Oregon reports 10 more COVID-19 related deaths, 713 new cases; transmission rate falling

PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- There are 10 new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,582, the Oregon Health Authority reported Friday.

OHA also reported 713 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. Friday, bringing the state total to 194,542.

Dr. Dean Sidelinger discusses latest modeling report and new mask guidance

Dr. Dean Sidelinger, state health officer and state epidemiologist, held a media availability Friday to discuss the latest COVID-19 modeling report and to answer questions about the new mask guidance. A video of Friday’s event can be found here.

Newest COVID-19 modeling report shows decline in transmission

On Friday, OHA released its latest COVID-19 forecast, which showed lower transmission of the virus through late April and projects fewer hospitalizations and daily cases through June 1.

According to the model, the effective reproduction rate — the expected number of secondary cases that a single case generates — was estimated to be 0.86 through April 28.

At that same level of transmission, daily cases would decline to 140 per 100,000 people, which would amount to an average of 420 new daily cases, with 17 fewer daily hospitalizations, by June 1.

If transmission increases by 20%, new cases would decline more gradually to 195 per 100,000 people, which would amount to an average of 590 daily cases and 26 fewer hospitalizations.

The report also addressed the impact vaccinations have had on substantially slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Oregon.

According to the report: “Vaccine immunity is helping prevent further spread of COVID-19. If we remove all of those who have vaccine immunity from the model calculations and look at the rate of infection, we see each infection spreading on average to 1.12 other people.”

Without any vaccine immunity, the estimated effective reproduction rate “would be 1.12 instead of 0.86, and new infections would still be increasing.”

More than 2 million Oregonians have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 1.5 million have completed a vaccine series.

Johnson & Johnson allocations on hold

Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine allocations being provided to state, local and territorial jurisdictions, and other partners, have been put on hold pending the U.S. Food and Drug Administration certification of doses produced at the Baltimore Emergent plant.

All currently allocated doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine distributed are safe and have been cleared for use. The proportion of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on hold represents a small portion of vaccines allocated in Oregon. There are sufficient doses of Moderna and Pfizer to ensure providers can continue delivering doses statewide, at events and other locations administering the vaccines.

Vaccinations in Oregon

OHA reported Friday that 37,164 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 24,318 doses were administered on Thursday and 12,846 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Thursday. The seven-day running average is now 32,278 doses per day.

Oregon has now administered a total of 1,901,445 first and second doses of Pfizer, 1,452,653 first and second doses of Moderna and 118,128 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. As of Friday, 1,552,152 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series. There are 2,033,360 people who have had at least one dose.

Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the state’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).

To date, 2,250,495 doses of Pfizer, 1,833,420 doses of Moderna and 266,200 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to sites across Oregon.

These data are preliminary and subject to change.

OHA's dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data, and Oregon’s dashboard has been updated Friday.

COVID-19 hospitalizations

The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 337, which is 14 fewer than Thursday. There are 77 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is 11 fewer than Thursday.

The total number of COVID-19 positive patient bed-days in the most recent seven days is 2,352, which is a 0.1% decrease from the previous seven days. The peak daily number of beds occupied by COVID-19 positive patients in the most recent seven days is 351.

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.

More information about hospital capacity can be found here.

St. Charles Bend reported 39 COVID-19 patients as of 4 a.m. Friday, seven in the ICU, with four on ventilators.

Cases and deaths

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Friday are in the following counties: Baker (4), Benton (6), Clackamas (100), Clatsop (6), Columbia (5), Coos (5), Crook (11), Deschutes (68), Douglas (10), Grant (13), Harney (2), Hood River (4), Jackson (39), Jefferson (8), Josephine (10), Klamath (35), Lake (3), Lane (46), Lincoln (4), Linn (29), Malheur (5), Marion (60), Morrow (3), Multnomah (120), Polk (14), Tillamook (3), Umatilla (17), Union (1), Wasco (2), Washington (70) and Yamhill (10).

Oregon’s 2,573rd COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old man from Columbia County who tested positive on April 12 and died on May 10 at Portland VA Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,574th COVID-19 death is a 68-year-old man from Columbia County who tested positive on April 3 and died on April 18 at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver, WA. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,575th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old man from Grant County who tested positive on May 6 and died on May 12 at his residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,576th COVID-19 death is a 104-year-old woman from Coos County who tested positive on May 5 and died on May 9 at her residence. She had no underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,577th COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old man from Lane County who tested positive on April 17 and died on May 3 at his residence. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,578th COVID-19 death is a 54-year-old woman from Marion County who tested positive on May 13 and died on May 13 at Salem Hospital. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,579th COVID-19 death is a 63-year-old woman from Multnomah County who tested positive on April 14 and died on April 24 at Spring Valley Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas, NV. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,580th COVID-19 death is a 58-year-old woman from Multnomah County who tested positive on April 10 and died on May 9 at Providence Portland Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,581st COVID-19 death is a 73-year-old man from Polk County who tested positive on April 29 and died on May 12 at Salem Hospital. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,582nd COVID-19 death is an 83-year-old man from Curry County who tested positive on May 4 and died on May 10 at Bay Area Hospital. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Note: Updated information is known about Oregon’s 2,555th death. She is a 67-year-old woman from Benton County. She was originally reported as a Linn County resident.

New guidance for fully vaccinated Oregonians

On Thursday, Gov. Kate Brown announced that Oregon will be following newly announced Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for mask wearing, which only applies to fully vaccinated individuals. For vaccines authorized for emergency use in the United States, persons are considered fully vaccinated:

• two weeks after their second dose in a two-dose series, for the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or
• two weeks after a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

In the coming days, OHA will be providing updated guidance for businesses, employers and others to allow the option of lifting mask and physical distancing requirements after verifying vaccination status. 

Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations

To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit our webpage (English or Spanish), which has a breakdown of distribution and other information.