Used masks fill a garbage can at Salem Hospital on Friday, Aug. 20, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)
Covid cases continue to tick up in the Salem area and statewide, while average hospitalizations are up slightly at Salem Hospital. Here’s our report for May 13, 2022.
HOSPITAL CAPACITY
The average number of Covid patients at Salem Hospital is up slightly from last week.
Salem Health stopped publishing weekly reports on Covid inpatients on March 25 as the number has continued to decline. As of Friday, May 13, the hospital had 17 inpatients with Covid, two of whom were in the ICU, and none on a ventilator.
There were 487 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 12 and 17, consistent with regional numbers. Last week, Wood said the daily number was between eight and 16 Covid inpatients.
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 29 people hospitalized with Covid as of May 12, compared with 22 the week prior and 20 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 May 11.
Marion County: 75.3 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 151 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s up from 67.6 average daily cases for the week ending May 4, and 51.9 average daily cases the week ending April 27.
6.4% of Covid tests this week were positive, unchanged from last week.
Polk County: 20 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 167.1 cases per 100,000 residents.
That’s up slightly from an average of 18.4 daily cases the week ending May 4 and 12.7 daily cases the week ending April 27.
7.6% of Covid tests this week were positive, up from 4.3% last week.
Oregon: 1,282 new cases per day on average, up from 1,217.9 average daily cases the week prior; 10.1% of tests positive, compared with 9.9% the week prior.
VACCINATION AND BREAKTHROUGH CASES
The Oregon Health Authority switched to a monthly report on breakthrough cases and will release its next report June 7.
MANDATES
Oregon’s mask mandate lifted on March 11 at 11:59 p.m.
-Rachel Alexander
