Oregon reports 16 more COVID-19 related deaths, 269 new cases, promising weekly data

(Update: Adding details on 16 deaths)

Last week's cases, hospitalizations were lowest since last September

PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- There are 16 new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,716, the Oregon Health Authority reported Wednesday.

OHA also reported 269 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday bringing the state total to 203,933.

COVID-19 weekly cases, hospitalizations decline

The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report, released Wednesday, shows the sixth consecutive week of declining cases and lowest weekly case tally since last September. OHA reported 1,725 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, May 31, through Sunday, June 6. That represents a 26% decline from the previous week.

New COVID-19 related hospitalizations also declined, from 190 to 112. That’s also the lowest since last September.

There were 20 reported COVID-19 related deaths.

There were 72,443 tests for COVID-19 for the week of May 30 through June 5. The percentage of positive tests was 3.8%.

People 70 years of age and older have accounted for 398 of COVID-19 related hospitalizations and 75% of COVID-19 related deaths.

Wednesday’s COVID-19 Weekly Outbreak Report shows 19 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.

New Variant Labels added to OHA Tableau Dashboards

On May 31st, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a new, “easy-to-pronounce and non-stigmatizing” labeling convention for Variants of Concern and Variants of Interest, using the Greek alphabet as an easier way to discuss variants by non-scientific audiences. 

Starting Wednesday, OHA’s  COVID-19 Daily Data Update dashboard and Variants dashboard will include WHO labels, added alongside with the current  labels.

OHA uses the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) guidelines for reporting, and there are some differences between how the WHO and CDC groups variants of both classifications. 

• The WHO groups the B.1.427 and B.1.429 variants together and has given them a label of “Epsilon.” OHA will continue to follow how the CDC reports these variants separately, and they will both have the “Epsilon” label added to each.
• The CDC has also identified some Variants of Interest for the U.S. that the WHO has not. As a result, these will not have a Greek alphabet label assigned to it.

Explanations about these WHO label additions will be included in the notes at the bottom of each of the dashboards. Additional information about Variants of Concern and Variants of Interest can be found here.

OHA refreshes vaccine administration trends and metrics dashboard

On Wednesday, OHA refreshed the data for the vaccine administration trends and metrics dashboards with a new extract from ALERT IIS. The data are periodically refreshed, which allows for quality assurance and review. The data were last refreshed on April 9.

Following the refresh Wednesday, race and ethnicity data for approximately 1,200 people was updated, predominantly affecting Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaska Native vaccination rates. County status toward the 65% vaccination goal was not affected by the data refresh, but vaccination rates for five counties decreased minimally - by 1% or less. Those counties are Baker, Benton, Clatsop, Sherman and Wheeler.

Vaccinations in Oregon

OHA reported Wednesday that 21,934 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 12,736 doses were administered on Tuesday and Wednesday, 198 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Sunday.

The seven-day running average is now 15,264 doses per day.

Oregon has now administered 2,319,302 first and second doses of Pfizer,1,651,646 first and second doses of Moderna and 152,192 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.

As of Wednesday, 1,951,646 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series. There are 2,292,591 who have had at least one dose. The number of adult Oregonians needing vaccinations to reach the 70% threshold is 93,444.

A daily countdown can be found on the OHA website.

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, 2,861,055 doses of Pfizer, 2,171,060 doses of Moderna and 299,000 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

Hospitals across the state have received questions from the public about the need to continue to manage and limit visitation policies for patients. Unlike other public settings, hospitals are subject to special visitation requirements. The COVID-19 policies for hospitals and medical centers are based on federal rule and state law. Visitation guidance can be found here.

The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 164, which is eight fewer than yesterday. There are 36 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which represents no change from yesterday.

The total number of COVID-19 positive patient bed-days in the most recent seven days is 1,383, which is a 20.4% 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 228.

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 23 COVID-19 patients as of early Wednesday, with four in the ICU, all on ventilators.

Cases and deaths

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Wednesday are in the following counties: Baker (2), Benton (2), Clackamas (37), Clatsop (1), Columbia (3), Coos (1), Crook (2), Curry (3), Deschutes (19), Douglas (14), Gilliam (1), Grant (6), Harney (3), Hood River (1), Jackson (15), Jefferson (6), Josephine (7), Klamath (4), Lake (1), Lane (10), Lincoln (3) Linn (8), Malheur (7), Marion (40), Morrow (2), Multnomah (32), Polk (7), Umatilla (7), Union (3), Wallowa (1), Washington (14), Yamhill (7).

Oregon’s 2,701st COVID-19 death is a 62-year-old man from Clackamas County who tested positive on May 9 and died on May 27 at Providence Portland Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,702nd COVID-19 death is a 97-year-old woman from Clackamas County who tested positive on April 29 and died on June 2 at her residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,703rd COVID-19 death is a 68-year-old man from Clackamas County who tested positive on April 15 and died on May 21 at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,704th COVID-19 death is a 96-year-old woman from Clackamas County who died on May 19 at her residence. The death certificate listed COVID-19 disease or SARS-CoV-2 as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,705th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old man from Clackamas County who tested positive on May 15 and died on May 24 at Portland Adventist Hospital. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,706th COVID-19 death is a 68-year-old man from Grant County who tested positive on May 9 and died on May 27. Location of death and presence of underlying conditions are being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,707th COVID-19 death is a 65-year-old man from Douglas County who tested positive on May 14 and died on June 7 at Mercy Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,708th COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old man from Hood River County who tested positive on April 28 and died on May 21 at Kaiser Westside Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,709th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old woman from Linn County who tested positive on May 22 and died on May 26 at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,710th COVID-19 death is a 62-year-old woman from Multnomah County who tested positive on May 24 and died on May 26 at Providence Portland Medical Center. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,711th COVID-19 death is a 69-year-old woman from Multnomah County who tested positive on May 17 and died on June 3 at Providence Portland Medical Center. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,712th COVID-19 death is a 51-year-old woman from Marion County who tested positive on May 3 and died on June 6 at Salem Hospital. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,713th COVID-19 death is a 54-year-old man from Washington County who tested positive on May 29 and died on June 7 at Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,714th COVID-19 death is a 67-year-old woman from Washington County who tested positive on May 4 and died on May 27 at Kaiser Westside Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,715th COVID-19 death is a 60-year-old woman from Washington County who tested positive on May 3 and died on May 14 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,716th COVID-19 death is a 54-year-old man from Washington County who tested positive on April 28 and died on June 7 at Legacy Good Samaritan 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.