Volunteers sought as Deschutes County’s mass vaccination site ramps up

There are roles for medical, non-medical residents to help out

REDMOND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Over the past week, the Deschutes County Fairgrounds vaccination site has been able to give COVID-19 doses to more than 4,000 Central Oregonians, including about 3,000 educators.

The vaccination site is a regional effort between St. Charles Health System, the Deschutes County Health Services and the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office.

More than 100 volunteers have been helping the vaccination site reach its goals.

“Volunteers will continue to be important, and probably become more important as this goes on,” Lt. Nathan Garibay told NewsChannel 21 on Monday.

And more help is needed. The health department is asking for medical and non-medical professionals to volunteer.

If you have a medical license, you can help with vaccinations, and if you're a non-clinical citizen, you can help with site organization and clerical work. You can find the application website here.

"As we keep going, people are working long days and extra shifts, and if we can fill some of those spots with volunteers, that gives our workforce a little bit of rest," Garibay said.

"We also have a number of volunteer positions that are really designed to help support the operation, like getting people checked in okay and helping the flow of people through the clinic."

Garibay added that patience is most important now.

"We have had rumors where people have been told to show up at the end of the day, they will vaccinate you -- unfortunately, that is just not true," Garibay said. "Our clinics are based on a very specific number of doses that we prepare that day, based on the appointments we have and that's done to prevent waste -- because the last thing we want is waste."