Oregon COVID-19 cases up 94% from a month ago

PORTLAND, Oregon — In Oregon, COVID-19 cases are up 94% when comparing the week of March 15-21 to the most recent week available, April 4-10.

The rise in cases comes as Oregon is nearing a positive milestone: 1 million people fully vaccinated in the state.

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reports more than 38,700 people a day are getting COVID vaccine doses across the state.

Still, cases continue to rise, and OHA Director Patrick Allen told lawmakers this week its likely because of several reasons.

“Lots of counties came out of higher risk levels, although some have begun moving back up again,” he said. “We’ve got lots more kids in school. We’ve certainly got lots more presence of variants that are more contagious, and so those are all factors.”

RELATED: Oregon reports 6 more COVID-19 deaths and 733 new cases

He added that a lot of Oregonians are just tired of being in a pandemic.

“I think we’ve also got some pandemic fatigue.” he said. “Either people are just done with it, emotionally, myself included, or other people see people getting vaccinated and are taking that as an all-clear.”

He urged everyone not to let their guard down.

Here’s a look at some of the numbers from the state:

For the week of March 15-21, there were 1,920 new COVID cases.

For the week of April 5-11, there were 3,722 new cases, a 94% percent increase.

During that same week in March, 137 people were hospitalized with COVID; last week the number was 156, a 12% increase.

The rate is an indication of how widespread the virus is. It reflects how may were positive out of all the tests that were run for that day or week.  

The positivity rate was 2.9% for March 15-21, and for April 5-11 it rose to 4.4%. That’s still under the state’s benchmark of 5% for widespread alarm, but moving in the wrong direction.

Allen said he’s thinking creatively about how to increase testing.

“I’ve also asked our team, although it’s not a public health best practice, to look to see if there are opportunities to combine testing events with vaccination events,” he said. “Because the field apparatus and investment is similar.” 

He noted that he would only consider that in areas with low positivity rates.

And while we don’t hear about them as much anymore, COVID outbreaks in the workplace have not disappeared.

During the week of April 2-9, the state reported outbreaks at 20 different companies, in Coos Bay, Medford, Tualatin, Hillsboro and more. 

A little bit of good news: The number of new outbreaks at senior living centers is down. Just four locations had new outbreaks during that same week, April 2-9.

RELATED: Everyone 16 and older in Washington now eligible for COVID-19 vaccine

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