Empty beds in the hallway of the emergency room at Salem Hospital. The hospital has seen a steady number of Covid inpatients in recent weeks (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)

The number of Covid cases and hospitalizations in the Salem area has remained largely flat over the past week, while reported cases declined slightly in Marion County and rose in Polk County.

HOSPITAL CAPACITY

The average number of Covid patients at Salem Hospital and in the mid-Willamette region is about the same as last week.

As of Friday, July 15, the hospital had 48 inpatients with Covid, two in the ICU and none on a ventilator. 

There were 501 of 494 licensed hospital beds in use. The hospital is able to care for more patients than it’s licensed for due to waivers related to the ongoing pandemic.

Lisa Wood, Salem Health spokeswoman, said the number of hospitalized Covid patients over the past week has remained between 38 and 49. Last week, Wood said the daily number was between 41 and 46 Covid inpatients.

Region 2, which is Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties, had 80 people hospitalized with Covid as of July 13, compared with 76 the week prior and 76 two weeks ago.

CASES

The number of new Covid cases reported declined statewide and in Marion and Polk Counties 

This data is for the week ending July 13. 

Marion County: 115.4 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 232.7 cases per 100,000 residents.

That’s down from 121.9 average daily cases for the week ending July 6 and 127.7 average daily cases for the week ending June 30. 

12.5% of Covid tests this week were positive, down from 15.2% last week.

Polk County: 34.3 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 269.9 cases per 100,000 residents. 

That’s up from an average of 26.3 daily cases the week ending July 6 and 34.1 daily cases the week ending June 30.

20.3% of Covid tests this week were positive, up from 15.6% last week.

Oregon: 1,417.3 new cases per day on average, up from 1,381.1 average daily cases the week prior; 12.9% of tests positive, compared with 13.85% 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 in early August.

MANDATES

Oregon’s mask mandate lifted on March 11 at 11:59 p.m. 

-Rachel Alexander

By Salem Reporter