The number of people diagnosed with and hospitalized with Covid is largely flat locally. Here are this week’s numbers.
HOSPITAL CAPACITY
As of Friday, Sept. 30, Salem Hospital had 21 inpatients with Covid, one in the ICU and none on a ventilator.
There were 397 of 415 adult acute and critical care beds in use, and 477 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 21. Last week, Wood said the daily number was between 14 and 20 Covid inpatients.
Region 2, which is Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties, had 36 people hospitalized with Covid as of Sept. 28, compared with 33 the week prior and 26 two weeks ago.
CASES
The number of new Covid cases reported increased statewide and in Marion County, but decreased in Polk County. This data is for the week ending Sept. 28.
Marion County: 60.7 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 122.4 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s up slightly from 58.7 average daily cases for the week ending Sept. 20 and 42.1 average daily cases for the week ending Sept. 13.
11.7% of Covid tests this week were positive, up from 10.5% last week.
The Oregon Health Authority reported the deaths of four county residents with Covid in the past week.
Polk County: 10.4 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 82.1 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s down from an average of 12.9 daily cases the week ending Sept. 20 and 16 daily cases the week ending Sept. 13.
8.3% of Covid tests this week were positive, down from 9.6% last week.
The Oregon Health Authority reported the deaths of two county residents with Covid in the past week.
Oregon: 650.4 new cases per day on average, down from 656.7 average daily cases the week prior; 9.3% of tests positive, compared with 8.7% the week prior.
VACCINATION AND BREAKTHROUGH CASES
The Oregon Health Authority switched to a new data dashboard showing trends in cases, hospitalizations and deaths by vaccination status, updated on the second Wednesday of each month. The health authority will next update its data dashboard on Oct. 12.
MANDATES
Oregon’s mask mandate lifted on March 11 at 11:59 p.m.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
JUST THE FACTS, FOR SALEM – We report on your community with care and depth, fairness and accuracy. Get local news that matters to you. Subscribe to Salem Reporter. Click I want to subscribe!
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
