The number of people diagnosed with and hospitalized with Covid is down locally over the past two weeks.
Note: Due to staff illnesses, Salem Reporter did not publish a Covid report for the week of Oct. 7, so some numbers are missing comparisons to one week ago. We apologize for the omission.
HOSPITAL CAPACITY
As of Friday, Oct. 14, Salem Hospital had 16 inpatients with Covid, none in the ICU or on a ventilator.
There were 361 of 415 adult acute and critical care beds in use, and 438 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 13 and 18. Last week, Wood said the daily number was between 18 and 21 Covid inpatients.
Region 2, which is Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties, had 23 people hospitalized with Covid as of Oct. 12, compared with 32 the week prior and 36 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 Oct. 12.
Marion County: 34 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 69.1 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s down from 60.7 average daily cases for the week ending Sept. 28.
7.5% of Covid tests this week were positive, down from 11.7% two weeks ago.
The Oregon Health Authority reported the deaths of one county residents with Covid in the past week.
Polk County: 9.6 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 75.4 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s down from an average of 10.4 daily cases the week ending Sept. 28.
7.7% of Covid tests this week were positive, down from 8.3% two weeks ago.
The Oregon Health Authority reported the deaths of two county residents with Covid in the past week.
Oregon: 528 new cases per day on average, up from 650 average daily cases two weeks prior; 8.2% of tests positive, compared with 9.3% two weeks ago.
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 has not yet updated it for October.
MANDATES
Oregon’s mask mandate lifted on March 11 at 11:59 p.m.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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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.
