Vaccination Rates Lag Among Staff for Vulnerable

The report notes that the trend tracks with flu vaccine rates from the past.

Foster_05 Healthcare at Foster Creek. (Wesley Lapointe)

Just 62% of staff at long-term care facilities in Oregon have received a COVID-19 vaccination.

According to a report published June 21 by the Oregon Health Authority, the rates are lower in the south and east of the state. The numbers were better for the health care region of northwest Oregon that includes the Portland metro region west to the coast: 71% of staff and 91% of residents were vaccinated, as of May.

The numbers are better for residents (statewide, 84% were vaccinated), but older and more medically vulnerable people are at greater risk of breakthrough cases.

As of last week, 22 long-term health care facilities in the state had outbreaks.

The report notes that the trend tracks with flu vaccine rates from the past: “Influenza vaccination uptake has been low among [long-term care] staff and has lagged behind uptake in other health care settings.”

Residents and staff became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in December and were among the first to be eligible.

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