The first shipment of 975 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer arrived in Lane County Thursday. It's being held in a deep cold storage at an undisclosed location.
PeaceHealth RiverBend Medical Center staff confirmed the first immunizations of hospital health care workers will begin Monday morning.
While the thought of a vaccine may bring some peace of mind, Lane County Public Health officials say this is no time to relax on standard prevention tactics. It will be several months before the general public is eligible for vaccination. During that time, spokesperson Jason Davis encouraged everyone to learn all they can about the vaccine. You can find vaccine information here.
“I’m not ‘gonna pull any punches on this,” he said. “We want to have as many Lane County residents vaccinated as possible for no other reason other than that is the most effective way we will have out of this pandemic.”
The county remains in the “extreme risk” category. Davis regretted to report two more residents have died from the virus- putting the countywide death toll at 79.