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

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

PORTLAND, Oregon (KTVZ) – There are 32 new COVID-19-related deaths in Oregon, bringing the state’s death toll to 2,194, the Oregon Health Authority reported on Wednesday while releasing a promising weekly report with sharp decline in deaths, cases and hospitalizations.

The Oregon Health Authority reported 437 new confirmed and suspected cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state’s total to 154,062.

Vaccinations in Oregon

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

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).

Oregon has now 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 sites across Oregon.

The Saint-Charles health system reported 23,388 COVID-19 vaccinations as of early Wednesday.

These data are preliminary and subject to change. The OHA dashboards provide regularly updated immunization data, and the Oregon dashboard was updated on Wednesday.

COVID-19 hospitalizations

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

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. Staff limitations are not taken into account in this data and may further limit bed capacity.

St. Charles Bend reported 15 COVID-19 patients as of 4 a.m. Wednesday, including two in intensive care, one on a ventilator.

For more information on the capacity of the hospital, click here

The OHA has added a new dashboard tool showing the sites verified by the Oregon vaccination program to receive and administer COVID-19 vaccines.

Being displayed on this dashboard does not mean that sites have received COVID-19 vaccine doses, administer COVID-19 vaccines on-site, or have COVID-19 vaccines in their inventory. The new dashboard tool shows progress in recruiting potential COVID-19 vaccine suppliers across the state.

The tool is not intended to be used for planning. Go to the COVID-19 vaccine webpage to learn more about vaccinations, to sign up for eligibility notifications, and to find vaccination providers in your county.

Weekly COVID-19 Data and Outbreak Reports

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

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

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

COVID-19-related deaths also fell from 114 to 17, which is the lowest weekly death toll since the week of June 29 to July 5.

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

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

Wednesday’s COVID-19 Outbreak Weekly Report shows 74 active COVID-19 outbreaks in elderly communities and collective living spaces, with three or more confirmed cases and one or more COVID-19-related deaths.

Cases and deaths

Details of the deaths reported Wednesday will be released later.

The new confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases reported 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 vaccinations

To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit the OHA webpage, which features a distribution breakdown, a new infographic showing the differences between the OHA vaccination tools and other useful information.