Lower testing contributes to reduced case count in Lane County

Lower testing contributes to reduced case count in Lane County

News at 6" we start with the massive coronavirus vaccination that's happening across the nation and right here in oregon.

Tonight... officials are saying both efforts are going slower than planned.

Thank you for joining us i'm chynna green.

Oregon will not make its goal of 100- thousand shots by new year's.

And the country will not vaccinate 20 million people in december.

We have complete team coverage of course.

Kezi 9 news reporter jacob roberts joins us live from eugene.... and he's tracking the latest risk levels announced today.

Jacob, lane county is still in extreme risk.

Will that change anytime soon?

Potentially, yes.

The big question mark is what happened over the holidays?

Before christmas, our cases were headed down.

If that trend holds, our risk level could change in just two or three weeks.

But if cases start to head back up, it could take longer.

Jason davis with lane county public health says while cases are going down, so is testing because of the holidays.

That means we don have a clear picture of where things actually stand.

However, we can look at how many people have been hospitalized.

In lane county, 32 people are in the hospital.

That lower when compared to earlier peaks of 45 to 50.

Davis says on the vaccine front, things are going well with hospitals vaccinating their workers.

But we learned today state health officials will not reach their goal of vaccinating 100- thousand oregons by the end of the month.

That will probably take another two weeks.

Some we spoke with say they understand the state is trying its best.

Judi ivy/springfield resident wee up against a lot.

I mean it being rolled out as quickly as possible.

I don know how we can do it any better than we have been given the circumstances wee been under this whole yea?

The oregon health authority says we have the supply to vaccinate 100- thousand people right now.

But, the issue was putting systems in place to get everyone a shot as quickly as possible.

Even when we do reach 100-thousand people, that only two percent of the state population.

Remember -- we need 70 percent for community immunity.

Live in eugene, jr,