PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon's COVID-19 vaccine lottery cash prizes includes nearly everyone who got a vaccine from the first days they were available through June 27. Right now, it does not include roughly 28,000 people, many of them veterans, who got their shot through the VA Portland Healthcare System.
Nobody's too eager to talk about it on camera. Portland VA spokesman Daniel Herrigstad did issue a written statement.
"Our system is not designed to transfer information that would be needed by external agencies including the Oregon lottery or OHA for the purpose of getting Oregon residents entered into the lottery," said Herrigstad.
The Portland VA had a highly regarded vaccination program and got their supplies from the federal government. So it hasn't reported anything to the state in terms of who got shots through their system.
The same problem is happening in other states, including Maryland.
Charles Boyle, the deputy communications director for the governor, said the governor's office is working with the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) "to develop an alternative way to collect the information for Oregonians who received a federally administered shot.”
Boyle said the governor's office is confident they will fix the problem before June 27. But so far, there is no solution that they're willing to discuss.
Here are some more updates KGW's Vaccine Team got Thursday.
Vaccinations
May 27 is the last day the mass vaccination clinic at the Oregon Convention Center is administering first doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The site announced Thursday it'll start administering Johnson & Johnson's single dose vaccine on June 1.
OHA director Patrick Allen mentioned the idea to state lawmakers as he gave a weekly briefing on Wednesday.
“We are working to move some Johnson & Johnson to some locations that are only doing second doses, basically to take advantage of somebody who happens to be there transporting somebody else who is getting vaccinated,” Allen said.
Hospitalizations and cases
Allen also told lawmakers things are looking better in terms of hospitalizations and new coronavirus cases in Oregon. Both hospitalizations and cases are going down.
The state's latest report for the week of May 17-23 showed a 25% drop in the number of new cases from the previous week.
Hospitalizations were down roughly 15% from the week before and deaths were down 40% compared to the week before.
One thing that is up: wasted doses of vaccine, which is up to a total of 9,090.
Allen said it may be happening because the state is urging vaccination sites not to turn anyone away.
“People showing up at a vaccination site toward the end of the day, being turned away because the vaccinator didn't want to open a vial and waste doses," Allen said. "And we have tried to communicate very clearly, waste the doses."
On Thursday, OHA also announced Oregon topped 200,000 total known COVID-19 infections.
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