Oregon vaccine board meets, Salem Health and Marion County begin vaccine clinic

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    SALEM, OR (KPTV) — Vaccinations against the COVID-19 pandemic continued Thursday across the state of Oregon. The Oregon Health Authority reporting that more than 60,000 people have received the first dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The state also reporting 595 Oregonians have been fully vaccinated, meaning they’ve gotten both doses in the series.

Thursday the state’s Vaccine Advisory Board met for their first official meeting. They held it virtually because of the pandemic.

The group of more than two dozen are tasked with guiding the Oregon Health Authority in getting Oregonians vaccinated. Their focus is making sure getting access to a vaccine is equitable.

“Yesterday was the deadliest day yet for the Covid-19 outbreak in this country and it makes the work of this committee more urgent,” board member Sandra McDonough said.

As the board met, Salem Hospital and Marion County officially began a large-scale effort to vaccinated those in phase 1A, healthcare workers, frontline workers, first responders and those in long care facilities.

“I have faith and I believe that it is the right thing to do,” Raeann McDonald who works at a longer-term care facility said.

“I feel like it is my responsibility to be a good example to my staff and to the residents to take the vaccine and to help everyone out,” McDonald said.

The clinic has been set up inside a building at the Oregon State Fairgrounds in Salem.

For more information on who qualifies for Phase 1A, visit HERE.

“We have approached 250 shots an hour just kind of at our first attempts at doing this, we are confident that we can do this on a large scale,” Josh Free with Salem Health said.

He says they will be working to protect as many Oregonians as possible.

“We are going to run this for as a long as we can. As long as there is supply and staff to do this we are going to do our best to take care of the community and at as large of scale as we possibly can,” Free said.

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