With so many people in priority groups for COVID-19 vaccination, public health departments must make hard decisions on how to best use the insufficient amount of doses allocated to them each week. Now, it’s about the elderly.
In Lane County, there are around 15,000 residents 80 years or older. This week’s allocation of COVID-19 vaccine is 3,200 doses-with 2,000 of them earmarked by the state for the 80-plus population.
During a press briefing Tuesday, spokesperson Jason Davis said because they don’t have “enough doses to go around,” they must prioritize within already vulnerable priority groups.
“So, we’re going to be looking at age,” he said. “You know, within that 80 plus there’s a wide range of ages represented. And understanding that the older one is the more risk level.”
Davis said Lane County Public Health was able to leverage 5,500 existing doses from other entities. There will be a vax clinic on Sunday for a subset of the 80-plus population, by invitation only.
800 vaccines from the county’s allotment will be going into the arms of K-12 educators and staff this week. Meanwhile, Davis says roughly 14,000 people in Phase 1A priority groups have yet to get the shot.
To date, Lane County has administered 23,021 prime (first) doses and 10,154 residents have been fully vaccinated.
