Coronavirus, health, Washington County

Upcoming vaccination clinics, COVID-19 numbers, and cases in local schools

File photo: Chas Hundley

Washington County’s Mobile Vaccine Team has scheduled several Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccination clinics in western Washington County in the coming weeks as the county works to combat the surging Delta variant. 

The furthest west portions of Washington County not in the Portland Metro region have the lowest vaccine adoption rate in the county, according to zip code data tracking vaccination rates across the state from the Oregon Health Authority. 

Several clinics and Banks and Timber have already been held, while clinics in Forest Grove have frequently been held during the Forest Grove Farmers Market, though opportunities to be vaccinated at the popular event will end in October when the market closes for the season. 

According to the county’s mobile vaccine team schedule (bit.ly/2X3I5zP), a clinic will be held Saturday, October 9 from 3 to 5 p.m. at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Forest Grove (1660 Elm Street), followed by two Forest Grove clinics held Wednesday, October 13. The first of those clinics is scheduled for 12 to 2 p.m. at the Forest Grove Senior and Community Center (2037 Douglas Street), followed by the regular clinic at the Forest Grove Farmers Market (2030 Main Street) from 4 to 7 p.m.

Louisa Partain, a senior program coordinator for Washington County’s Department of Health and Human Services noted that people can get their first or second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna shot at the clinic. “Folks will receive a card that shows them where we’ll be 3 weeks from that date so they can get their 2nd shot if needed,” Partain said in an email to this newspaper. Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot is also available, and those who wish to get their second shot at a pharmacy can do so instead of visiting another county-run clinic. 

Those ages 18 and older are eligible for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, while those ages 12 and older can receive the Pfizer vaccine. 

More information on vaccines in Washington County can be found on the Washington County Health and Human Services website at co.washington.or.us/vaccine.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown visited the clinic held at the Forest Grove Farmers Market on Wednesday, September 22, along with county officials. 

“Vaccination is our path out of this pandemic,” Brown said during her visit to Forest Grove. “Community partnerships like the one between Washington County and Adelante Mujeres are key to increasing vaccination rates and closing vaccination equity gaps for our Black, Indigenous, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and communities of color,” Brown said. “I’d like to thank Chair Harrington, everyone at Washington County Public Health, and Adelante Mujeres for the opportunity to see their extraordinary work firsthand. They are proof that, when we work together and reach people where they are in our communities, we can stop the spread of COVID-19.”

Adelante Mujeres is the nonprofit organization that hosts and runs the weekly farmers market in Forest Grove along with another farmers market in Cornelius.

“We are so grateful to our community members who have been vaccinated and to our partners like Adelante Mujeres who are working so hard to close the vaccination equity gap,” said Washington County Board of Commissioners Chair Kathryn Harrington, also present at the clinic. “These partnerships improve healthcare, education, and economic opportunities for many people of color in our community, and now they are making it easier for people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.”

“For communities to thrive it is essential to build individual and communal power for the common good. Because Latinx communities have been hit hard by COVID-19, their voices are crucial to the solution,” said Bridget Cooke, Adelante Mujeres’ Executive Director of Adelante. “Our dedicated team of promotores – or community health workers – is courageously promoting vaccinations, answering questions, and connecting families to needed resources to help ease the burden. At Adelante Mujeres, we promote practices that lead to health equity, and we advocate for shared leadership grounded in solidarity. Our partnership with Washington County is vital to this work, to vaccine outreach, and to COVID-19 recovery.”

The Oregon Health Authority reported 1,564 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases to the count on Wednesday, October 6, and attributed 33 new deaths to the virus, bringing the total death toll in Oregon to 3,900, according to OHA data.

Statewide, 730 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized, three fewer than the prior day.

There were 53 available adult ICU beds out of 693 total (8% availability) and 319 available adult non-ICU beds out of 4,240 (8% availability), OHA said in a Wednesday press release.

The OHA said that current outbreaks in local schools include, among many others throughout the county and state, Banks Middle School, where two students were last by September 28 to have contracted COVID-19; Banks High School, where three students were also reported to have tested positive; Bank Elementary School, where eight students had the virus, Neil Armstrong Middle School in Forest Grove, where five students had the virus as of September 26, and at Forest Grove High School, where six students had the virus as of September 27.

Vaccination rates by zip code

Vaccination rates for at least one dose by population for local zip codes in western Washington County as of October 6:

97106 (Banks, portions of surrounding areas): 58.7%

97117 (Gales Creek): 49.9%

97116: (Forest Grove, G.C., Glenwood): 67%

97144 (Timber): 67.5% 

97109 (Buxton): 47.4%

97125 (Hayward, Manning): 42.7%

97113 (Cornelius, Roy): 69.6%

97133 (North Plains, Mountaindale): 78.7%.

More coronavirus data for Oregon and local regions can be found online at https://tabsoft.co/3xX10cP.

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Chas Hundley is the editor of the Gales Creek Journal and sister news publications the Banks Post and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.

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