By Nicole Montesano • Staff Writer • 

No surge in vaccines for county this week

The OHA said the county will receive 1,300 initial doses of Moderna vaccine this week, and 1,100 doses intended for booster shots. It will also receive 300 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires only one shot.

To make a vaccine appointment online, go to the OHA website govstatus.egov.com/find-covid-19-vaccine. For questions, call 211, or the county, at 503-474-4100.

The county reported 23 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, including new cases reported Saturday, Sunday and Monday, bringing the county to a total to date of 3,929 cases. There have been 70 deaths in the county.

Statewide, there have been 163,952 cases to date as of Sunday, and 2,375 deaths.

In addition to the doses sent to the county health department, the state said, it is sending 200 initial and 100 booster doses of Moderna vaccine to Physicians Medical Center and Providence Medical Center; 200 initial and 200 booster doses to Virginia Garcia’s McMinnville center, 100 of each to its Newberg center, and 100 of each to McMinnville Internal Medicine.

The county has said it provides a limited number of doses to local physicians as well, including to Sunrise Medical Clinic in McMinnville.

County Public Health releases vaccine information in a weekly press release Mondays, typically released at or after the News-Register’s press deadline.

Statewide, the OHA said, vaccine distribution is up by about 23% this week, with 282,239 doses being distributed, compared to 229,352 last week.

The OHA said the federal government was sending 460 doses of Pfizer vaccine to Walgreens in McMinnville and 350 to Walgreens in Newberg. It said 200 doses each were going to Safeway and Albertsons pharmacies in McMinnville.

The OHA said it was distributing 29,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, up from 4,800 last week, among health departments and clinics throughout the state.

Amounts of each type of vaccine have varied; OHA said distribution of Pfizer vaccine is up 16,380 this week, while the Moderna dose count is down 1,500.

As of Sunday, the OHA said, the county had administered at least one dose of vaccine to 26,562 people, of the county population of 108,061. It said that 1.1 million people have been vaccinated statewide.

A CDC report released Monday detailed a study of 4,000 health care and other frontline workers the agency began conducting in December, showing both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines appear to provide about 80% protection from infection with COVID-19 after the first shot, and 90% after the second shot. The study asked participants to take nasal swabs weekly, and mail them to the CDC, to test for COVID-19 infections, including asymptomatic ones.

Study participants were from Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas and Utah.

The initial study report did not estimate effectiveness of the vaccines against different variants of the virus, however; the results are still being studied, according to an article to the Washington Post.

Also Monday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have risen 10% over the past week, and warned the U.S. is in danger of another wave of the disease, if it doesn’t take action to prevent it. Hospitalizations are also up, she noted, and she worries states are opening up too quickly.

Cases in Yamhill County have also shown a slight uptick in recent days; a week ago, on March 22, the county reported a three-day increase of just six cases, compared to 23 on March 29.

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