‘Important milestone’: Oregon reaches 1 million COVID-19 vaccinations

(Update: Adding weekly report; cases fall, deaths, hospitalizations rise)

State reports 1 more COVID-19 related death, 379 new cases

PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Oregon Health Authority announced Wednesday that 1 million Oregonians have been vaccinated with one or more doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

“Today marks an important milestone in our state. This would not have been possible without the dedication of our local public health employees, health care workers and other vaccinators around Oregon,” said OHA Director Patrick Allen. “I would also like to thank everyone who has made the effort to get a vaccine. I know in many cases it has not been easy, but you are helping to stop this disease from spreading any further.”

Vaccinations have been provided to eligible residents in every county, as Oregon continues to make steady progress in ensuring all Oregonians who wish to be vaccinated have that opportunity.

The counties showing the highest vaccination rates as of today are Baker and Wheeler counties, which have recorded 4,999 and 3,595 vaccinations per 10,000 residents respectively.

Data tracked in OHA’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS) system show for the two state’s two most populous counties, 210,194 residents in Multnomah County and 130,021 in Washington County have received at least one vaccine dose.

The highest number of administered COVID-19 vaccine doses reported on a single day to ALERT IIS took place on Feb. 26, with 35,582 doses administered.

As of today, there are 1,245 providers enrolled with the state to receive and administer COVID-19 vaccines, though not every enrolled provider has received or administered COVID-19 vaccine doses to date. The state still has greater demand and capacity to vaccinate eligible Oregonians than supplies being provided to the state.

“We continue to ensure that our vaccinations proportionately reflect the faces of our communities,” Allen said. “We have an ongoing responsibility for equitable vaccine distribution and know that our efforts should and will be a model for how we’re working to eliminate health disparities in Oregon.”

Nearly one in five Oregonians who are eligible have received at least one dose. OHA reports more than 62% of Oregonians age 65 and older have now been vaccinated. The state is also on track to vaccinate more than seven out of 10 Oregonians who are 65 and older by March 29, which is the next date that new groups become eligible statewide.

As Oregon continues its vaccine rollout, OHA encourages all Oregonians to keep taking the protective measures to help keep themselves, their families, coworkers, loved ones, friends and communities safe and healthy.

Weekly COVID-19 cases decrease; deaths and hospitalizations rise

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

OHA reported 1,920 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, March 15 through Sunday, March 21. That represents a 15% decrease from the previous week.

New COVID-19 related hospitalizations rose to 139, up from 130 last week.

Reported COVID-19 related deaths rose to 41, up from 26 last week.

There were 102,287 tests for COVID-19 for the week of March 14 through March 20 — an 8.7% increase from last week. The percentage of positive tests fell from 3.6% to 2.9%.

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 31 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.

Earlier Wednesday, OHA reported one new COVID-19 related death in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,368.

OHA also reported 379 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, bringing the state total to 162,384.

OHA reports vaccine scheduling error

On Monday, OHA’s partners at All4Oregon sent an email invitation to schedule vaccination appointments at the Oregon Convention Center to approximately 11,000 people who won’t become eligible to receive a vaccine until April 19. This was based on erroneous information supplied by OHA.

We sincerely apologize for our mistake and the confusion it has caused, the OHA said in Wednesday's update.

Since February, the Get Vaccinated Oregon team at the Oregon Health Authority has given All4Oregon the contact information of eligible people in the Portland area to coordinate scheduling at the Oregon Convention Center. On March 21, OHA included the 11,000 additional people on an eligibility list shared with All4Oregon.

Our partners at All4Oregon have committed to honoring appointments offered and made as part of our error. We, at OHA, understand how stressful the last year has been, as well as how eager we all are to get vaccinated.

OHA will continue providing All4Oregon with the contact information of eligible people in the Portland area for scheduling at the Oregon Convention Center. People in the Portland area who become eligible for a vaccine over the coming weeks can expect to receive a scheduling link from All4Oregon, if they have not already received one.

Additional counties approved for expanding vaccinations

OHA announced Wednesday that 21 Oregon counties have now submitted attestation letters signaling their intention to immediately offer COVID-19 vaccinations to expanded eligibility groups. Lane County is the newly added county.

The counties are: Baker, Benton, Deschutes, Douglas, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Malheur, Marion, Morrow, Polk, Sherman, Umatilla, Union and Yamhill.

By attesting, these counties can now begin vaccinating all individuals listed in Phase 1B, Group 6, ahead of the previously designated statewide start date of March 29.

Vaccinations in Oregon

OHA reported that 28,655 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added Wednesday to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 17,914 doses were administered on Tuesday and 10,741 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Tuesday.

Oregon has now administered a total of 782,265 first and second doses of Pfizer, 760,231 first and second doses of Moderna and 34,165 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.

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).

To date, 1,007,955 doses of Pfizer, 989,100 doses of Moderna and 60,600 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines 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 35,558 COVID-19 vaccinations given as of early Wednesday.

COVID-19 hospitalizations

The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 102, which is seven fewer than Tuesday. There are 19 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is three 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 reports one COVID-19 patient in the ICU as of 4 a.m. Wednesday, but not on a ventilator.

Cases and deaths

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Wednesday are in the following counties: Baker (6), Benton (11), Clackamas (41), Clatsop (9), Columbia (8), Coos (12), Curry (1), Deschutes (23), Douglas (5), Grant (3), Hood River (1), Jackson (45), Jefferson (1), Josephine (16), Lane (26), Lincoln (5), Linn (9), Malheur (3), Marion (36), Multnomah (63), Polk (5), Tillamook (5), Umatilla (7), Union (3), Washington (30) and Yamhill (5).

Oregon’s 2,368th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Jan. 17 and died on Feb. 15 at her residence. She had underlying conditions.

Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations

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