Salem Hospital (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
State health officials said Thursday that Oregon would drop its indoor mask mandate March 19 as hospitalizations continue to fall. The statewide school mask mandate will also lift then, though school districts or local health authorities can impose their own mandates.
Gov. Kate Brown also announced she’ll end the pandemic state of emergency on April 1, more than two years after her original emergency declaration. That means Covid vaccination mandate for most state employees will also lift April 1, though vaccination will remain required for K-12 school employees and health care workers.
Read our full coverage of the changes here.
Here’s Salem Reporter’s Covid report for Thursday, Feb. 24. We will transition to a weekly Covid data report beginning tomorrow.
Total Salem Hospital patients with Covid: 65 as of Thursday, two fewer than Wednesday.
Of those, 8 are in the intensive care unit, and two are on ventilators.
Forty-three of those are not vaccinated against Covid, and 22 are vaccinated.
Salem Health does not consistently report the number of patients who have received a booster vaccine dose because of the difficulty tracking whether patients are eligible for a booster in real time, spokeswoman Lisa Wood said. The vaccinated patient count includes any patient who has received at least two doses of a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Total Salem Hospital bed occupancy: 466 patients; the hospital is licensed for 494 beds.
Total people hospitalized with Covid in Region 2 (Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Linn, Benton, Lincoln counties): 120. Of those, 15 are in the intensive care unit and three are on ventilators.
Total Region 2 hospital bed occupancy: 89 of 98 staffed ICU beds and 686 of 709 non-ICU beds in use.
New Covid cases reported in Marion County: 63
New Covid cases reported in Polk County: 26
New Covid deaths reported: 59 in Oregon
-Rachel Alexander
