Used masks fill a garbage can at Salem Hospital on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Covid cases are ticking up again in Oregon both statewide and in the Salem area. Hospitalizations are low locally and regionally, but have increased slightly from a low point several weeks ago. Here’s our report for April 15, 2022.
HOSPITAL CAPACITY
Hospitalization numbers at both Salem Hospital and for the mid-Willamette Valley region are still near their lowpoint for the entire pandemic.
Salem Health stopped publishing weekly reports on Covid inpatients on March 25 as the number has continued to decline. As of Friday, April 15, the hospital had eight inpatients with Covid, one of whom was in the ICU, and none on ventilators.
There were 471 of 494 licensed hospital beds in use.
Lisa Wood, Salem Health spokeswoman, said the number of hospitalized Covid patients over the past week has remained between five and eight.
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 14 people hospitalized with Covid as of April 14, compared with 15 the week prior and nine two weeks ago.
CASES
The number of new Covid cases reported climbed statewide and in Marion and Polk counties. This data is for the week ending April 14.
Marion County: 21.1 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 42.4 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s up from 18 average daily cases for the week ending April 6, and 17 average daily cases the week ending March 30.
5.2% of Covid tests this week were positive.
Polk County: 5.9 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 48.9 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s up from an average of 2.4 daily cases the week prior.
2.2% of Covid tests this week were positive.
Oregon: 417 new cases per day on average, up from 306 average daily cases the week prior, with 5.4% of tests positive.
VACCINATION AND BREAKTHROUGH CASES
The Oregon Health Authority last week said it would reduce the frequency of its breakthrough case reports to monthly. The next report will be published May 5.
MANDATES
Oregon’s mask mandate lifted on March 11 at 11:59 p.m.
-Rachel Alexander
