Used masks fill a garbage can at Salem Hospital on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Covid cases have remained roughly flat in Oregon and in the Salem area, while hospitalizations continue to fall. Here’s our report for April 1, 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.
Salem Health stopped publishing weekly reports on Covid inpatients last week as the number has continued to decline. As of Thursday, March 31, the hospital had four inpatients with Covid, none of them in the ICU or on ventilators.
There were 466 of 494 licensed hospital beds in use.
The graph below shows the hospital’s trends from the start of the delta surge until March 25, when weekly reporting stopped.
(Graphic by Saphara Harrell/Salem Reporter)
Region 2, which is Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties, had nine people hospitalized with Covid as of March 31, compared with 22 the week prior.
VACCINATION AND BREAKTHROUGH CASES
For the week ending March 26, 46.8% 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, 57.9% had received a booster shot.
The rate of Covid infection among unvaccinated Oregonians was three times higher than vaccinated Oregonians.
MANDATES
Oregon’s mask mandate lifted on March 11 at 11:59 p.m.
CASES
The number of new Covid cases reported locally has continued falling in the past week. This data is for the week ending March 30.
Marion County: 17 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 33.2 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s up slightly from 15 average daily cases for the week ending March 23.
2.6% of Covid tests this week were positive.
Polk County: Three new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 28.6 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s down from an average of four daily cases the week prior.
2% of Covid tests this week were positive.
Oregon: 254.7 new cases per day on average, a rate of 41.78 cases per 100,000 residents, with 2.5% of tests positive.
-Rachel Alexander
