Oregon Health Authority reports rise in COVID-19 cases after 2-plus months of declines
Testing, deaths also rise, but hospitalizations are lowest since last July
SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Oregon has seen an increase in daily reported cases of COVID-19 for the most recent reporting week following more than two months of steady declines, the Oregon Health Authority reported Wednesday.
The number of COVID-19 tests was also substantially higher, with a small increase in percent positivity.
Hospitalizations continue to steadily decline, falling to weekly levels last seen in early July 2021. The number of COVID-19-related deaths — typically a lagging indicator — was higher for the week ending April 3 than the previous weekly reporting period, which ended March 27.
COVID-19 weekly cases, deaths increase, hospitalizations decline
Starting Wednesday, OHA will publish the COVID-19 data and outbreak reports every other Wednesday, consistent with the new reporting schedule shared last week.
The final COVID-19 Weekly Data Report, released Wednesday, shows an increase in weekly cases, a continued decline in disease-related hospitalizations and an increase in deaths.
OHA reported 1,988 new cases of COVID-19 during the week of March 28 through April 3, a 42% increase over the previous week. This reverses a nine-week streak of declines.
There were 97 COVID-19-related hospitalizations, a 44% decline over the previous week.
There were 140 COVID-19-related deaths, up from 99 the previous week. This marked the first week that fewer than 100 deaths were reported since the week of June 28 to July 4, 2021.
Reported COVID-19 test results increased by 16%. There were 78,387 tests administered. Test positivity increased slightly, from 2.7% to 2.9%.
Wednesday’s COVID-19 Weekly Outbreak Report shows 50 total active outbreaks in care facilities, senior living communities and congregate living settings with three or more confirmed COVID-19 cases or one or more COVID-19-related deaths.
Updates to vaccine data dashboards
With the switch to weekly dashboard reporting, the Oregon COVID-19 Vaccine Daily Update will be replaced by the Oregon COVID-19 Vaccine Weekly Update. The dashboard will still show vaccine administrations reported to the ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS) registry, by day reported. The dashboard will also show administrations reported in the past week and since the beginning of the vaccine rollout.
COVID-19 vaccine doses delivered in the past week will replace doses delivered in the last day. A full inventory of vaccine deliveries can be downloaded from the dashboard using the link found on the top-right corner of the page.
With 19,987 second boosters reported last week, a total of 26,798 people have received second boosters in Oregon since their authorization March 30. Second boosters will be added to the vaccine weekly update dashboard and on the “age” tab of the vaccine metrics dashboards Wednesday.
OHA recently updated its methodology for identifying valid boosters and valid second boosters, to incorporate time between doses. County-level demographic data for second boosters will be incorporated on the dashboards at a future date when uptake is more widespread.
OHA announces changes to wastewater surveillance dashboard
Starting Wednesday, OHA will update ongoing COVID-19 variant reporting within its wastewater dashboard.
Oregon State University, OHA’s partner in wastewater surveillance, is now able to detect COVID-19 variants in wastewater at lower levels and the updated wastewater dashboard will reflect this enhanced surveillance capacity.
In addition, the dashboard will now also display whether a variant was detected in wastewater at low, medium or high levels.
“These changes will strengthen our surveillance and monitoring efforts by detecting emerging variants earlier and more effectively,” said Melissa Sutton, M.D., medical director for respiratory viral pathogens and a senior health adviser for OHA’s COVID-19 response.
New reporting schedule
OHA is now providing COVID-19 updates on a biweekly basis. Wednesday’s release marks the first release with the new biweekly reporting schedule. Information about new COVID-19 cases, current hospitalizations of COVID-19-positive patients and deaths, along with other COVID-19 data, continue to be available daily on the OHA website and data dashboards. The daily COVID-19 data also will be posted every weekday on OHA's Twitter and Facebook pages.
COVID-19 vaccination dashboards, the Oregon COVID-19 Case and Testing Counts Statewide dashboard and the Oregon COVID-19 Testing and Outcomes by County dashboard will continue to be published weekly on Wednesdays.
Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations
To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit OHA's web page (English or Spanish), which has a breakdown of distribution and other information.
