PORTLAND, Ore. — The first coronavirus vaccinations being given out across the country are offering a glimmer of hope. Something we all desperately need right now.
However, area health officials warn this is not time to let our guard down.
In Oregon, 29 counties are now listed as "extreme risk." That includes the entire Portland Metro area.
Multnomah County Health Officer Dr. Jennifer Vines says there is encouraging news. We are three weeks post-Thanksgiving and the state is not seeing the spike health officials had feared.
Vines credits that to the sacrifices families made in canceling or scaling back Turkey Day plans.
“I should start by saying thank you to everybody who changed their Thanksgiving plans or really paid attention to risk heading into late November,” she said. “We’re coming up on three weeks now out from Thanksgiving and we’ve seen a slight decrease, which is incredible. Cases remain really high. There are several hospitalizations still in our region, but we stayed off of that so-called exponential growth.”
Those holiday plan sacrifices will need to continue into the New Year, even as we vaccinations continue, she said.
“A lot of the buzz in December is going to be about vaccines, but that’s not going to be a ticket to a regular Christmas, or Hanukkah, or winter celebration for people,” Vines said. “I think we need people to stick with us here for the sake of our health care workers who are working incredibly hard in hospitals and have been for months and do similar planning, as you did for Thanksgiving.
"Really take it down to a small gathering, if at all. Keep paying attention to the precautions that we’ve been recommending now for months, but understanding there should be more good news on the way and we hope to share that out as we head into 2021.”
Getting vaccines to health care providers and long-term care residents is just a sliver of what we need for high levels of prevention, according to Vines. The next phase for vaccinations will be for essential workers. That’s a big net to cast.
“We’re going to be, as with all things COVID, sort of doing and learning at the same time,” Vines said. “So, I think, getting people to be flexible in their thinking, keeping their masks very handy and remembering the six-foot distancing is going to be important, but hopefully with a sense that it’s not going to be forever.”
Public health will be working closely with the state to determine the best process moving forward. Vines says there's a lot of work ahead... But there is time to take a step back and feel some optimism in the fight against this pandemic.
“It’s astonishing and incredible to me to pause for a moment and realize that it was only a year ago, approximately, that reports were first emerging from China of the new illness of a new virus. And to be talking to you now, a year later, about a vaccine is just, just amazing,” she said. “So, I think this begins a new chapter, but it’s one that I think people need to realize is going to unfold slowly, over months, not weeks, but, I think there is room for optimism.”