THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2021 A13
Eligibility
Vaccine eligibility
Continued from A1
There are an estimated 2.8
million adults in Oregon out of
a population of just under 4.3
million.
The numbers for the next el-
igibility groups have not been
announced, but were provided
by the Oregon Health Author-
ity in response to a query by
EO Media Group. OHA Di-
rector Pat Allen is scheduled
to testify on the status of the
state’s vaccination program on
Wednesday before the House
Subcommittee on COVID-19.
The last change to the eligi-
bility list was March 1, when
everyone age 65 and older was
approved to get vaccinated.
On March 29, eligibility
will be extended to an esti-
mated 530,000 more people,
according to OHA. The group
includes those 45 and older
with medical conditions that
put them at higher risk of se-
vere illness or death, preg-
nant women 16 and older and
homeless people.
On May 1, an estimated
550,000 more people will be
eligible. The minimum age for
those with medical conditions
will be extended to those 16
and older. It also includes es-
sential workers as defined by
the U.S. Centers for Disease
Schools
Continued from A1
At the moment, many local
schools don’t have the space to
accommodate the small class
sizes that 6 feet of social dis-
tancing requires.
“I was definitely let down,”
Nordquist said. “For us, it was
really critical that we get the 6
feet changed to 3 feet in order
to get our kids all in.” Remov-
ing cohort limitations will pro-
vide more options, said Charan
Cline, Redmond superinten-
dent, “but it’s about how many
students can we fit into a class-
room, and that’s completely
governed by the distance be-
tween the students.”
In Bend-La Pine, grades
4-12 attend in-person school
two days a week, with three
days of learning from home,
Nordquist said.
Redmond’s middle school-
ers have the same two-day-
a-week schedule as Bend-La
Pine. High school students are
on campus for four half-days a
week — they’re in class in the
morning, and home for the af-
ternoon, or vice versa, Cline
said.
Redmond fourth and fifth
graders are in-person five days
a week. But they’re only with
teachers part time and spend
half their day working on as-
signments in a separate room
with staff supervision, to allow
for smaller class sizes, Cline
said.
Both Cline and Nordquist
told The Bulletin Tuesday that
many experts have recom-
mended shrinking the social
distancing standard of 6 feet
— currently recommended by
the federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention — to
3 feet.
A March study published
in the Clinical Infectious Dis-
eases medical journal, in which
more than 530,000 Massachu-
setts students were studied,
PHASE 1A (DEC. 2020): 400,000
Medical and health care workers, people and staff in
nursing homes, home care workers, disabled receiv-
ing care at home
PHASE 1B (JAN. 25) 4 EDUCATORS:
153,000
Teachers, schools staff, day care workers
PHASE IB (FEB. 8 4 MARCH 1) 4 OVER 65:
795,000
Rolling eligibility that began with those 80 and older
on Feb. 8 and dropped five years each week until ev-
eryone 65 and over was eligible.
COURT ORDER FOR CORRECTIONS
FACILITIES (FEB. 2): 15,000
A federal court order added inmates and staff at cor-
rectional institutions to be retroactively added to
Phase 1A eligibility.
PHASE 1B, GROUP 6 (MARCH 29): 530,000
Adults 45–64 with health conditions that put them
at increased risk of severe illness or death from in-
Control and Prevention and
members of multigenerational
households.
The final two groups are ev-
eryone else 45 and older on
June 1 and everyone 16 and
older on July 1.
President Joe Biden has set
May 1 as the date when states
should open eligibility to all
those 16 and older. But Gov.
found that COVID-19 case
rates were similar for schools
with 6 feet and 3 feet of dis-
tance. The World Health Orga-
nization recommends separat-
ing students by one meter, or
about 3.3 feet.
The CDC is looking into re-
ducing its 6-feet guidance to 3
feet, according to NPR.
Marc Siegel, spokesperson
for the Oregon Department of
Education, told The Bulletin
that the state didn’t budge on
6 feet because more research
into the issue was needed. Fur-
thermore, the state looks to
the CDC for guidance on the
matter, he wrote in an email
Tuesday.
Nordquist said she’s confi-
dent that the state and the feds
will shift the social distancing
guidance from 6 to 3 feet. But
she’s worried that change won’t
happen until the school year is
almost over.
“It will be very disappoint-
ing to me if our students have
to go on a hybrid model for the
next three months, and then
guidance changes June 1,” Nor-
dquist said. “Every day our stu-
dents aren’t in class every day,
they’re losing.”
For Redmond, the concern
isn’t a lack of space, but not
enough teachers to lead small-
er-sized classes, Cline said.
“It’s more teachers that I
need per kid, more bodies per
student,” he said.
Still, both Cline and Nord-
quist said the removal of the
100-student cohort rule will al-
low for more flexibility in their
schools.
“There are early conversa-
tions about, can we find some
more in-class, extended learn-
ing time for kids, based on the
cohort learning schedule?”
Nordquist said. “It is a piece of
good news, it just doesn’t fun-
damentally change the hybrid
schedule.”
ƒ
Reporter: 541-617-7854,
jhogan@bendbulletin.com
fection. People 16 and older who are pregnant.
Homeless people. Many food processing workers
and farmworkers. Many senior housing residents not
previously covered. People displaced by wildfires and
wildland firefighters.
PHASE 1B, GROUP 7 (MAY 1): 550,000
People age 16 to 44 with underlying health condi-
tions at risk of severe illness or death from infection.
Front-line workers as defined by CDC. Multigenera-
tional household members.
