WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ore. — Washington County, Oregon's second-most populated county, became the first in the state to vaccinate at least 80% of adults.
According to data from the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), 383,860 of the county's 479,432 residents who are 18 and older have been vaccinated with at least one dose.
County officials credit the high vaccination rates to their early outreach and education efforts, specifically focusing on reaching communities of color.
"Early on, Washington County in the COVID-19 response developed and implemented an equity lens in our efforts. And so when vaccination came on board, Washington County partnered with diverse community organizations and health centers to co-create our vaccination communications programs and strategies," said Dr. Marie Bowman-Davis, public health division manager for Washington County Public Health.
The county continues to hold vaccination clinics, even deploying a mobile vaccine team to various sections of the county almost every day. The county previously had a mass vaccination site at Hillsboro Stadium, hosted by Oregon Health & Science University, that closed down in June.
"I think what's been most important for our vaccination outreach and events, they really have been co-created with our communities and designed to answer questions and then making shots available and accessible to those members who are eligible and ready," Dr. Bowman-Davis said.
Just behind Washington County is Hood River County with 79.7% of adults vaccinated and Multnomah County with 79.1% vaccinated.
On the other end of the list is Lake County is southern Oregon. Lake County has 6,854 adults eligible and only 40.8% have taken the vaccine. Charlie Tveit, CEO of Lake Health District, said the county has held drive-thru vaccination clinics and continues to push out information about the safety of the vaccine.
"We have promoted it in social media, we've promoted in the papers, we've offered prizes to come in and get vaccinations. We've tried everything we can to encourage people to get vaccinated," Tveit said.
Bowman-Davis said even though the county has reached that 80% mark, public health officials will continue to work with their community partners to get more people vaccinated.
"We still need to address our vaccination equity gaps and to continue to do that, we continue to work with our COVID-19 racial equity advisory board and our community of partners to hear the needs of the community and uplift the resources that they need," Dr. Bowman-Davis said.
Hood River County should reach the 80% mark in the next week and Multnomah County should reach the 80% mark within the next couple weeks.