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PORTLAND, Oregon (KTVZ) – There are two new COVID-19-related deaths in Oregon, bringing the state’s death toll to 2,385, the Oregon Health Authority reported Thursday.
The OHA also reported 521 new confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases as of 12:01 am Thursday morning, bringing the state total to 165,524.
Other counties approved to expand vaccinations
The OHA announced Thursday that 23 counties in Oregon have now submitted attestation letters signaling their intention to immediately offer COVID-19 vaccines to expanded eligibility groups. The new counties added are: Baker, Clatsop and Gilliam.
The counties are: Baker, Benton, Coos, Clatsop, Crook, Deschutes, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Lincoln, Malheur, Marion, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union and Wheeler.
By attesting to this, these counties can now begin immunizing everyone listed in Phase 1B, Group 7, by the previously designated state start date of April 5.
Oregon Health Authority to update data source for ‘variant of concern’ dashboard
As of February 3, OHA has been reporting a cumulative tally of each variant of concern on its Tableau dashboard. These counts are based on information communicated directly to public health by partner laboratories.
On March 16, the CDC reclassified variants B.1.427 and B.1.429 as “variants of concern”. These variants have been circulating in Oregon since late 2020 and had not been reported before. The OHA has examined historical data from the open source sequencing data platform GISAID and has identified more than 190 B.1.427 and B.1.429 variants to date in Oregon.
In order to provide a complete picture of variant circulation in Oregon, the OHA will begin updating its variant counts of concern using GISAID data. This will allow the OHA to quickly report historical data whenever the CDC definitions of variants of concern are updated. The OHA variant of concern dashboard will be updated with GISAID data on April 2, 2021 and will be updated every Wednesday in the future.
Oregon will continue to require all partner laboratories to promptly report all variants of concern (B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1, B.1.427 and B.1.429) and variants of interest (B. 1.525, B.1.526), P.2) to public health in order to inform case investigation and contact tracing.
Vaccination data for counties temporarily unavailable
Vaccination data showing the status of COVID-19 vaccinations at the county level has been temporarily disabled on the OHA vaccination dashboard. No other data is impacted, and statewide data on race, ethnicity and age of those vaccinated is still being updated on the main dashboard showing trends vaccination in Oregon.
The OHA is addressing an issue with its geocoding process, which misclassified the location of some vaccinated individuals. The issue has been resolved and solutions are being evaluated to update and correct the county designation for those affected.
OHA continuously analyzes all of its data and performs continuous data quality checks. At this point, all other data elements are checked.
Immunization data requests that include county of residence will be delayed at this time. The OHA will provide an update on the estimated schedule for the release of county-level data in the coming days.
Vaccinations in Oregon
The OHA reported that 46,587 new doses of COVID-19 vaccine were added to the state’s immunization registry on Thursday. Of that total, 29,262 doses were administered on March 31 and 17,325 were administered the previous days, but were entered in the vaccine registry on Thursday.
Oregon has now administered a total of 941,850 first and second doses of Pfizer, 867,103 first and second doses of Moderna, and 43,075 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
It may take several days for the cumulative daily totals to be finalized because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical issues have caused many providers to be late in reporting. The OHA provided technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the state’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).
To date, 1,170,585 doses of Pfizer, 1,098,900 doses of Moderna and 97,300 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
These data are preliminary and subject to change.
The OHA dashboards provide regularly updated immunization data, and the Oregon dashboard was updated on Friday.
COVID-19 hospitalizations
The number of hospital patients with COVID-19 in Oregon is 155, up 16 from Wednesday. There are 39 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, three more than Wednesday.
The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between reporting times. Figures do not reflect admissions per day or length of hospital stay. Staffing limits are not factored into this data and may further limit bed capacity.
For more information on the capacity of the hospital, click here.
St. Charles Bend reported five COVID-19 patients at 4 a.m. Thursday, two in intensive care and one on a ventilator.
Cases and deaths
The new confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases reported Thursday are in the following counties: Baker (7), Benton (8), Clackamas (39), Clatsop (7), Columbia (16), Coos (7), Crook ( 2), Curry (4), Deschutes (30), Douglas (17), Grant (7), Jackson (73), Jefferson (2), Josephine (30), Klamath (22), Lane (30), Lincoln ( 2)), Linn (20), Malheur (2), Marion (40), Multnomah (71), Polk (12), Tillamook (13), Union (4), Washington (48) and Yamhill (8).
The 2,384th COVID-19 death in Oregon is a 78-year-old man in Klamath County who tested positive on March 15 and died on March 31 at Sky Lakes Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.
The 2385th death from COVID-19 in Oregon is a 48-year-old woman in Union County who tested positive on March 17 and died on March 30 at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center. She had underlying conditions.
In case you missed it: Over 1,000 people vaccinated at pilot event in Morrow County
In yesterday’s edition of the Oregon Coronavirus Update, we highlighted a pilot vaccination event at Boardman, co-hosted by the OHA and Morrow County Public Health.
“This event helped save lives,” said Jorge Martinez Zapata, OHA Regional Outreach Coordinator for Northeast Oregon. “More than 1,000 people from all walks of life, including some of the most underserved groups, have received their first dose of Pfizer vaccine.”
The four-day event at the Sage Center featured live radio broadcasts in Spanish by local station La Raza. Multilingual staff and volunteers assisted participants throughout the process.
You can also read the full story on the OHA Blog. To subscribe to the Oregon Coronavirus update, visit this page.
Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations
To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit the OHA webpage, which features a distribution breakdown and other useful information.
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