PHASE 2, GROUP 1 (JUNE 1) 4 NUMBER
NOT YET RELEASED
Everyone 45 and older
PHASE 2, GROUP 2 (JULY 1) 4 NUMBER
NOT YET RELEASED
Everyone 16 and older: TBD
FUTURE GROUP: CHILDREN 4 NO DATE
OR NUMBER YET RELEASED
There are currently no vaccines approved for those
under 16, though Moderna has begun trials on a ver-
sion of its vaccine.
Kate Brown said the state
would stick with its current
priority system until there is a
firm commitment from federal
health authorities of a major
increase in vaccine being sent
to the state.
Oregon health officials felt
burned in January when they
announced eligibility for ev-
eryone over 65 based on what
turned out to be an erroneous
statement by federal health of-
ficials in the Trump adminis-
tration. Brown had to reverse
the order and restore a tiered
priority system.
Since the arrival of the first
vaccines from Pfizer and Mod-
erna in December, about 1.36
million people in Oregon are
in the nine priority groups al-
ready eligible.
But the state reports total
shots to date at 1,346,090. The
vast majority of the shots are
the Pfizer and Moderna vac-
cines, which require two shots
spaced about a month apart.
That translates into just un-
der 674,000 two-shot inocula-
tions, enough for less than half
of those eligible. The gap be-
tween eligibility and availabil-
ity has resulted in widespread
frustration over trying to book
appointments with county
health authorities, pharmacies
or other medical providers.
Recently, the Johnson &
Johnson vaccine that requires
just one shot has arrived in Or-
egon.
Through March 15, a total
of 1,642,505 doses of vaccines
have been delivered to Oregon.
Oregon has averaged about
24,000 shots per day, putting it
in the middle of states nation-
wide.
Because of Brown’s decision
to prioritize educators over
seniors in January, the state
is below the national average
for seniors who have been in-
oculated. Though vaccine is
provided through the federal
government and the CDC has
a suggested prioritization list,
states ultimately have authority
to decide who gets inoculated
at what point.
Georgia massage parlor
shootings leave 8 dead
BY KATE BRUMBACK
Associated Press
ATLANTA — Shootings
at two massage parlors
in Atlanta and one in the
suburbs Tuesday evening
left eight people dead,
many of them women of
Asian descent, authorities
said.
A 21-year-old man sus-
pected in the shootings
was taken into custody in
southwest Georgia hours
later after a manhunt, po-
lice said.
The attacks began
around 5 p.m., when
five people were shot at
Youngs Asian Massage
Parlor in a strip mall near
a rural area in Acworth,
about 30 miles north of
Atlanta, Cherokee County
Sheriff ’s Office spokesman
Capt. Jay Baker said. Two
people died at the scene
and three were trans-
ported to a hospital where
two of them also died,
Baker said.
Around 5:50 p.m., po-
lice in Atlanta, respond-
ing to a call of a robbery
in progress, found three
women dead from appar-
ent gunshot wounds at
Gold Spa.
While they were at that
scene, they learned of a
call reporting shots fired
at another spa across the
street, Aromatherapy Spa,
and found a woman who
appeared to have been
shot dead inside the busi-
ness.
The killings came amid
a recent wave of attacks
against Asian Americans
that coincided with the
Oregon has been one of the
safest places in the country
during the pandemic. The state
has the fourth lowest number
of COVID-19 cases per cap-
ita among all states, according
to an ongoing count by the
New York Times. Only Ha-
waii, Vermont and Maine have
performed better since the
first COVID-19 case was re-
ported in Washington on Jan.
21, 2020.
Over the past week, Oregon
has the second lowest number
of cases per capita, with only
Hawaii reporting fewer infec-
tions.
Oregon has the fifth lowest
per capita fatality rate since the
pandemic began, with Hawaii,
Vermont, Alaska and Maine
reporting lower.
Over the past week, Oregon
has the third lowest per capita
fatality rate, with only Alaska
and Hawaii scoring lower.
OHA reported Tuesday that
Oregon has had 160,050 cases
of COVID-19 and 2,346 deaths
since February 2020.
Nationwide, there have
been 29.54 million COVID-19
cases nationwide, with 536,826
deaths, according to the Johns
Hopkins Coronavirus Resource
Center. Worldwide, there have
been over 120 million cases and
2.67 million deaths.
ƒ
gwarner@eomediagroup.com
LOCAL BRIEFING
Prineville man electrocuted while working on wood
A Prineville man was electrocuted Tuesday at Lake-
shore RV Park while he was using a homemade power
supply box to burn decorative designs into wood, accord-
ing to the Crook County Sheriff’s Office.
A person called 911 around 3 p.m. to report finding
a man unresponsive on the ground and not breathing.
Sheriff ’s deputies arrived to find Kyle Johnson, 26, on
the ground next to a camp trailer. After deputies discon-
nected power supplies to the trailer, Crook County Fire
& Rescue medics used non-conductive tools to discon-
nect the remaining power cord and pronounced Johnson
dead.
According to the sheriff’s office, Johnson’s wood burn-
ing tool was connected to an outlet in the trailer with an
extension cord and he was in the process of burning wood
when he was electrocuted. No ground fault circuit inter-
rupter or power breaker had been tripped.
spread of the coronavirus across
the United States.
A man suspected in the
Acworth shooting was captured
by surveillance video . Baker
said the suspect, Robert Aaron
Long, of Woodstock, was taken
into custody .
Baker said they believe Long
is also the suspect in the Atlanta
shootings.
Due to the shootings, Atlanta
police said they dispatched of-
ficers to check nearby similar
businesses and increased patrols
in the area.
— Bulletin staff report
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