By GARY A. WARNER/Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon’s hospitals are in imminent danger of being overwhelmed by a rapid rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, state health officials said Friday.
Oregon is at a “tipping point,” said Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen at a Friday press briefing. The steep increase in infections is due primarily to community spread driven by informal get-togethers in private residences. Allen pleaded with Oregonians to follow mandates to wear masks, limit get-togethers to six people, wash their hands frequently and avoid travel during the upcoming holidays.
“We all want this pandemic to be over,” Allen said. “We all have the power to end this nightmare.”
Not following the guidelines will “feed the virus what it needs” to spread, escalating hospitalizations and deaths.
Statewide as of Friday, 412 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, a 142% increase since Nov. 1.
OHA reported 1,306 new COVID-19 cases and four deaths on Friday, surpassing the record 1,225 new cases reported on Thursday. The death toll on Friday was four, down from the record-breaking 20 reported Thursday.
Since the pandemic hit Oregon at the end of February, there have been 62,175 cased of COVID-19 and 812 deaths. Nationwide, there have been 11.8 million cases and 253,458 deaths.
At least two vaccines against COVID-19 are expected to start becoming available in very limited amounts around Jan. 1. But Allen said he the timeline for when most Oregonians might get the vaccine is “completely unknown.”
Oregon has been under a COVID-19 “state of emergency” since March 8, allowing Gov. Kate Brown to issue executive orders with restrictions necessary to control the virus.
Brown implemented a two-week “freeze” that began Nov. 18, which caps private get-togethers to six people from no more than two households. Other restrictions include closing gyms and entertainment venues, and requiring restaurants to restrict sales to take-out only.
Allen said that opponents of the more stringent COVID-19 restrictions under the “freeze” have argued that Oregon’s relatively low total case numbers and deaths compared to other states should be evidence Brown should be opening up businesses and schools.
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Republican lawmakers, a coalition of local officials, and the association of the state’s restaurant owners have all written letters asking Brown to revoke some or all of the restrictions.
“I have heard frequently from those who have refused to believe this pandemic is serious if we aren’t seeing hospitalizations and deaths,” Allen said. “Those hospitalizations and deaths are here, and are only likely to go up.”
Among the critics on Friday was President Donald Trump. At a Friday press briefing — the first since Oct. 1 — White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany specifically singled out Oregon’s two-week “freeze” for criticism.
McEnany called the freeze and other restrictions around the country “Orwellian,” a reference to the book “1984” by George Orwell set in a society under strict state control. Her comments came after the White House coronavirus task force, led by Vice-President Mike Pence, said it supported state efforts to suppress infection rates.
On Friday, Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association asked a federal judge to block the governor’s “two-week freeze” in response to a rising number of coronavirus cases. The association, which represents 10,000 food service and 2,000 lodging businesses across the state, argues the new restrictions will cause devastating effects for its members and their employees.
The suit alleges that the governor’s order violates due process and equal protection, and that Brown has exceeded her power in issuing it. The association urged a judge to grant a temporary injunction that would bar the order’s enforcement, in whole or in part, while the case is pending.
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But The Oregonian newspaper reported Friday that its survey of the Portland region’s five major hospital networks, their comprehensive surge plans have identified hundreds — if not more than 2,000 — beds that could be used for COVID-19 patients.
Healthcare leaders from all organizations stressed the “dynamic” nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, saying it’s hard to predict how many beds they would need while emphasizing that staffing those beds would be a more pressing issue. And their surge plans are in some instances a combination of new beds or existing beds that would be reassigned from other uses, making the overall numbers something of a moving target.
Oregon is also changing the way it reports test results, switching from people tested to number of tests. The new method is in line with how the Centers for Disease Control reports infection, as well as several other states. The new formula drops Oregon’s 12.9% rate of positive tests to 6.7%
“Case counts have skyrocketed,” Allen said, but the current measuring system inflates the rate. The new metric will include people who receive multiple tests, such as residents and staff at long-term care facilities.
Dr. Melissa Sutton, a senior advisor to OHA, said 966,000 Oregonians have been tested for COVID-19, or roughly 1-in-4 of the state’s estimated 4.2 million residents.