The number of Covid cases in the Salem area declined again this past week, while local hospitalizations stayed mostly flat.
HOSPITAL CAPACITY
The average number of Covid patients at Salem Hospital remained steady compared to last week while declining slightly across the mid-Willamette region.
As of Friday, Sept. 2, the hospital had 19 inpatients with Covid, two in the ICU and one on a ventilator.
There were 353 of 415 adult acute and critical care beds in use, and 431 total hospital beds in use.
The hospital recently expanded its licensed bed capacity from 494 to 644 with the addition of a new tower, but that total includes every potential licensed bed at Salem Hospital including those dedicated to specific uses, like pediatrics, inpatient psychiatry, and labor and delivery.
Lisa Wood, Salem Health spokeswoman, said the number of hospitalized Covid patients over the past week has ranged between 14 and 19. Last week, Wood said the daily number was between 15 and 19 Covid inpatients.
Region 2, which is Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties, had 26 people hospitalized with Covid as of Aug. 31, compared with 40 the week prior and 41 two weeks ago.
CASES
The number of new Covid cases reported decreased statewide and in Marion County, while increasing in Polk County. This data is for the week ending Aug. 31.
Marion County: 46.9 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 94.5 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s down from 62.1 average daily cases for the week ending Aug. 24 and 74.9 average daily cases for the week ending Aug. 17.
11.4% of Covid tests this week were positive, down from 14.4% last week.
Polk County: 13.4 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 105.7 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s up from an average of 11.9 daily cases the week ending Aug. 24 and the same as 13.4 daily cases the week ending Aug. 17.
12.4% of Covid tests this week were positive, up from 9.7% last week.
Oregon: 561.4 new cases per day on average, down from 706.1 average daily cases the week prior; 8.7% 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 in early September.
MANDATES
Oregon’s mask mandate lifted on March 11 at 11:59 p.m.
Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.
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Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered criminal justice and housing for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.
