Medical staff deployed to support Oregon health care facilities facing surge of COVID-19 patients
Oregon has finalized contracts with medical staffing companies to deploy much needed health care personnel in support of health care facilities managing the ongoing surge of COVID-19 patients.
“The deployment of crisis response teams should provide some welcome relief to our hospitals, particularly in Central and Southern Oregon, that are overwhelmed given the recent surge in hospitalizations among mostly unvaccinated individuals,” said Governor Brown in an Aug. 25 press release.
The contracts will equip Oregon health care facilities with added nurses, paramedics and other health professionals to help respond to the surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations fueled by the Delta variant.
Additionally, 10 long-term care crisis response teams will be sent to facilities around the state to help discharge stable patients.
You can read more about Governor Brown’s announcement in Oregon Vaccine News.
COVID-19 weekly cases, hospitalizations and deaths rise
The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 Weekly Report, released today, shows continued increases in daily cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
- OHA reported 14,800 new cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, Aug. 15 through Sunday, Aug. 22. That represents a 16% increase over the previous week.
- There were 601 new COVID-19 hospitalizations, up from 546 last week. That marked the seventh consecutive week of increases.
- There were 87 reported COVID-19 related deaths, up from 46 reported the previous week.
- There were 149,836 tests for COVID-19 for the week of Aug. 15 through Aug. 21. The percentage of positive tests increased to 12.3%, up from 11.8% reported the previous week.
Today’s COVID-19 Weekly Outbreak Report shows 103 active COVID-19 outbreaks in senior living communities and congregate living settings, with three or more confirmed cases and one or more COVID-19 related deaths.
Correction: The headline for the daily cases and deaths was incorrect yesterday. The correct headline is “Oregon reports 2,804 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 30 new deaths”.
Oregon reports 2,777 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 20 new deaths
We want to keep you informed about COVID-19 in Oregon. Data are provisional and change frequently.
- Samples for 371,343 tests have been reported positive.
- Samples for 5,805,244 tests have been reported negative.
Hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 1,080, which is 80 more than yesterday. There are 295 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is 12 more than yesterday.
There are 44 available adult ICU beds out of 662 total (7% availability) and 320 available adult non-ICU beds out of 4,256 (8% availability).
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.
Vaccinations in Oregon
Today, OHA reported that 11,462 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 2,951 were initial doses and 1,507 were second doses administered on Aug. 24. The remaining 6,306 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Aug. 24. Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize.
The seven-day running average is now 7,777 doses per day.
Oregon has now administered 2,774,549 first and second doses of Pfizer Comirnaty, 1,831,684 first and second doses of Moderna and 195,572 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
As of today, 2,598,416 people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2,381,298 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series.
These data are preliminary and subject to change.
Updated vaccination data are provided on Oregon’s COVID-19 data dashboards and have been updated today.
Oregon Healthcare Workforce COVID-19 vaccine uptake: August update
The August update adds new data for all visualizations up to Aug. 15, 2021 and now includes the Physical Therapy license board in the dashboard. There are two license types within the Physical Therapy license board: Physical Therapist (PT) at 89% and Physical Therapy Assistant (PTA) at 77% vaccinated. The Healthcare Workforce COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake dashboard will be updated monthly around the first week of the month.
Cases and deaths
Today we’re reporting 2,777 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 263,164. The new cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (9), Benton (21), Clackamas (129), Clatsop (22), Columbia (33), Coos (61), Crook (20), Curry (20), Deschutes (161), Douglas (245), Gilliam (4), Grant (6), Harney (5), Hood River (12), Jackson (614), Jefferson (32), Josephine (109), Klamath (46), Lake (5), Lane (183), Lincoln (36), Linn (94), Malheur (25), Marion (169), Morrow (12), Multnomah (266), Polk (35), Sherman (3), Tillamook (34) Umatilla (68), Union (30), Wallowa (5), Wasco (32), Washington (170), Wheeler (1) and Yamhill (60).
There are 20 new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 3,086. More information on COVID-19 related deaths can be found here: oregon.gov/oha/erd/pages/
For more information, visit healthoregon.org/coronavirus.