Oregon reports 320 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 5 new deaths
PORTLAND, Ore. — There are five new COVID-19-related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 7,144, Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reported at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. OHA reported 320 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. Thursday, bringing the state total to 704,152.
OHA releases new COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough report
OHA’s most recent update on COVID-19 breakthrough cases, released Thursday, reported 1,599 cases of COVID-19 during the week of March 20 to March 26. Of those cases, 850, or 53.2%, were unvaccinated people, and 748, or 46.8%, were vaccine breakthrough cases. Among the breakthrough cases, 433, or 57.9%, were fully vaccinated and boosted. The median age of the breakthrough cases during that period was 48. Twelve breakthrough cases involved residents of care facilities, senior living communities or other congregate care settings. There were 29 breakthrough cases in people ages 12 to 17. To date, there have been 197,423 COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases in Oregon. Of those cases, 46,403 or 23.5%, 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 three times higher than in vaccinated people, and in people who are fully vaccinated and boosted. To date, 2.6% 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, get a booster shot.
State response to hospital surge winds down
Thursday is the final day of operation for the Healthcare Surge Unified Command team that was mobilized in August 2021 to support Oregon’s coordinated response to the Delta and Omicron surges affecting hospitals and health systems. The team included staff from OHA and the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS). The phased demobilization of the team began in February, after data showed dramatic decreases in the number of hospitalizations following the highest number of hospitalizations in January during the Omicron surge. Though the period of active operations ends today, some team members will continue to serve through the end of June. Starting April 1, operations will transition from an active emergency response phase to one focused on building resiliency throughout the state’s health care system.
COVID-19 Hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 108, which is four more than Wednesday. There are 17 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is two more than Wednesday. There are 118 available adult ICU beds out of 669 total (18% availability) and 348 available adult non-ICU beds out of 4,278 (8% 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 4,277 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry March 30. Of that total, 265 were initial doses, 270 were second doses and 811 were third doses and booster doses. The remaining 1,485 doses were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry March 30. The seven-day running average is now 1,929 doses per day. Oregon has now administered 4,195,714 doses of Pfizer Comirnaty, 245,954 doses of Pfizer pediatric, 2,742,231 doses of Moderna and 270,380 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. As of Thursday, 3,176,337 people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and 2,884,888 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.
Daily COVID-19 vaccine dashboard updates
There are a number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered on March 30 that were recorded as “unknown/invalid dose.” This is likely to continue for the next several days due to the newly authorized second booster dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for adults 50 and older and certain immunocompromised individuals. OHA will update the COVID-19 vaccination dashboards Wednesday, April 6, to incorporate these doses.
COVID-19 Cases
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Thursday are in the following counties: Benton (15), Clackamas (32), Clatsop (2), Columbia (1), Coos (5), Crook (1), Deschutes (17), Douglas (2), Grant (2), Harney (1), Hood River (1), Jackson (16), Josephine (7), Klamath (2), Lake (1), Lane (38), Linn (9), Marion (17), Multnomah (88), Polk (8), Sherman (1), Umatilla (3), Wasco (1), Washington (44) and Yamhill (6).