JOSEPHINE COUNTY, Oregon. – When a group of health professionals with COVID-19 vaccines in hand got stuck on a snowy Oregon highway, they improvised to make sure the doses weren’t wasted.
Josephine County Public Health says about 20 of its staff and volunteers had just completed a mass vaccination event at a local high school and were on their way to administer the remaining six vaccines on Grants Pass when the snowstorm hit the Highway 199 near Hayes Hill.
The snow would prevent staff from delivering these doses to their intended recipients, so they set up an “improvised clinic” with an ambulance available for security.
Not wanting any doses to expire, the health department says its team started to drive from car to car, offering jailed drivers the chance to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
In the end, authorities say all six doses were administered, including one to a Josephine County Sheriff’s Office employee who arrived too late for the college clinic, but ended up standing with the others on the way back to Grants Pass .
The health department says its director, Mike Weber, called the situation “one of the coolest operations in which he participated”.