Grants Pass, Oregon – Oregon health workers who were stuck in a snowstorm on their return from a COVID-19 vaccination event drove into the car injecting blocked drivers before several doses expired. Josephine County Public Health said on Facebook that the “makeshift vaccine clinic” took place after about 20 employees were stopped in traffic on a highway after a vaccination clinic on Tuesday.
CBS Medford, Oregon affiliate KTVL-TV reported being stranded near Hayes Hill on their way to Grants Pass after being hired at a vaccine clinic in Illinois Valley High School.
Six of the doses were allocated to people in Grants Pass, but “the snow meant that these doses would not reach them before they expired,” the health department said in a Facebook post.
KTVL-TV
KTVL explained that the doses would have expired six hours after they were opened.
Not wanting to scatter them, the staff went from vehicle to vehicle, giving people a chance to receive the vaccine. A county ambulance was on hand for safety.
All doses were administered, including one to an employee of County Sheriff Josephine’s office who arrived too late for the vaccination clinic but ended up stopping with the others, officials said.
Josephine County Public Health Director Mike Weber said it was one of the “strongest operations he had been involved in.”