Used masks fill a garbage can at Salem Hospital on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Oregon’s statewide mask mandate will lift at 11:59 p.m. today as hospitalizations have been steadily declining since late January.
Here’s our report for March 11, 2022.
HOSPITAL CAPACITY
Salem Hospital and the mid-Willamette region have reported a decline in both the number of Covid-positive inpatients and the total number of hospital patients over the past week.
As of Friday, the hospital has 442 total inpatients, 89% of its total capacity of 494 people. Pre-pandemic, Salem Hospital was typically 80 to 85% full, hospital leaders have said.
On Friday, the hospital recorded 19 Covid inpatients, including six in the ICU and four on ventilators.
Of those, six are vaccinated against Covid and 13 are unvaccinated.
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.
Salem Health plans to stop reporting Covid vaccination status in its weekly updates as inpatient numbers decline.
Region 2, which is Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties, had 40 people hospitalized with Covid as of March 10, compared with 79 the week prior.
VACCINATION AND BREAKTHROUGH CASES
For the week of March 5, 40.6% of all Covid cases were in people vaccinated against Covid, according to the state’s most recent breakthrough case report. About 75% of Oregon adults are vaccinated against Covid.
Of vaccinated people who contracted Covid, 46.6% had received a booster shot.
The rate of Covid infection among unvaccinated Oregonians was 2.8 times higher than vaccinated Oregonians, and 4 times higher than Oregonians who had also received a booster shot.
MANDATES
The mask mandate lifts at 11:59 p.m. March 11.
CASES
The number of new Covid cases reported locally has continued falling in the past week. This data is for the week ending March 9.
Marion County: 32 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 59 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s down from 50 average daily cases for the week ending March 2.
2.7% of Covid tests this week were positive.
Polk County: 10 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 62 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s down from an average of 13 daily cases the week prior.
3.3% of Covid tests this week were positive.
Oregon: 433 new cases per day on average, a rate of 73.8 cases per 100,000 residents, with 3.1% of tests positive.
-Saphara Harrell
