OHA also reported 877 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19, bringing the state total to 136,839.

Governor Kate Brown held a news conference today to update Oregonians on the status of COVID-19 vaccinations in Oregon, particularly as they relate to seniors and educators. The Governor was joined by Oregon Health Authority (OHA) Public Health Director Rachael Banks.

Director Banks spoke of Oregon’s plan to vaccinate people who work in childcare, early learning or K-12 school settings starting Jan. 25. “As long as supplies are scarce, we’ll face really tough calls on who to immunize next. There are good reasons to prioritize educators and good reasons to prioritize seniors.”

Director Banks emphasized that now is the time to start vaccinating educators to give schools a chance at reopening this school year with a vaccinated staff. They pointed out that if Oregon starts vaccinating seniors first, there may not be enough supply for educators this school year.

The press conference included testimony supporting the vaccination of educators from 2021 Oregon Teacher of the Year Nicole Butler-Hooton (Irving Elementary) and Regional Teacher of the Year Mayra Pelayo (Aiken Elementary). South Medford High School Student—and member of the Governor’s Healthy Schools Reopening Council— Yosalin Arenas Alvarez who spoke of her experience as a high school senior.

Ms. Arenas spoke of students’ experiences, “Some of us are frustrated, tired and lack motivation to open up our computers” and spoke of the hardship students face such as, taking on extra work to support their families, experiencing families, experiencing houselessness and losing loved ones.

“Over this past year,” Ms. Arenas said, “I have been astonished to hear some of my peers come to me and say, ‘I just can’t do it anymore. I just can’t.’ I keep telling them, ‘One more year.’ We have one more year. Yet some days I think that one year feels longer than all three years of high school combined.”

Ms. Arenas says that they understand going back to school will look different, saying, “There will be no rallies, no group huddles, and there will be limited extracurriculars, but we will have warm lunches, a desk, shelter and most importantly – each other.”

The details of the vaccine sequencing plan are available on the OHA COVID-19 webpage.

The pandemic has changed our routines and increased our stress and anxiety. It has many of us losing sleep. Perhaps you lie awake worrying about keeping yourself and loved ones safe as COVID-19 spreads. Or maybe anxiety about your job, supervising online school, or feeling isolated is stopping you from sleeping. These steps may help you sleep better:

• Make a schedule: Set a fixed time to wake up and go to bed every day.
• Go outside: If you can, spend some time in natural light. A short walk in the morning can help regulate your body clock.
• Stay active: Exercise can reduce stress.
• Go easy with alcohol and caffeine: They can disturb sleep.
• Try a meditation app: Meditation lowers stress and can improve sleep.
• Wind down before turning off the lights: Try not to use your mobile phone, tablet or computer for an hour before bed. It’s also best not to eat or exercise just before turning off the lights.

Vaccinations in Oregon: OHA reported that 16,763 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 12,341 vaccine doses were administered on Jan. 21 and 4,422 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Jan. 21.

Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the state’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).

Oregon has now administered a cumulative total of 270,453 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. All vaccinations were administered by Oregon hospitals, long-term care facilities, emergency medical service (EMS) agencies, urgent care facilities and Local Public Health Authorities (LPHAs).

To date, 487,700 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.

These data are preliminary and subject to change. OHA‘s dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data and Oregon’s dashboard has been updated.