Gov. expects 100K Oregonians to be vaccinated by year end

SALEM, Ore. — Gov. Kate Brown said Friday she expects 100,000 Oregonians to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2020.

Healthcare workers, who number about 360,000 people in Oregon, will be the first to be vaccinated, she said in a news conference. An expected 147,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are expected to arrive before January. Brown said there are no other commitments from the federal government, KOIN reported.

Hospitals will be the primary sites of immunizations, she said. Some hospital groups confirmed they expect to see doses arrive as early as this weekend, though it may not be until the middle of next week before they start to be administered.

Brown stressed that equity and equality was at the center of the plan to distribute the vaccine. Her office added that Brown will not be in the first group for vaccination.

On Friday, the Oregon Health Authority reported 1,611 new COVID-19 cases with record numbers of hospitalized patients.

“The upward trend is extremely worrisome,” Dr. Dean Sidelinger said during the governor’s news conference. He said hospitalizations have increased 70% since November.

Oregon, however, has some of the lowest case rates in the country, Sidelinger said.