Researchers: COVID hospitalizations in Oregon are peaking

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Oregon will peak this weekend near current levels and then steadily recede to pre-omicron levels by the end of March, Oregon Health & Science University said in this week’s forecast.

“The way Oregon handled omicron is almost as good as you’re going to see,” said Peter Graven, director of the OHSU Office of Advanced Analytics. “Oregon pushed out booster shots, Oregonians modified their behavior early, before omicron fully arrived here, and we kept our masking rates relatively high compared with other states.”

Meanwhile, the percentage of tests for COVID-19 that were positive for the virus dropped this week to 19% from an all-time high the previous week of 24.5%, according to Oregon Health Authority data.

In Oregon, the number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 dipped slightly by 17 to 1,087, the OHA reported Thursday night. The number of COVID-19 patients in ICU beds also dropped to 183, 10 fewer than the previous day.

Since mid-January, 100% of positive COVID-19 test results have been of the omicron variant, according to Oregon Health Authority data.

Graven said it will be much more difficult to generate large new spikes in hospitalizations going forward, because “we have a lot of immunity in the population now. It’s going to be harder and harder for the virus to put somebody in the hospital.”