HR Public Health - COVID Vaccination Update
Engage the Gorge
Published · 15h ·
Today's Hood River County meeting just wrapped up after a LONG discussion on their compensation strategy and how to use county comparisons. More on that to come.
For now, here is the Covid-19 update:
Health Director Trish Elliott gave the overview -->
Pandemic totals to date:
1,020 cases as of 8am today (Feb 1)
46 active cases in isolation
34 hospitalizations total
24 deaths
Vaccines:
1,378 delivered so far
Educators are getting vaccines
Friday: Vaccine clinic to deliver 2nd doses
Providence: Has received about 1,200 doses so far
Other groups getting vaccines: One Community Health, Family Gorge Medicine, Pharmacies (Safeway, Rite-Aid, Walgreens)
As the Health Department wraps up with these smaller groups (health providers, first responders, teachers), they'll coordinate with others to help determine how to get vaccines out as the groups get larger. Most people will talk to their health care provider to get specific information relating to their personal health issues.
Oregon Health Authority continues to make changes to how vaccines are to be distributed. More may be coming ...
Questions that came up:
- Do we need help from the National Guard to distribute vaccines? TE: No, we've had great community response with 200+ volunteers signing up to help.
- When do we learn about doses available? TE: A spreadsheet is sent by the state on Thursday or Friday. It lists all providers in the county (i.e. Health Dept., Providence, Safeway, etc.) and the # of doses they'll receive. That makes scheduling too far in advance not possible.
- Does County Health have enough help? TE: They're understaffed, down to 6 nurses including Trish. They're running ads but not getting applicants.
- Are there people "jumping the line" to get shots early? TE: They've had some people but County Health tries to figure those out in advance.
- Are seniors getting vaccinated? TE: They've done some vaccinations at Down Manor and Ashley Manor (2 senior congregate care facilities) plus some in-home health providers.
- How do we get info out to seniors who are living alone (i.e. no in-home health care workers), not internet-savvy, somewhat isolated. Karen Joplin mentioned that her own mother was told by her physician to call the County Health Dept to get info. TE: They're working with AgePlus to get info out to seniors.
Finally, Trish introduced Daron Ryan, who was just hired to as a Covid-19 response coordinator for the county. She has a masters' in public health, and spent the last few years working as a research coordinator for the Latino Center for Health in Seattle. She'll help with a number of events and outreach.
Other news: Marty Cronin will be the motorcycle rep for the Forest Recreation Trails committee.