Oregon health professionals give COVID vaccine to roadside drivers after the snowstorm has left them stranded and the medicines have almost expired
- The workers were returning from a vaccination event
- The doses were intended for other people, but would have expired by the time they reached their destination due to the snowstorm
- A county ambulance was present in an emergency during vaccinations
- Oregon has administered more than 340,000 coronavirus vaccines so far
Oregon health workers who were trapped in a snowstorm on the way back from a COVID-19 vaccination event went from car to car injecting trapped drivers before several doses expired.
Josephine County Public Health said on Facebook that the ‘makeshift vaccination clinic’ happened after about 20 employees were stopped in traffic on a highway after a vaccination clinic at Illinois Valley High School.
Six of the vaccines were about to expire, so workers decided to offer them to other arrested drivers.
The injections were aimed at other people on Grants Pass, but “the snow meant that these doses would not reach them before they expired,” said the health department.
Random residents trapped in snow have become lucky recipients of vaccines in Oregon
While returning from a vaccine clinic, vaccine health workers were caught in the snow
Josephine County Public Health posted about the amazing turnaround on Facebook events
Not wanting to waste them, employees went from vehicle to vehicle, offering people the chance to get the vaccine. A county ambulance was available for security.
All doses were administered, including one to an employee of the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office who arrived too late for the vaccination clinic, but ended up being interrupted with the others, officials said.
Josephine County Public Health Director Mike Weber said it was one of the “coolest operations he participated in.”
Although six doses may not seem like many, each vaccination counts in the battle for COVID-19.
Overall, six people received the COVID-19 vaccine while waiting for the snowstorm to end.
Josephine County Public Health Director Mike Weber called it “the coolest operation”
According to a panel being updated by the Oregon Health Authority, 340,359 doses of vaccination have been administered in the state by the end of Tuesday.
So far, only 50,587 people in the state have been fully vaccinated, meaning they have received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
Just this week, daycare workers and those working in K-12 schools became eligible to receive the vaccine in Oregon.
Oregon has seen 139,355 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Of this total, 1,904 succumbed to the virus.
Oregon administered more than 340,000 vaccines while facing 1,904 COVID-19 deaths
The United States has exceeded 25.5 million COVID-19 cases and more than 428,000 deaths
In the United States, there were more than 25.5 million cases of COVID-19, with the death toll at 428,654 people and increasing.
The focus of the Joe Biden administration has been to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
The president’s goal is to administer 100 million shots in 100 days.
On Tuesday, the White House announced an increase in the distribution of vaccines to 10 million in the next three weeks, as well as the purchase of an additional 200 million vaccines to be delivered during the summer.