Oregon reports 4 more COVID-19 related deaths, including Jefferson County’s 40th; 196 new cases

Cases, deaths, hospitalizations decline in past week

PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- There are four new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, including Jefferson County's 40th death, raising the state’s death toll to 2,774, the Oregon Health Authority reported Wednesday.

OHA also reported 196 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday,, bringing the state total to 208,637.

Governor Brown joined by Oregon leaders for reopening event

Governor Kate Brown was joined Wednesday by various business, health, community and governmental leaders to commemorate Oregon’s official reopening.

“Today, we celebrate Oregon’s strength, resilience and collaboration,” said Governor Brown. “We celebrate brighter days ahead. And, today, we celebrate that Oregon is 100% open for business.”

While reaching the 70% statewide vaccination threshold gives many reasons to be joyful, the event also acknowledged the immense loss and grief that many continue to experience as a result of the pandemic. 

“In Oregon, we’ve lost 2,770 family, friends, neighbors and co-workers who died with COVID-19,” said OHA Director Patrick Allen. “If we took just one minute to honor each person we’ve lost, we’d stand a vigil that would last more than 46 hours.”

“For those who are continuing to grieve, whether it’s for the loss of a loved one, a sense of stability, or the life you imagined for yourself and your family this past year and a half,  know that it’s okay to feel the way you do. If you need support, mental and emotional health resources are available for you online through Safe + Strong, The Dougy Center and Refuge in Grief. Additionally, OHA filmed a Facebook Live on grief in early March, which you can view here.”

To learn more about Wednesday reopening event, read about it on OHA’s blog.

Weekly COVID-19 cases, deaths, hospitalizations decline

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

OHA reported 1,371 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, June 21, through Sunday, June 27. That represents a 19% decline from the previous week and the lowest case count since the week of June 15–21, 2020.

New COVID-19 related hospitalizations fell from 161 to 110.

There were seven reported COVID-19 related deaths, down from 26 reported the previous week.

There were 60,610 tests for COVID-19 for the week of June 20 through June 26. The percentage of positive tests was 3.2%.

People 70 years of age and older have accounted for 38% of COVID-19 related hospitalizations and 74% of COVID-19 related deaths.

Wednesday’s COVID-19 Weekly Outbreak Report shows 21 active COVID-19 outbreaks in senior living communities and congregate living settings, with three or more confirmed cases and one or more COVID-19 related deaths.

Vaccinations in Oregon

OHA reported Wednesday that 59,070 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 4,132 doses were administered on Tuesday and 54,938 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Tuesday.

Wednesday’s vaccination numbers reflect a large number of vaccinations reported by pharmacies. Those numbers will be included in Thursday's CDC dashboard.

The seven-day running average is now 7,532 doses per day.

Oregon has now administered 2,529,381 first and second doses of Pfizer, 1,737,991 first and second doses of Moderna and 168,272 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.

As of Wednesday, 2,397,594 people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2,183,905 have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series. The number of adult Oregonians needing vaccinations to reach the 70% threshold is 16,094. A daily countdown can be found on the OHA vaccinations page.  

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, 2,961,495 doses of Pfizer, 2,231,260 doses of Moderna and 299,100 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 Wednesday.

COVID-19 hospitalizations

The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 136, which is 13 fewer than Tuesday. There are 31 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is four fewer than Tuesday.

The total number of COVID-19 positive patient bed-days in the most recent seven days is 1,046, which is a 0.7% 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 162.

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 nine COVID-19 patients as of early Wednesday, three of whom were in the ICU, all on ventilators.

Cases and deaths

Note: Due to delayed reporting, slightly less than 6,000 negative electronic laboratory reports (ELR) from June 17 to June 25 were received for Lane County on June 29. As a result, the total ELRs are higher than anticipated and the percent positive tests for COVID-19 is lower than anticipated.

Additionally, close to 1,560 ELRs from March 1 to June 28 were received for Josephine County on June 29. As a result, the total ELRs and percent positive tests are higher than anticipated for Josephine County.

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Wednesday are in the following counties: Baker (3), Clackamas (17), Clatsop (5), Crook (1), Curry (1),  Deschutes (7), Douglas (11), Harney (1), Hood River (2), Jackson (16), Jefferson (3), Josephine (5), Klamath (5), Lane (17), Linn (15), Malheur (2), Marion (12), Morrow (1), Multnomah (19), Polk (8), Tillamook (2), Umatilla (21), Union (6), Washington (11) and Yamhill (5).

Oregon’s 2,771st COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old woman from Jefferson County who tested positive on June 5 and died on June 28 at St. Charles Bend. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,772nd COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old man from Jackson County who tested positive on June 26 and died on June 29 at Providence Medford Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,773rd COVID-19 death is a 70-year-old woman from Malheur County who tested positive on July 31, 2020 and died on August 4, 2020 at St. Alphonsus Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,774th COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man from Lane County who tested positive on June 15 and died on June 28 at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.

Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations  

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