PENDLETON — As Umatilla County is likely headed back into the “high risk” category for COVID-19, the county is turning away vaccine allocations from the state because supply has outpaced demand.

Umatilla County Public Health Director Joe Fiumara said the county told the state it could send last week’s allocation for Umatilla County to a county with higher demand, and will likely do so again this week.

“Our demand level is dropping dramatically,” he said.

Fiumara said Umatilla County Public Health currently has about 6,000 vaccine doses on hand, but is hearing from partners in the county that they don’t need more doses yet. Last week, the county itself administered less than 500 doses total, and most of those were second doses. At some points during their most recent free clinic, Fiumara said, staff were just sitting and waiting around for anyone to arrive — a stark difference from the long lines a few weeks ago.

According to Oregon Health Authority’s vaccine dashboard, Umatilla County is the least vaccinated county in the state, with just 23% of its population at least partially vaccinated, compared with 41% statewide.

The dashboard shows an incomplete picture, however. Some Umatilla County residents have been vaccinated through federal vaccine allocations directly to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and information about those doses goes to the federal government before making its way to the state. Others have received the vaccine from the VA hospital in Walla Walla, Washington, which also takes longer to show up in the OHA database.

Fiumara said from the information he has been given, it appears the CTUIR has administered about 5,000 doses of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine so far, and yet only 2,819 Pfizer doses given to Umatilla County residents are listed on OHA’s website, suggesting that some data from CTUIR clinics has yet to make its way to the state. Fiumara also noted, however, that the CTUIR opened up its latest clinic to all of its ceded territories across 11 counties, meaning not everyone vaccinated by the Tribes is a Umatilla County resident.

“We think our rate is higher, but we don’t know how much higher,” he said.

What public health officials do know is that the county’s vaccination rate so far is nowhere near the point needed to stop transmission of COVID-19 in the county, as evidenced by Umatilla County’s rising cases and hospitalizations. Umatilla County (population 81,160) was placed on a two-week warning period after passing the 100 cases per 100,000 people over a 14-day period mark that would put it back into high risk. OHA reported 114 cases total for Umatilla County over the past two weeks, all but guaranteeing the county will return to high risk in another week.

As Umatilla County Public Health and area hospitals, medical clinics and pharmacies work to increase the local vaccination rate, the county did get some good news over the weekend — Oregon counties were once again cleared to begin administering the Johnson & Johnson version of the vaccine.

The vaccine was paused temporarily in the United States after six women out of nearly 7 million people vaccinated experienced dangerous blood clots. Since then, panels of experts at the state and federal level has determined the benefits of continuing with the vaccine far outweigh the risks.

Fiumara pointed out that many over-the-counter medications sold in grocery stores have higher risks of serious side effects.

“It’s still, relatively speaking, a very safe vaccine,” he said.

Before the pause, he said, the county heard from many Umatilla County workers, particularly in agriculture and food processing, that they would only take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, because it only requires one dose. The county has about 800 doses of the vaccine on hand now, and Fiumara said it remains to be seen whether the demand has changed at all.

During the county’s Friday, April 30, clinic at 2260 S.W. Court Ave. in Pendleton, Umatilla County Public Health will have all three vaccine options — Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — available for anyone ages 16 and up (the Pfizer shot is the only version available to people ages 16 and 17).

“We’re hoping that will generate some additional demand, but we’re very nervous that the pause (on Johnson & Johnson) may have impacted the way people see the vaccine,” he said.

For information on vaccine clinics or to register for an appointment somewhere in Umatilla County, visit ucohealth.net/covid-events-new.