Health workers, stuck in the snow, administer coronavirus vaccine to stranded drivers

Unlike many who have to drive miles to get a Covid-19 vaccine, some travelers in southwestern Oregon had the vaccine come to them Tuesday under treacherous weather conditions.

Josephine County Public Health workers were returning from a mass vaccination clinic at Illinois Valley High School in Cave Junction when about 20 members of the group got stranded in a snowstorm at Hayes Hill, the agency said.

They had with them six leftover doses of the vaccine.

To keep those doses from going unused before expiring, the workers went from car to car to offer people the chance to get a shot, the health department said.

An ambulance was waiting nearby in case any recipients had an adverse reaction.

All six doses were administered to the waylaid motorists, including a sheriff’s office employee who had intended to be at the earlier mass vaccination event but got stuck in the snow, the health department said.

Oregon received over 100,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines in the last week, according to the state’s coronavirus hub. The state is still in Phase 1 of its vaccine rollout, and health care workers and teachers have been among the first to get it.