Oregon reports 331 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 27 new deaths
PORTLAND, Ore. — There are 27 new COVID-19-related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 6,960, Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reported at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. OHA reported 331 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. Thursday, bringing the state total to 700,960.
OHA releases new COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough report
OHA’s most recent update on COVID-19 breakthrough cases, released Thursday, reported 2,532 cases of COVID-19 during the week of March 6 to March 12. Of those cases, 2,370, or 93.6%, were unvaccinated people and 945, or 37.3%, were vaccine breakthrough cases. Among the breakthrough cases, 468, or 49.5%, were fully vaccinated and boosted. The median age of the breakthrough cases during that period was 51. Seven breakthrough cases involved residents of care facilities, senior living communities or other congregate care settings. There were 43 cases in people ages 12 to 17. To date, there have been 195,600 COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases in Oregon. Of those cases, 45,386, or 23.2%, were fully vaccinated. The median age of all cases is 41. The report shows that the rate of COVID-19 in unvaccinated people last week was approximately 3.5 times the rate as in vaccinated people, and 4.5 times higher than in people who are fully vaccinated and boosted. To date, 2.5% of all vaccine breakthrough cases have been hospitalized and 0.6% have died. The median age of vaccinated people who died is 80. Vaccination remains the most effective tool to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Oregonians are encouraged to get vaccinated and, if eligible, to get a booster shot.
COVID-19 Hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 215, which is 27 fewer than Wednesday. There are 32 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is four fewer than Thursday. There are 100 available adult ICU beds out of 676 total (15% availability) and 372 available adult non-ICU beds out of 4,295 (9% availability). The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity.
Vaccinations in Oregon
Thursday, OHA reported that 3,253 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry March 16. Of that total, 304 were initial doses, 352 were second doses and 910 were third doses and booster doses. The remaining 1,509 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry March 16. The seven-day running average is now 2,386 doses per day. Oregon has now administered 4,175,976 doses of Pfizer Comirnaty, 242,105 doses of Pfizer pediatric, 2,731,411 doses of Moderna and 269,694 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. As of Thursday, 3,169,881 people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 2,877,846 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series. These data are preliminary and subject to change. Updated vaccination data are provided on Oregon’s COVID-19 data dashboards and have been updated Thursday.
COVID-19 Cases
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Thursday are in the following counties: Benton (10), Clackamas (12), Clatsop (5), Columbia (6), Coos (11), Crook (3), Curry (2), Deschutes (16), Douglas (10), Grant (9), Harney (1), Jackson (18), Jefferson (1), Josephine (21), Klamath (5), Lake (2), Lane (32), Lincoln (1), Linn (13), Marion (37), Multnomah (65), Polk (3), Umatilla (2), Union (2), Wasco (3), Washington (35) and Yamhill (6).