Records still falling: 19 COVID-19 related deaths, 2,971 new cases, 845 hospitalizations

(Update: Adding details on deaths, including Crook County resident)

New dashboard details pediatric cases; less than 15% of recent cases were 'breakthroughs' involving vaccinated people

PORTLAND, Ore.  (KTVZ) — There are 19 new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,994, the Oregon Health Authority reported Thursday. 

OHA also reported 2,971 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 250,835 – as of Thursday, more than a quarter-million Oregonians have contracted COVID-19. 

OHA releases new pediatric dashboard 

OHA published Thursday a new dashboard report of pediatric COVID-19 case data in Oregon. This dashboard replaces the previous report and will be published weekly on Thursdays with the most recent full week’s data. Here are some key findings:

• There have been 31,394 confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 among people under 18 years old (12.7% of the total cases).
• As with COVID-19 cases overall, weekly COVID-19 pediatric cases have increased dramatically since July 2021.
• Pediatric case rates are highest among some communities of color and Tribal communities: people who identify as Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native, Black or Hispanic.
• The report indicates that while pediatric case counts have increased, severe outcomes among pediatric patients are rare:
  • 0.9% of pediatric patients have been hospitalized at some point during their COVID-19 illness.
  • There have been two reported deaths with COVID-19 among people under 18 years.

Governor Kate Brown’s office and Oregon Health Authority hold news conference 

Here is a link to watch the news conference from earlier Thursday. 

Here are the talking points from OHA as well as a link to Thursday’s slides. 

Here is a link to the OHA press conference summary blog post.

OHA releases new COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough report

OHA’s most recent update on COVID-19 breakthrough cases, released Thursday, found that 85.6% of the 20,701 reported COVID-19 cases between Aug. 1 and Aug. 14 occurred in people who were unvaccinated. There were 2,982 breakthrough cases, accounting for 14.4% of all cases.

The average age of the breakthrough cases during that period was 46. A total of 95 breakthrough cases involved residents of care facilities, senior living communities or other congregate care settings. There were 52 breakthrough cases in people aged 12 to 17.

To date, there have been 7,138 COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases in Oregon. The average age of all cases was 48. Breakthrough cases have been reported in all 36 counties.

Cases of COVID-19 are far more common in unvaccinated people. The report shows that the rate of COVID-19 in unvaccinated people is currently approximately six times higher than in vaccinated people. “Vaccination remains the most effective tool to reduce the spread of COVID-19,” according to the report.

To date, 5.8% of all vaccine breakthrough cases have been hospitalized and 0.8% have died. The average age of the people who died was 82.

The number of vaccine breakthrough cases identified in Oregon remains very small when compared to the more than 2.36 million Oregonians who have completed their COVID-19 vaccination series.

The latest breakthrough report can be found here.

Vaccinations in Oregon

OHA reported Thursday that 10,674 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 2,567 were initial doses and 1,405 were second doses administered on Wednesday. The remaining 6,227 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Wednesday.

Oregon has now administered 2,740,551 first and second doses of Pfizer, 1,817,898 first and second doses of Moderna and 191,863 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.

As of Thursday, 2,569,143 people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2,362,014 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 lags in providers reporting updated information. 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).

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 845, which is 12 more than Wednesday. There are 224 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which are two more than Wednesday.

As of Thursday morning, there are 41 available adult ICU beds out of 667 total (6% availability) and 310 available adult non-ICU beds out of 4,182 (7% availability).

8/19/2021	Statewide	Region 1	Region 2	Region 3	Region 5	Region 6	Region 7	Region 9
Adult ICU beds % available	41 (6%)	6%	2%	15%	2%	0%	5%	12%
Adult non-ICU beds % available	310 (7%)	4%	4%	14%	7%	18%	11%	39%

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.

St. Charles Bend reported 62 COVID-19 patients early Thursday, one more than the previous record set in December, including nine in the ICU and seven on ventilators.

More information about hospital capacity can be found here.

Data tracking vaccinations at Oregon long-term care facilities

Oregon Health Authority is launching a data dashboard that allows the agency to continue to track vaccination rates at long-term care facilities licensed by the Oregon Department of Human Services’ Office of Aging and People with Disabilities.

The data dashboard, which will go live Friday, will be available here and will be updated weekly. It shows facility-level data for nursing, assisted living and residential care facilities. Adult foster homes are not included in the dashboard.

“This tool is an important resource for OHA and ODHS as we analyze regional and statewide trends, and for facilities as they plan for ongoing COVID-19 vaccination needs,” said Rebecca Pierce, Ph.D., manager of the Healthcare-Associated Infections Program in the OHA Public Health Division’s Acute & Communicable Disease Prevention Section.

“Sharing facility-level data is another step in our work to transparently evaluate LTCF COVID-19 vaccination progress over time,” she said.

