Uncategorized

Salem weekly Covid report for May 27: Cases, hospitalizations still climbing

Covid hospitalizations in the mid-Willamette Valley have climbed steadily over the past week, but remain well below peaks during the omicron and delta waves. (Screenshot of Oregon Health Authority website on May 27, 2022)

Covid cases remain on the rise in the Salem area and statewide, and local hospitalizations have also increased. State health officials said last week they expect hospitalizations during the current wave to peak in June.

HOSPITAL CAPACITY

The average number of Covid patients at Salem Hospital has continued to increase this week.

Salem Health stopped publishing weekly reports on Covid inpatients on March 25 as the omicron surge began to wane. As of Friday, May 27, the hospital had 41 inpatients with Covid, one of whom was in the ICU and one on a ventilator. 

There were 530 of 494 licensed hospital beds in use. The hospital is able to care for more patients than it’s licensed for due to continuing emergency rules related to the pandemic.

Lisa Wood, Salem Health spokeswoman, said the number of hospitalized Covid patients over the past week has remained between 23 and 41. Last week, Wood said the daily number was between 20 and 22 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 58 people hospitalized with Covid as of May 26, compared with 36 the week prior and 29 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 25. 

Marion County: 108.7 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 218 cases per 100,000 residents.

That’s up from 80.6 average daily cases for the week ending May 18, and 75.3 average daily cases the week ending May 11. 

11.8% of Covid tests this week were positive, up from 9.3% last week.

Polk County: 31.3 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 261.3 cases per 100,000 residents. 

That’s up from an average of 27.7 daily cases the week ending May 18 and 20 daily cases the week ending May 11.

11.9% of Covid tests this week were positive, up from 10.1% last week.

Oregon: 1,656.1 new cases per day on average, up from 1,460.7 average daily cases the week prior; 10.7% of tests positive, compared with 10.5% 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