COVID-19 Community Message

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UPDATED: 1/22/2021, 12:00 p.m.

Good afternoon MESD community, 

The major metro-area health care systems are collaborating with regional education service (ESD) districts and school district leaders to create and execute a comprehensive vaccination distribution plan so that K-12 employees in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties have the opportunity to receive COVID-19 vaccines as quickly and efficiently as possible. Many details of this coordinated vaccination plan are still being worked out and are changing daily, if not hourly. Here’s what we know as of today:

• The health care systems are working to create a central vaccination center for PreK-12 staff at the Oregon Convention Center.
• There are approximately 40,000 K-12 staff in the tri-county area that will become eligible for vaccination on Jan. 25.
• Current estimates are that our health care systems partners will administer approximately 2,000 vaccinations each day at the Oregon Convention Center based on vaccine availability so it will take several weeks to administer the first dose of vaccines to all early education and K-12 staff at this location. 
• Our health system partners are planning to begin offering appointments for K-12 employees next Wednesday, Jan. 27th.  We are planning the sequence of employee groups for these appointments with our component school districts. Employees who provide direct, in-person support to students will be offered appointments first. Employees in the first group will receive information about scheduling early next week.
• The health systems will notify us when appointments are available so we can quickly notify the next group of employees.
• We will notify employee groups in sequence when it is their turn to make an appointment, but we don’t know how much lead time will be offered for those appointments, so be checking your emails regularly.  
• The situation is fluid, so please be prepared for ongoing shifts in planning, and be prepared to act quickly if you are notified you are eligible for an upcoming vaccination appointment.

We know staff are looking forward to more information about vaccination availability.  We’re working to get answers to you as soon as they are available. As soon as we have more information, we will share it with you.

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