Agnes Tsai draws up a dose of the Pfizer vaccine during a COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Oregon State Fairgrounds on Thursday, Jan. 28. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
After a long wait, Salem’s grocery store workers can finally get a Covid vaccine.
Marion County may immediately begin vaccinating frontline workers and anyone 16 and older with underlying health conditions, the Oregon Health Authority announced Wednesday.
Those groups become eligible for vaccines statewide on April 5. But 20 counties, including Marion County, submitted letters to the state attesting they were ready to move ahead with Oregon’s vaccination schedule.
The groups now eligible in Marion County include all frontline workers as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s an expansive list that includes restaurant workers, college and university employees, bus drivers, mail carriers, wastewater plant workers, gas station attendants and court employees.
Oregonians aged 16 to 44 with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk for Covid and people living in multigenerational housing are also newly eligible in Marion County. Polk County was not among the counties the state cleared to move forward.
The other counties moving forward are Benton, Coos, Crook, Deschutes, Douglas Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Lincoln, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union and Wheeler.
This group is the last to become eligible before Covid vaccinations open to everyone 16 and older in Oregon. That’s currently scheduled to happen May 1, but Allen previously said counties could begin earlier if they attest they’re ready to move forward.
More information about vaccine eligibility and scheduling a shot is available on the Oregon Health Authority website.
-Rachel Alexander
