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Two counties in Oregon hard hit by Covid-19 lack space to contain bodies amid an intense increase in cases that overwhelms the state’s health system, forcing authorities to ask for refrigerated trucks to help to manage the overflow.
In Josephine County, located in the southwest of the state, the local hospital is exceeding its capacity to store the body, and the five funeral homes and three crematoriums in the area are “on the verge of crisis capacity on a daily basis.” , the county’s emergency manager told the state last week. . Meanwhile, Tillamook County on the northwest coast of Oregon, reported that her only funeral home “is now consistently at or exceeding capacity” by nine bodies.
The increase in cases, mostly among the unvaccinated, has overwhelmed hospitals statewide. In southwestern Oregon, cases are increasing faster than anywhere else in the country. Oregon has more people hospitalized than at any time during the pandemic. Authorities attribute the current outbreak to the hyper-contagious Delta variant and low vaccination rates in some areas, such as Josephine County, where only 40% of eligible residents are fully vaccinated. In Tillamook County, 54% of eligible residents are fully immunized.
“In the past two weeks, we have had more new positive cases than the first 10 months of the pandemic,” the Tillamook County Council of Commissioners said in a statement. “The spread of Covid in Tillamook County has reached a critical stage. The region, which has a population of 26,000, killed six people in six days.
Cases in the state have increased 33% in the past two weeks, while deaths have increased by 48% and hospitalizations by 126%, according to data from the New York Times. More than 90% of the state’s intensive care beds are full and the vast majority of patients are not vaccinated.
The governor sent about 1,500 National Guard troops to state hospitals, along with crisis teams of health workers, and reinstated a mask warrant. The mask’s tenure has yet to flatten the infection rate, said Peter Graven, data scientist at Oregon Health and Science University’s business intelligence unit. Graven Project cases will peak next week with a total of 1,197 people hospitalized statewide with Covid by September 6. There are currently 1,098 hospitalized Covid patients in the state.
The push has overwhelmed overworked hospital staff and forced facilities to postpone elective surgeries as they lack the resources to care for these patients and those ill with Covid.
Experts warn the state must increase vaccinations to tackle the outbreak and get through the pandemic.
“We are running against time. We need to keep pace with the virus mutation, ”said Chunhuei Chi, director of the Center for Global Health at Oregon State University. “Only vaccination can get us out of this wave and this pandemic. “
An unvaccinated worker at an assisted living facility in Oregon sparked an outbreak that infected 64 people and killed five, public health officials said.
The Oregon Health Authority reported 20 new deaths on Friday, bringing the state’s death toll to 3,115. There have been 268,401 reported cases in the state of 4.2 million since the start of the pandemic.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
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