Oregon reports 1 more COVID-19 related death, 539 new cases

PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) — There is one new COVID-19 related death in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,834, the Oregon Health Authority reported Thursday.

OHA also reported 539 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 214,263.

Media briefing

Members of the media were invited to a briefing Thursday afternoon with Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen and Oregon State Public Health Officer and Epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger.

OHA discussed the increase of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Oregon.

A copy of the slides from that briefing can be found here, with talking points found here.

Here is a video link to Thursday’s media briefing.

Vaccinations in Oregon

OHA reported Thursday that 5,925 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 3,135 doses were administered on July 21 and 2,790 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on July 21.

The seven-day running average is now 4,576 doses per day.

Oregon has now administered 2,628,183 first and second doses of Pfizer, 1,772,908 first and second doses of Moderna and 177,730 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.

As of Thursday, 2,460,594 people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2,288,184 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series.

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, 2,995,245 doses of Pfizer, 2,282,540 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.

Updated vaccination data are provided on Oregon’s COVID-19 data dashboards and have been updated Thursday.

COVID-19 hospitalizations

The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 169, which is 18 more than Wednesday. There are 39 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is two 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 14 COVID-19 patients as of early Thursday, with three in the ICU, all on ventilators.

Get ‘super vaccinated’ at superhero themed vaccine event

NW Disability Support (NWDS), the community-based organization that produced Fighting COVID, has put out a second comic called Beating COVID. Beating COVID features the story of new superheroes: The Super Vaccines!

The comic is intended to address the need of having appropriate materials created for children and adults of all ages that can be used by educators, professionals and parents in their practice.

You can get a free comic along with a vaccine at the final vaccination event, sponsored by NWDS. The final event will be held Wednesday, July 28 from 3 to 7 p.m. at Multnomah Learning Academy, 22565 NE Halsey Street in Fairview, Oregon.

Cases and deaths

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Thursday are in the following counties: Baker (1), Benton (7), Clackamas (44), Columbia (8), Coos (6), Crook (3), Curry (3), Deschutes (28), Douglas (19), Grant (1), Hood River (1), Jackson (63), Jefferson (6), Josephine (27), Klamath (3), Lane (50), Lincoln (2), Linn (24), Malheur (4), Marion (36), Morrow (3), Multnomah (54), Polk (8), Tillamook (1), Umatilla (70), Union (3), Wallowa (5), Wasco (4), Washington (43) and Yamhill (12).  

Oregon’s 2,834th death is a 95-year-old woman from Douglas County who tested positive on July 13 and died on July 20 at Mercy Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

OHA does not report the vaccination status of people in its daily update of COVID-19 related deaths. However, statewide data show that people who remain unvaccinated are at much greater risk of infection and severe illness.

In June, 92% of the 7,241 COVID-19 cases and 94% of the 63 COVID-19-associated deaths occurred in unvaccinated Oregonians. On the first Thursday of each month, OHA publishes an update on vaccine breakthrough cases identified in Oregon. The findings shared in OHA'S last report, from July 1, indicate that this number remains very small when compared to the more than 2 million people who have completed a COVID-19 vaccination series.

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.