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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Oregon has launched a pilot program that allows certain federally qualified health centers to offer COVID-19 vaccines to anyone they serve, even if that patient doesn’t. part of any currently eligible category.
These centers must still prioritize patients who are currently eligible under Oregon rules, but the pilot program gives health care providers for most-at-risk populations more leeway and resolves a conflict between federal priorities. and governments in terms of vaccine equity.
The Oregon Health Authority says the goal is to quickly reach the populations most affected by COVID-19.
The centers, which serve vulnerable populations such as farm workers, are calling on Washington to do the same.
The Biden administration last month began distributing vaccines to federally qualified health centers as part of a program designed to receive shots in the arms of Americans most economically and socially disadvantaged – seasonal farm workers and migrants and Americans living in poverty, for example.
But those centers in Oregon and Washington had their hands tied because state rules on vaccine eligibility had not yet extended to migrant farm workers, those with pre-existing conditions, or to other vulnerable groups and therefore could not give them vaccines.
The disconnection was “incredibly frustrating,” but the pilot program in Oregon will fix those issues, said Lori Kelley, senior quality manager at the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, which treats 180,000 patients a year in eastern Canada. Washington and western Oregon. About a third of those patients are seasonal farm workers, she said, and clinics offer treatment regardless of their ability to pay.
“They live in groups, four to six per room, from head to toe, and they work, live, eat and sleep in cohorts. If one person in her cohort gets sick, they all miss their working time, ”she said.
For more information: https://apnews.com/article/portland-coronavirus-pandemic-oregon-5ed46270d0da623dd453189d1bc48e2e
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