By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
On the day that anyone 16 and over became eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine, Lincoln County threw open clinic doors to people who can get shots without an appointment.
The change Monday came as the county said there were 600 openings for first doses this week, that it had the highest vaccination rate in the state, and there were many no-shows for clinics last weekend in Waldport and Newport.
While making an appointment is still the best way to ensure a shot, Lincoln County Public Health and North Lincoln Fire & Rescue will inoculate people who walk in to clinics Tuesday and Saturday in Lincoln City and Wednesday in Newport.
“Walk-ins may have to wait longer to get a dose depending on how many doses are available at the time you arrive,” LCPH spokeswoman Susan Trachsel said in an announcement late Monday. “Walk-ins are not guaranteed a dose. However there are 600 appointments still available …”
As of Monday, the county has vaccinated 57 percent of its residents over the age of 16 – the highest rate in Oregon — and there are 2,300 doses arriving this week and some left from last week.
Trachsel said a mass clinic Saturday in Waldport had dozens of openings or no-shows and Samaritan Health Systems’ clinic last Friday and Saturday in Newport had unused appointments. Because of that and Pacific West Ambulance staffing issues, there is no first-dose clinic in Waldport this week. But there is a clinic Thursday for people receiving their second shot.
The county’s move to allow walk-ins comes as newly-eligible residents in much of the Portland-area and Willamette Valley scramble to find appointments and are waiting as long as three weeks to get a shot.
“We’re just trying to make it as easy as possible,” Trachsel said.
In addition to the now-shows, Trachsel said staff at weekend clinics also noticed out-of-area residents coming to Lincoln County for vaccines.
“People elsewhere are having trouble finding appointments,” she told YachatsNews. “So they’re saying ‘Let’s go to the beach for a vacation and get a vaccine’.”
But as the county’s vaccination rate rises from those eager to get inoculated, Trachsel said, there are more and more people who – for whatever reason – are hesitant or do not plan to get a shot.
Some 23,283 residents have received a first or second dose out of 41,413 eligible, LCPH said Monday. It would like to see 80-90 percent of residents vaccinated – along with 1,302 confirmed COVID-19 cases – would get the area into the range considered good for “herd immunity.”
Because teen-agers age 16 and older are now eligible for shots, the county is also working with the Lincoln County School District to deliver vaccines to high school health clinics, where school nurses or county staff can administer them. Youth over the age of 15 do not need a parent or guardian’s permission to be vaccinated – although most do.
But teen-agers have to pay attention to where they look for appointments. The Moderna vaccine is only approved for ages 18 and older; teens 16 and 17 years old can only get the Pfizer vaccine.
Here are the details for three walk-in clinics this week:
Tuesday, April 20 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.): Taft Fire Station in Lincoln City; link to schedule: https://sugeni.us/Wk49
Wednesday, April 21 (9 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.): County fairgrounds in Newport; Link to schedule: https://sugeni.us/Wk4l
Saturday, April 24 (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.): Taft Fire Station; Link to schedule: https://sugeni.us/Wk4m
Samaritan Health also has appointments available Friday and Saturday, although walk-ins are not available yet. Pacific Communities Hospital, Newport, 9 a.m. to noon each day. Friday will be Moderna vaccine, Saturday is Pfizer vaccine (16- and 17-year olds can sign up for Saturday). Link to register: https://openscheduling.mychart.samhealth.org/MyChart/covid19/#/
Samaritan’s Coastal Clinic in Lincoln City will also be hosting a clinic Saturday in Lincoln City.
The troubling news — more cases
Despite the vaccination rate, however, the county continues to see a slow but steady increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.
As of Monday, the county has confirmed 100 cases – 22 more than in all of March. There are also two people currently hospitalized for treatment, Trachsel said.
The rate – 159 cases per 100,000 population – will keep the county in the state’s “high risk” category until May 6. But if the number of cases hit the rate of 200 per 100,000 population – and Oregon has 300 people in hospitals and a 12 percent – then the county would reach the “extreme risk” category and have businesses and social activities shut down once again.
“The more we let our guard down, the slower we will get out of this,” interim health department director Florence Pourtal told county commissioners Monday. “We know what we need to do … and we have another tool in the took box – the vaccine.”
Although the county is averaging six new COVID-19 cases a day, Pourtal could not tell where the new cases are coming from. Other than an outbreak at the county jail, a Lincoln City restaurant and a charter school, the cases seem to be generally in the community, health officials said Monday.
It is unclear – but likely – that the area is being affected by COVID-19 varients, especially the B.1.429 California variant. Pourtal said the six-county region that includes Lincoln County has 175 of Oregon’s 474 California variant cases – and 70 more in the last two weeks.
“We are in a race against varients,” she said.