Pierce said the dashboard will be a resource for local public health authorities as they plan vaccination events and outreach. Residents, staff and members of the public can also use it to evaluate a long-term care facility’s vaccination status. The dashboard makes it possible to monitor or research individual facilities by name.

As of July 26, 88% of residents in reporting long-term care facilities have been completely vaccinated against COVID-19, meeting the OHA vaccination goal of 80% in this setting; 67% of long-term care staff have been completely vaccinated. 

Tremendous progress has been made by Oregon long-term care facilities in surpassing the state 80% benchmark for resident COVID-19 vaccination. Work continues to ensure facility staff vaccination also crosses that benchmark as quickly as possible.

Effective June 1, long-term care facilities are required are required to report vaccination status data to the state. Previously, reporting was voluntary, which informed the current data in the dashboard. The state moved from voluntary reporting by long-term care facilities—which informed this report—to required reporting by facilities to OHA, effective June 1. A similar dashboard was published in July for health care workers and is available here. 

OHA and ODHS have continued to engage with facilities, labor, trade associations and long-term care pharmacies to communicate and educate facility operators to boost vaccinations among LTCF staff above the 80% goal. The agencies will continue to ensure ongoing vaccination is available to residents and the workforce serving them, both of whom have faced extreme hardship during this pandemic.

Cases and deaths

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Thursday are in the following counties: Baker (14), Benton (14), Clackamas (269), Clatsop (26), Columbia (25), Coos (38), Crook (12), Curry (34), Deschutes (171), Douglas (238), Gilliam (4), Grant (9), Harney (4), Hood River (11), Jackson (345), Jefferson (15), Josephine (188), Klamath (53), Lake (1), Lane (319), Lincoln (57), Linn (82), Malheur (23), Marion (218), Morrow (22), Multnomah (225), Polk (67), Sherman (5), Tillamook (44), Umatilla (70), Union (64), Wallowa (16), Wasco (17), Washington (207) and Yamhill (64).

Oregon’s 2,976th COVID-19 associated death is an 84-year-old man from Douglas County who tested positive on Aug. 12 and died on Aug. 17 at Mercy Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,977th COVID-19 associated death is a 50-year-old man from Douglas County who tested positive on Aug. 3 and died on Aug. 18 at Mercy Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,978th COVID-19 associated death is a 73-year-old woman from Douglas County who tested positive on Aug. 3 and died on Aug. 18 at Mercy Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,979th COVID-19 associated death is a 63-year-old man from Crook County who tested positive on July 30 and died on Aug. 17 at St Charles Bend. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,980th COVID-19 associated death is an 84-year-old woman from Coos County who tested positive on Aug. 11 and died on Aug.18 at Bay Area Hospital. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,981st COVID-19 associated death is a 49-year-old man from Coos County who tested positive on Aug. 6 and died on Aug. 16 at Oregon Health and Science University Hospital. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,982nd COVID-19 associated death is a 95-year-old woman from Baker County who died on Aug. 17 at her residence. Date of positive test and presence of underlying conditions are being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,983rd COVID-19 associated death is an 89-year-old woman from Josephine County who tested positive on Aug. 11 and died on Aug. 17 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,984th COVID-19 associated death is an 80-year-old woman from Josephine County who tested positive on Aug. 15 and died on Aug. 17. Location of death and presence of underlying conditions are being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,985th COVID-19 associated death is a 61-year-old man from Josephine County who tested positive on Aug. 12 and died on Aug. 17 at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,986th COVID-19 associated death is a 91-year-old man from Josephine County who tested positive on Aug. 3 and died on Aug. 17 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,987th COVID-19 associated death is a 74-year-old woman from Jackson County who tested positive on July 27 and died on Aug. 15 at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center. She had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,988th COVID-19 associated death is an 80-year-old man from Jackson County who tested positive on July 29 and died on Aug. 17 at Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,989th COVID-19 associated death is an 85-year-old woman from Josephine County who tested positive on Aug. 16 and died on Aug. 17 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,990th COVID-19 associated death is a 68-year-old woman from Josephine County who tested positive on Aug. 14 and died on Aug. 16 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,991st COVID-19 associated death is an 80-year-old woman from Umatilla County who tested positive on Aug. 4 and died on Aug. 13 at St. Anthony Hospital. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,992nd COVID-19 associated death is a 47-year-old man from Umatilla County who tested positive on Aug. 4 and died on Aug. 14 at Adventist Health Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.

Oregon’s 2,993rd COVID-19 associated death is a 50-year-old man from Lane County who tested positive on July 27 and died on Aug. 15 at Peacehealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,994th COVID-19 associated death is a 67-year-old man from Tillamook County who tested positive on July 29 and died on Aug.18. Location of death and presence of underlying conditions are being confirmed.

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.