is currently investigating two adverse events at separate sites linked to this Moderna lot. The people who experienced these adverse side effects have since reported to OHA they have recovered.

State health officials in Oregon recommend that local vaccination sites continue to administer COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna Lot 041L20A, after the state’s immunization program received advice from federal officials to continue to dispense the doses. Moderna Lot 041L20A is associated with six adverse events at a single site in California.

Local vaccination sites are expected to monitor patients for 15 minutes after vaccination, or 30 minutes for people with history of an immediate allergic reaction to a vaccine or injectable therapy and people with a history of anaphylaxis due to any cause.  They are also expected to have supplies on hand to respond to any adverse events.

See the news release for more details.

To learn more about the vaccine review process, visit our vaccine webpage here.

There are 24 new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 1,832, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

Oregon Health Authority reported 704 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, bringing the state total to 135,142.

Vaccinations in Oregon: Today, OHA reported that 13,694 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 8,570 vaccine doses were administered on Jan. 19 and 5,124 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Jan. 19.

Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the state’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).

Oregon has now administered a cumulative total of 238,760 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. All vaccinations were administered by Oregon hospitals, long-term care facilities, emergency medical service (EMS) agencies, urgent care facilities and Local Public Health Authorities (LPHAs).

To date, 436,250 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.

These data are preliminary and subject to change. OHA’s dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data and Oregon’s dashboard has been updated today.

COVID-19 hospitalizations: The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 336, which is eight more than yesterday. There are 90 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is two fewer than yesterday.

The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity.

More information about hospital capacity can be found here.

NOTE: Death details are being reviewed and will be posted in an updated version of this press release.

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (3), Benton (21), Clackamas (36), Clatsop (6), Coos (12), Crook (7), Deschutes (38), Douglas (17), Harney (3), Hood River (6), Jackson (38), Jefferson (7), Josephine (15), Klamath (16), Lake (4), Lane (53), Lincoln (4), Linn (26), Malheur (29), Marion (83), Morrow (4), Multnomah (99), Polk (22), Tillamook (2), Umatilla (53), Union (7), Wallowa (1), Wasco (6), Washington (60) and Yamhill (26).