Used masks fill a garbage can at Salem Hospital (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Covid cases are ticking up in Marion County and statewide, while hospitalizations remain low and flat both locally and regionally. Here’s our report for April 29, 2022.
HOSPITAL CAPACITY
Hospitalization numbers at Salem Hospital are still near their lowpoint for the entire pandemic, and the region’s numbers have remained about flat over the past week.
Salem Health stopped publishing weekly reports on Covid inpatients on March 25 as the number has continued to decline. As of Friday, April 29, the hospital had 10 inpatients with Covid, two of whom were in the ICU, and one on a ventilator.
There were 456 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 six and 10.
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 20 people hospitalized with Covid as of April 28, compared with 21 the week prior and 14 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 27.
Marion County: 51.9 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 104 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s up from 35 average daily cases for the week ending April 20, and 21.1 average daily cases the week ending April 14.
6.4% of Covid tests this week were positive.
Polk County: 12.7 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 106.2 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s up slightly from an average of 12.4 daily cases the week ending April 20 and 5.9 daily cases the week ending April 14.
4.3% of Covid tests this week were positive.
Oregon: 896 new cases per day on average, up from 648 average daily cases the week prior; 7.6% of tests positive, compared with 6.3% the week prior.
VACCINATION AND BREAKTHROUGH CASES
The Oregon Health Authority in early April 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
