Oregon Health Authorities Report 2 New Covid Related Deaths

Oregon Health Authorities announced two deaths connected to the coronavirus on Monday and 78 new cases. This is the lowest daily total since June 2020. This can be due to Washington County not submitting its data until later in the week. The weekly average is currently about 240 new cases a day, a rate Oregon last saw in March and, before that, in September.

The agency said that although a low case count is a welcome news, Oregon Health Authorities are interpreting this with caution. The reported number of new cases will be higher tomorrow. Even as new vaccinations have plummeted in the general population, Oregon touted vaccination rates in senior care homes.According to an analysis by the Oregon Health Authorities, 84% of the residents in 407 Oregon nursing, assisted living and memory care homes have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 beating the state’s goal of 75% residents vaccinated by nearly 10 percentage points.

According to the state’s analysis, Staff vaccination rates fell short of the mark, with about 62% of senior care workers fully vaccinated in the facilities that reported their numbers. The Health Authority also found that care homes in eastern and southern Oregon reported lower vaccination rates, as did nursing homes when compared to assisted living facilities.

The state’s numbers come with some important caveats: More than one-third of long-term care facilities didn’t report their numbers to the state with especially low reporting rates in southern and eastern Oregon and the information the state relied on is more than a month old.