Used masks fill a garbage can at Salem Hospital on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Covid cases remain on the rise in the Salem area and statewide, and local hospitalizations have also increased. State health officials said Wednesday they expect hospitalizations during the current wave to peak in June.
HOSPITAL CAPACITY
The average number of Covid patients at Salem Hospital is up slightly from last week.
Salem Health stopped publishing weekly reports on Covid inpatients on March 25 as the omicron surge began to wane. As of Friday, May 20, the hospital had 22 inpatients with Covid, none of whom were in the ICU or on a ventilator.
There were 508 of 494 licensed hospital beds in use.
Michael Gay, Salem Health spokesman, said the number of hospitalized Covid patients over the past week has remained between 20 and 22. Last week, the daily number was between 12 and 17 Covid inpatients.
The graph below shows the hospital’s trends from the start of the delta surge until March 25, when weekly reporting stopped.
(Graphic by Saphara Harrell/Salem Reporter)
Region 2, which is Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties, had 36 people hospitalized with Covid as of May 19, compared with 29 the week prior and 22 two weeks ago.
CASES
The number of new Covid cases reported climbed statewide and in Marion and Polk Counties. This data is for the week ending May 18.
Marion County: 80.6 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 161.5 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s up from 75.3 average daily cases for the week ending May 11, and 67.6 average daily cases the week ending May 4.
9.3% of Covid tests this week were positive, up from 6.4% last week.
Polk County: 27.7 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 231.5 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s up from an average of 20 daily cases the week ending May 11 and 18.4 daily cases the week ending May 4.
10.1% of Covid tests this week were positive, up from 7.6% last week.
Oregon: 1,460.7 new cases per day on average, up from 1,282 average daily cases the week prior; 10.5% of tests positive, compared with 10.1% the week prior.
VACCINATION AND BREAKTHROUGH CASES
The Oregon Health Authority switched to a monthly report on breakthrough cases and will release its next report June 7.
MANDATES
Oregon’s mask mandate lifted on March 11 at 11:59 p.m.
-Rachel Alexander
