Oregon reports 2 more COVID-19 related deaths, 521 new cases
PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- There are two new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,385, the Oregon Health Authority reported Thursday.
OHA also reported 521 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. Thursday, bringing the state total to 165,524.
Additional counties approved for expanding vaccinations
OHA announced Thursday that 23 Oregon counties have now submitted attestation letters signaling their intention to immediately offer COVID-19 vaccinations to expanded eligibility groups. The newest counties added are: Baker, Clatsop and Gilliam.
The counties are: Baker, Benton, Coos, Clatsop, Crook, Deschutes, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Lincoln, Malheur, Marion, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union and Wheeler.
By attesting, these counties can now begin vaccinating all individuals listed in Phase 1B, Group 7, ahead of the previously designated statewide start date of April 5.
Oregon Health Authority will update data source for ‘variant of concern’ dashboard
Since Feb. 3, OHA has been reporting a cumulative count of each variant of concern on its Tableau dashboard. These counts have been based on information reported directly to public health by laboratory partners.
On March 16, CDC reclassified the B.1.427 and B.1.429 variants as “variants of concern.” These variants have been circulating in Oregon since late 2020 and had not been previously reportable. OHA has reviewed historical data in the open-source sequencing data platform GISAID and has identified more than 190 B.1.427 and B.1.429 variants to date in Oregon.
In order to provide a comprehensive picture of variant circulation in Oregon, OHA will begin updating its variant of concern counts using GISAID data. This will allow OHA to rapidly report historical data whenever CDC definitions of variants of concern are updated. The OHA variant of concern dashboard will be updated with GISAID data on April 2, 2021, and will be updated every Wednesday moving forward.
Oregon will continue to ask all laboratory partners to promptly report all variants of concern (B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1, B.1.427 and B.1.429) and variants of interest (B.1.525, B.1.526, P.2) to public health in order to inform case investigation and contact tracing.
Vaccination data for counties temporarily unavailable
Vaccination data showing the status of COVID-19 vaccinations at the county level has been temporarily disabled on OHA’s vaccination dashboard. No other data are impacted, and statewide data on race, ethnicity and the age of persons vaccinated are still being updated on the main dashboard showing Oregon’s vaccination trends.
OHA is addressing an issue with its geocoding process, which miscategorized the location of certain vaccinated individuals. The problem has been fixed and solutions are being evaluated to update and correct county designation for impacted individuals.
OHA continually analyzes all its data and performs ongoing data quality checks. At this time, all other data elements are verified.
Vaccination data requests that include county of residence will be delayed at this time. OHA will provide an update on the estimated timeline for release of county-level data in the coming days.
Vaccinations in Oregon
OHA reported that 46,587 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added Thursday to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 29,262 doses were administered on March 31 and 17,325 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Thursday.
Oregon has now administered a total of 941,850 first and second doses of Pfizer, 867,103 first and second doses of Moderna and 43,075 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
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, 1,170,585 doses of Pfizer, 1,098,900 doses of Moderna and 97,300 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 155, which is 16 more than Wednesday. There are 39 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is three more than Wednesday.
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 five COVID-19 patients as of 4 a.m. Thursday, two in the ICU and one on a ventilator.
Cases and deaths
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Thursday are in the following counties: Baker (7), Benton (8), Clackamas (39), Clatsop (7), Columbia (16), Coos (7), Crook (2), Curry (4), Deschutes (30), Douglas (17), Grant (7), Jackson (73), Jefferson (2), Josephine (30), Klamath (22), Lane (30), Lincoln (2), Linn (20), Malheur (2), Marion (40), Multnomah (71), Polk (12), Tillamook (13), Union (4), Washington (48) and Yamhill (8).
Oregon’s 2,384th COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old man in Klamath County who tested positive on March 15 and died on March 31 at Sky Lakes Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 2,385th COVID-19 death is a 48-year-old woman in Union County who tested positive on March 17 and died on March 30 at St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center. She had underlying conditions.
In case you missed it: More than 1,000 people vaccinated at pilot event in Morrow County
In yesterday’s edition of Oregon Coronavirus Update, we spotlighted a pilot vaccination event in Boardman that was co-hosted by OHA and Morrow County Public Health.
“This event helped save lives,” said Jorge Martinez Zapata, OHA’s Regional Outreach Coordinator for Northeast Oregon. “Over 1,000 people from all walks of life, including some of the most underserved groups, received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.”
The four-day event at the Sage Center featured live radio broadcasts in Spanish by local station La Raza. Multilingual staff and volunteers assisted participants through the process.
You can also read the full story on the OHA blog. To subscribe to Oregon Coronavirus Update, visit this page.
Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations
To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit OHA's web page, which has a breakdown of distribution and other useful information.
