Demand for COVID-19 vaccine rebounded in a big way Sunday at the Oregon Convention Center, leaving clinic staff shorthanded and metro-area residents with long waits.
Sunday marked the first weekend day of operation at the Northeast Portland clinic since federal and state health officials approved vaccinations for kids age 12 to 15.
Demand was strong, with organizers expecting to administer about 7,200 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by day’s end.
That’s near the 8,000 daily doses that organizers said the site typically administered before demand began to wane, prompting a recent announcement that the clinic would shut down next month.
Sunday’s surge left vaccination lines sometimes extending outside the building, while some people waited more than an hour, said Michael Foley, a spokesman for the All4Oregon vaccination effort.
Foley did not directly respond to a question about specific staffing numbers Sunday compared to past days, but he acknowledged challenges, saying workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture left Thursday.
“Their expertise and experience at the site was missed,” he said in an email.
The site felt busier than normal, too, as many parents accompanied children receiving vaccinations. Expanding vaccinations Thursday to 12- to 15-year-olds added perhaps 200,000 people to the pool of eligible Oregonians, according to a very rough estimate of census data.
The site began inoculating some in that new wave of eligible Oregonians on Thursday but it was closed Friday and Saturday.
It’s unclear if the demand seen Sunday will remain as strong during the workweek but organizers say they’ve learned from the experience and hope to do better.
Appointments remain available Monday through Thursday. Walk-ins are also accepted at the clinic, which is operated by Kaiser Permanente, Legacy Health, Providence Health & Services and Oregon Health & Science University.
“We will assess and make adjustments to reduce wait times,” Foley said. “Our goal is to make getting a COVID-19 vaccination as easy and convenient as possible.”
