Oregon health workers give COVID vaccine to roadside drivers after being stranded in a snowstorm and drugs nearing expiry
- The workers were on their way back from a vaccination event
- The doses were intended for others, but due to the blizzard would have expired by the time they reached their destination
- A district ambulance was present during the vaccinations in case of an emergency
- Oregon has administered more than 340,000 vaccines against the coronavirus to date
Health workers in Oregon who became trapped in a snowstorm on the way back from a COVID-19 vaccination event went car to car injecting stranded drivers before some of the doses expired.
Josephine County Public Health said on Facebook that the “ makeshift vaccination clinic ” occurred after about 20 workers stopped in traffic on a highway following a vaccination clinic at Illinois Valley High School.
Six of the vaccines were about to expire, so the workers decided to offer them to other stranded drivers.
The shots were intended for other people in Grants Pass, but “ the snow meant those doses wouldn’t make it until they expired, ” the health department said.
Random residents trapped in the snow became the lucky recipients of vaccines in Oregon
On the way back from a vaccination clinic, health workers with vaccines ended up in the snow
Josephine County Public Health posted on Facebook about the stunning turn of events
Not wanting to waste them, staff walked from vehicle to vehicle to give people the chance to get the vaccine. A county ambulance was available for safety.
All doses were administered, including one to a Josephine County Sheriff’s Office employee who arrived late for the vaccination clinic but eventually dropped out of the others, officials said.
Mike Weber, Josephine County’s Director of Health, said it was one of the “ coolest surgeries he’d participated in. ”
While six doses may not seem like much, every vaccination counts in the battle for COVID-19.
A total of six people were given the COVID-19 vaccine while waiting for the blizzard
Josephine County Public Health Director Mike Weber called it the ‘coolest surgery’
According to a dashboard updated by the Oregon Health Authority, 340,359 vaccine doses had 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 a coronavirus vaccine.
This week, daycare workers and those working in a K-12 school were eligible for the vaccine in Oregon.
Oregon has seen 139,355 cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Of these, 1,904 succumbed to the virus.
Oregon has administered more than 340,000 vaccines as they face 1,904 COVID-19 deaths
The United States has surpassed 25.5 million COVID-19 cases and more than 428,000 deaths
In the United States, there have been more than 25.5 million cases of COVID-19, with a death toll of 428,654 people and rising.
The focus of Joe Biden’s administration is on vaccinating as many people as possible as soon as possible.
The president’s goal was to tap 100 million shots in 100 days.
On Tuesday, the White House announced an increase in vaccine distributions to 10 million for the next three weeks, as well as the purchase of 200 million additional vaccines to be delivered in the summer.