PORTLAND, Ore. — COVID-19 has claimed two more lives in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll from 72 to 74, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 8 a.m. Sunday, April 19. The Oregon Health Authority also reported 66 new cases of COVID-19 as of 8 a.m. Sunday bringing the state total to 1,910. The new COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Clackamas (7), Deschutes (1), Lane (2), Marion (23), Multnomah (21), Umatilla (1), and Washington (12). A previously reported Klamath County case was determined today to be a Washington State case, reducing today’s number of new cases by 1 to 66. The total number of cases in Klamath County is 30 to reflect this change. To see more case and county-level data, go to the Oregon Health Authority website, which OHA updates once a day: www.healthoregon.org/coronavirus. Oregon’s 73rd COVID-19 death is a 64-year-old man in Benton County, who tested positive on March 26 and died on April 18 at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. He had underlying medical conditions. Oregon’s 74th COVID-19 death is a 68-year-old man in Washington County, who tested positive on March 23 and died on April 11 at OHSU. He had underlying medical conditions. Testing update – OHA continues to provide COVID-19 testing through the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory (OSPHL) while Oregon hospitals continue building their laboratory testing capacity. Several Oregon hospital laboratories and commercial laboratories, such as Quest and LabCorp, provide external testing capacity for the state. OHA is in the process of updating its testing guidance for providers and for OSPHL to augment testing in support of testing goals, including: Protect health care providers, first responders and critical infrastructure workers. Increase access to testing in health care settings to appropriately assess, triage and treat patients. Identify and control the spread of disease in congregate care settings. Eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 health outcomes. Longer term, testing is a key strategy for understanding the transmission of the virus and population prevalence of disease. As of April 17, Oregon’s positive testing result has remained fairly consistent at about 5% of tests performed; as compared to the national average of 17.6%. OSPHL continues to prioritize its testing to identify and control clusters of disease in congregate care settings, including long-term care and correctional facilities.
