Oregon will open COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to all adults on May 1

(Update: Weekly report shows more cases, fewer deaths, hospitalizations)

Outdoor capacity limits revised; state reports 3 more deaths, 239 cases

PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen said Wednesday that that all Oregonians 16 and older will be eligible to seek vaccines on May 1.

"In Oregon, every single adult will be eligible for a vaccine on May 1 -- which does not mean they will get a vaccine on May 1, but they will be eligible," Allen said during a Wednesday interview with OPB.

KGW obtained this statement from the governor's office:

It is welcome news for all Oregonians that the Biden-Harris administration has secured the vaccine production agreements needed for everyone 16 and over in the United States to be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine by May 1.

We look forward to partnering with the federal government to ensure that Oregon and our local health partners have the vaccine supplies and federal support necessary to implement this directive.

We are following up with the administration for more specifics about when vaccine shipments to states will increase, but in a briefing with governors earlier this week, it was clear the White House has worked hard to secure additional vaccine supplies for states in the coming weeks.

We will continue to center equity in all of our vaccine distribution efforts, whether that means ensuring that seniors, people with underlying conditions, frontline workers, and the Oregonians most vulnerable to COVID-19 have the opportunity for vaccinations prior to May 1––or after May 1, working with local health partners to ensure these priority groups continue to have access to appointments.

Meanwhile, OHA reported three new COVID-19 related deaths on Wednesday, raising the state's death toll to 2,349. It also reported 239 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19, bringing the state's total to 160,259.

Oregon counties have new outdoor capacity limits for outdoor recreation, outdoor entertainment

Under the direction of Governor Kate Brown, outdoor capacity limits are now updated for outdoor recreation and fitness, and outdoor entertainment for Oregon counties.

As of Wednesday, outdoor entertainment establishments and outdoor recreation and fitness establishments in all Oregon counties may allow the following:

• Lower risk: Maximum 50% occupancy
• Moderate risk: Maximum 25% occupancy
• High risk: Maximum 15% occupancy
• Extreme risk: Maximum 50 people

Previously, there were numerical capacity limits for all four risk levels, from 75 to 300 people for High, Moderate and Lower Risk. Oregon restaurants and bars recently also asked to move to percentage occupancy guidelines, but no such changes were announced for those facilities.

For updated outdoor capacity limits, please refer to the Sector Risk Level Guidance Chart.

Vaccinations in Oregon

OHA reported that 15,289 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added Wednesday to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 7,849 doses were administered on Tuesday and 7,440 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Tuesday.

Wednesday's vaccine totals are lower than usual due to an outage in the ALERT IIS system that affected several states. It is anticipated that the number of doses from March 15 and 16 will increase over the coming days as providers catch up on submitting data to ALERT IIS.

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 1,363,311 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. To date, 1,777,145 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 Wednesday.

St. Charles Health System reported having given 33,270 COVID-19 vaccinations as of early Wednesday.

COVID-19 hospitalizations

The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 108, which is 11 fewer than Tuesday. There are 29 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is four more than Tuesday.

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.

St. Charles Bend reported 11 COVID-19 patients as of 4 a.m. Wednesday, two of whom were in the ICU but not on a ventilator.

Weekly COVID-19 cases increase, deaths, hospitalizations decline

The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report, released today, shows increased daily cases and declines in hospitalizations and deaths from the previous week.

OHA reported 2,272 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, March 8 through Sunday, March 14. That represents a 31% increase from the previous week.

New COVID-19 related hospitalizations also dropped to 130, down from 139 last week.

Reported COVID-19 related deaths dropped to 26, down from 86 last week.

There were 94,079 tests for COVID-19 for the week of March 7 through March 13 — a 27% drop from last week. The percentage of positive tests was sharply higher, at 3.6%.

People 70 years of age and older have accounted for 40% of COVID-19 related hospitalizations and 77% of COVID-19 related deaths.

Wednesday’s COVID-19 Weekly Outbreak Report shows 37 active COVID-19 outbreaks in senior living communities and congregate living settings, with three or more confirmed cases and one or more COVID-19 related deaths.

OHA provides downloadable vaccination data

OHA is now providing access to download the data that powers our vaccination dashboards as a CSV or Excel file. OHA currently posts summary tables for all existing COVID-19 case dashboards that are featured on weekdays, and OHA will now do the same for the vaccine dashboard.

The vaccine summary table is available here.

Cases and deaths

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Wednesday are in the following counties: Baker (1), Benton (5), Clackamas (15), Clatsop (7), Columbia (2), Coos (10), Crook (1), Curry (1), Deschutes (7), Douglas (8), Grant (6), Jackson (25), Jefferson (2), Josephine (16), Klamath (2), Lane (16), Lincoln (3), Linn (6), Malheur (3), Marion (26), Morrow (1), Multnomah (24), Polk (1), Tillamook (3), Umatilla (13), Union (1), Washington (28), Wheeler (2) and Yamhill (4).

Oregon’s 2,347th COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on March 5 and died on March 14. Location of death is being confirmed. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,348th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old man in Washington County who tested positive on Feb. 28 and died on March 13 at his residence. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,349th COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old woman in Josephine County who tested positive on March 8 and died on March 16 at her residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations

To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit our web page, which has a breakdown of distribution and other useful information.