Oregon reports 32 more COVID-19-related deaths, 437 cases – but sharp weekly drops

17 deaths last week, the lowest since the beginning of July; cases and hospitalizations also drop significantly

PORTLAND, Oregon. (KTVZ) – There are 32 new COVID-19-related deaths in Oregon, increasing the number of deaths in the state to 2,194, the Oregon Health Authority reported on Wednesday, while publishing a promising weekly report with sharp drops deaths, cases hospitalizations.

The Oregon Health Authority reported 437 new confirmed and presumed cases of COVID-19 at 12:01 am today, bringing the state total to 154,062.

Vaccinations in Oregon

The OHA reported that 22,406 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added on Wednesday to the state’s immunization registry. Of that total, 14,502 doses were administered on Tuesday and 7,904 were administered in the previous days, but entered the vaccine register on Tuesday.

Cumulative daily totals can take several days to complete because providers have 72 hours to report administered doses and technical challenges have caused many providers to delay reporting. OHA has provided technical support to vaccination sites to improve the opportunity for their data entry into the state’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).

Oregon has administered a cumulative total of 858,481 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. To date, 1,133,695 doses of the vaccine have been delivered to locations across Oregon.

The St. Charles Health System reported 23,388 COVID-19 vaccinations administered on Wednesday.

These data are preliminary and subject to change. OHA panels provide regularly updated vaccination data, and the Oregon panel was updated on Wednesday.

COVID-19 Hospitalizations

The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 across Oregon is 162, three fewer than on Tuesday. There are 46 patients with COVID-19 in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, that is, two more than Tuesday.

The total number of patients in hospital beds can fluctuate between reporting times. The figures do not reflect hospitalizations per day, nor the length of stay. Personnel limitations are not captured in this data and can further limit the capacity of beds.

St. Charles Bend reported 15 patients with COVID-19 by 4 am on Wednesday, two of whom were in the ICU, one on a ventilator.

More information about the hospital’s capacity can be found here

OHA added a new dashboard tool that shows the locations verified by the Oregon Immunization Program to receive and administer COVID-19 vaccines.

The display on this panel does not mean that sites have received doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, are administering COVID-19 vaccines on site, or have COVID-19 vaccines in their inventory. The new dashboard tool shows progress in enrolling COVID-19 vaccine providers across the state.

The tool should not be used for scheduling. Go to the COVID-19 vaccine web page to learn more about vaccinations, sign up to receive eligibility notifications and find vaccination providers in your municipality.

Weekly COVID-19 data and outbreak reports

The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report, released on Wednesday, shows sharp drops in daily cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the previous week.

The OHA reported 2,260 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week from Monday, February 15 to Sunday, February 21 – a 35% reduction from the previous week.

New hospitalizations related to COVID-19 fell 42%, falling from 272 to 159.

COVID-19-related deaths also declined from 114 to 17, representing the lowest number of weekly deaths since the week of June 29 to July 5.

There were 70,200 tests for COVID-19 for the week from February 14 to February 20, which represents a sharp drop from the previous week. The percentage of positive tests was 3.5%.

People aged 70 and over are responsible for 77% of deaths associated with the virus.

Wednesday’s weekly COVID-19 outbreak report shows 74 active outbreaks of COVID-19 in elderly communities and living environments, with three or more confirmed cases and one or more COVID-19-related deaths.

Cases and deaths

Details on the deaths reported on Wednesday will be published later.

The new confirmed and presumed COVID-19 cases reported on Wednesday are in the following counties: Baker (6), Benton (22), Clackamas (38), Clatsop (6), Columbia (10), Coos (16), Crook (8), Curry (1), Deschutes (28), Douglas (28), Jackson (27), Jefferson (7), Josephine (20), Klamath (4), Lane (33), Lincoln (2), Linn (6), Malheur (3), Marion (33), Morrow (5), Multnomah (55), Polk (11), Sherman (1), Tillamook (3), Umatilla (15), Union (1), Wasco (1), Washington (41) and Yamhill (6).

Learn more about COVID-19 vaccines

To learn more about the status of the COVID-19 vaccine in Oregon, visit the OHA website, which features an analysis of distribution, a new infographic showing the differences between OHA vaccine tools and other useful information.