By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Lincoln County health officials are urging residents to take more precautions to slow the surge of local omicron Covid-19 cases, which have quadrupled the past week.
By Thursday afternoon, the Oregon Health Authority reported 140 new Covid-19 cases in Lincoln County this week, including 74 on Thursday. There were 404 cases in all of December.
Across Oregon, Thursday brought a fourth day of a record number of cases. The OHA reported 7,615 coronavirus cases, the fourth consecutive day of shattering previous high marks.
Oregon hospitals for the first time also reported the biggest single-day patient increases in weeks, with 588 people in care who tested positive, a 12 percent spike in one day.
Oregon is now averaging 4,001 cases a day over the past week, nearly double the previous high from the delta wave last summer and a 162 percent increase in one week.
Infections, fueled by the highly contagious but less virulent omicron variant, have spread exponentially since after Christmas. Even so, Oregon has posted some of the lowest case rates nationally during the omicron surge, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Thursday.
Lincoln County Health and Human Services director Jayne Romero said Wednesday that the number of local cases this week – the majority of which are omicron – will be four times the number the last week of December.
“We’re expecting another surge of cases this week,” she told county commissioners during a Wednesday briefing.
The rate of positive tests jumped from below 5 percent to nearly 14 percent last week, according to LCPH.
County health officials are urging residents to get vaccinated, especially with a booster shot if it’s been six months since a last dose, to wear masks, limit social gatherings, and to get tested if you think you may be ill.
Lincoln County still has one of the highest vaccination rates in the state at 83 percent, but its booster rate ranges from 9 percent to 62 percent, depending on the age group, according to the OHA.
The county also launched a new approach to vaccination clinics this week after closing down a high-volume clinic before the holidays last month.
Now, it is taking advantage of a Federal Emergency Management Agency bus that will offer vaccinations from noon to 7 p.m. daily at the Lincoln County fairgrounds in Newport through Jan. 20.
But it is also taking smaller, mobile clinics to communities around the county and continuing for the next six months. The January schedule – including a clinic Tuesday in Yachats — is listed on the LCPH website.
The health department is also relying on nine pharmacies from Waldport to Lincoln City and Samaritan Health Services’ two walk-in clinics to handle first, second and booster doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
The pharmacies offering vaccines, including booster shots. Four of the nine are accepting walk-ins, the other five require appointments – and lines can be long. A list of pharmacies and their appointment procedures is also on the LCPH website.
Samaritan is also offering drive-through Covid-19 testing on its hospital campuses in Newport and Lincoln City.
The Lincoln County School District is continuing to allow extracurricular activities after the OHA and Oregon Department of Education this week asked districts to re-examine those activities because of the virus spread.
“LCSD believes that extracurricular activities are important for student mental and physical well being,” assistant superintendent Susan VanLiew said in an email to YachatsNews.
But she said the district is making it clear to all spectators that schools will be monitoring and enforcing the state’s indoor mask mandate.
“If this becomes an issue, we may consider alternatives concerning spectators,” VanLiew said.
The district also began “Test to Stay” procedures this week. It is a state-approved testing program that allows students exposed to a Covid-19 positive person during school to take a test once the exposure is identified and then within 5-7 days. If the tests are negative, the student can stay in school and not have to quarantine at home.
Other Covid-19 developments Thursday include:
- The OHA said Covid-19 cases are increasing sharply among children ages 0 to 17 as the highly contagious Omicron variant continues to spread.
- There were 15,239 cases in Oregon the week of Dec. 26 to Jan.1, with 30.6 percent of those occurring in people with at least one vaccine dose.
- Effective Thursday, children 12 and older can get a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine five months after their second dose. Also, for anybody who received Pfizer as their initial vaccine, the wait time for getting boosted is now only five months. And, immunocompromised children age 5 and older are authorized for a third primary dose of the Pfizer vaccine.