Salem weekly Covid report for July 8: Local hospitalizations, cases flat
An isolation room for a Covid patient in the intensive care unit at Salem Hospital on Aug. 20, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
The number of Covid cases and hospitalizations in the Salem area has remained largely flat over the past week.
HOSPITAL CAPACITY
The average number of Covid patients at Salem Hospital was about the same as last week, and the regional number remained the same.
As of Friday, July 8, the hospital had 42 inpatients with Covid, four in the ICU and one on a ventilator.
There were 507 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 41 and 46. Last week, Wood said the daily number was between 33 and 48 Covid inpatients.
Region 2, which is Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties, had 76 people hospitalized with Covid as of July 6, compared with 76 the week prior and 40 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 6.
Marion County: 121.9 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 245.7 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s down from 127.7 average daily cases for the week ending June 30 and 130.4 average daily cases for the week ending June 23.
15.2% of Covid tests this week were positive, down from 15.6% last week.
Polk County: 26.3 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 206.9 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s down from an average of 34.1 daily cases the week ending June 30, and 34.9 daily cases the week ending June 23.
15.6% of Covid tests this week were positive, down from 19.7% last week.
Oregon: 1,381.1 new cases per day on average, down from 1,562.4 average daily cases the week prior; 13.85% of tests positive, compared with 17% 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.
During June, there were 45,843 Covid cases reported to the Oregon Health Authority. Of those, 19,923 or 43.5% were in unvaccinated people, 25,907 or 56.5% were vaccine breakthrough cases, and 13 people had an unknown vaccination status.
Of total vaccine breakthrough cases in June, 10,644 people or 41.1% were fully vaccinated and boosted. The median age of all vaccine breakthrough cases was 51.
Among breakthrough cases, 334 (1.3%) were residents of care facilities, senior living communities and other congregate living settings. There were 6,428 (24.8%) breakthrough cases in people 65 or older, 24.8% of the total.
MANDATES
Oregon’s mask mandate lifted on March 11 at 11:59 p.m.
-Ardeshir Tabrizian
