PORTLAND, Ore. – Two Portland-area hospitals are the first in the State of Oregon to get doses of the new coronavirus vaccine.
The Oregon Health Authority said on Monday, two Legacy Health hospitals in Portland and Tualatin each received nearly a thousand doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.
On Tuesday, two other Portland hospitals and one in Ontario will get the vaccine.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown released the following statement about the vaccine distribution:
“In recent weeks, as COVID-19 vaccines reached the final stages of approval, I have said time and again that hope is on the way. Today, I can tell you that help is here,” said Governor Kate Brown. “The first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in Oregon, the first of many that will be distributed across the state. Starting with the frontline health care workers who have been our first line of defense against COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, and the long-term care facility residents who are among the most vulnerable, each day, more and more Oregonians will be vaccinated against this disease.
“Throughout the process, we will work to ensure that the Oregonians that have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, including those from Black, Indigenous, Latino/Latina/Latinx, Pacific Islander, and Tribal communities, have equitable access to vaccination. We are in the middle of some of the hardest days of this pandemic. Our hospitals are stretched to capacity, and too many families are losing loved ones just as we enter the holiday season. So many Oregonians have suffered and sacrificed in the last ten months.
“But starting this week, and each week following –– as vaccines become more widely available –– we will begin gaining ground again in our fight against this disease.”
The Oregon Health Authority said during the next three weeks, over 22,000 vaccine doses should have been distributed to skilled nursing facilities with 80,000 doses headed to assisted living facilities.
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