The Oregon Health Authority announced today that it is advancing the COVID-19 vaccine timeline by two weeks for people in Phase 1B, Group 7. Beginning April 5, eligibility opens up to:

• Frontline workers as defined by CDC
• Individuals living in a multigenerational household
• Adults 16–44 with one or more underlying health conditions with increased risk

For information about each of these populations, please see pages 2 and 3 of the state’s Vaccine Sequencing Infographic.

Everyone who is 16 years or older will continue to be eligible to get vaccinated on a statewide basis on May 1, as OHA announced last week, with one new change: Counties may open to all residents on April 26, based on an application. attesting that they are ready to move forward. 

“We’re glad that the state has responded to our ongoing request to open eligibility and provide access to more people in Malheur County,” Malheur County Health Department Director Sarah Poe said.

Here are more highlights from today’s announcement:

• Approximately eight out of 10 people who are eligible for the vaccine in Oregon have received at least one vaccination and 25% of all people in Oregon have gotten at least one shot. The national average is 26%.  
• Cases and hospitalizations continue to drop. Oregon’s rolling seven-day case average of new cases as of yesterday was 315. That’s a decline of 73% since Jan. 1 and 52% since the beginning of February. Among U.S. states, Oregon is fourth lowest in cumulative daily cases per 100,000 people. 
• Oregon’s testing capacity exceeds the demand for testing. Since COVID-19 cases are decreasing, the need for testing has also decreased. And test positivity has decreased to a positivity rate of 2.2% as of March 14.   

To date, the MCHD/Incident Comment team has administered 5,573 doses of COVID-19 vaccine and will continue to host vaccine clinics at Four Rivers Cultural Center every Thursday through the month of April.