PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Oregon has reached a record day of COVID cases with more than 7, 000 new cases. Doctors say what’s troubling is we are now seeing a big increase in people in the hospital with COVID at almost 600.
The highly contagious omicron variant is causing the surge.
Health leaders in the metro area held a news conference Thursday afternoon. The message is that we are now entering the storm of omicron here in Oregon. KOIN 6 News found out one local emergency room was out of space Wednesday.
The public health directors for Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties joined together Thursday afternoon to urge vaccinations. They advised that if you think you have the virus and can’t get a test, to stay home and isolate from others in your household for at least five days.
With this variant spreading so quickly, the contact tracing public health was doing has now gone out the window.
At this point, counties in the metro area do not intend to implement restrictions on activities like indoor dining and gyms – other than to keep mask requirements in place and highly recommend a better mask like an N95 for protection.
While cases are growing, this wave is going to disrupt work, school and businesses. County health leaders said their worry is once again hospitals are getting overwhelmed as serious cases of omicron are increasing.
On Thursday, the Oregon Health Authority announced another single day record cases of 7,615. The rolling 7-day total is 24,525 – a 92% increase over the previous seven says (12,745). These cases are also a 248% increase over the week before that (7,040).
Cases in the Metro tri-counties are spiking faster than the rest of the state. Multnomah County, Washington County, and Clackamas County all set single day records for cases. Cases for the last 7 days are 14,172 – increasing by 259% over the previous 7 days at 4,785 and 407% increase the week before that 2,794.
Cases are also spiking in Clark County with 2,434 confirmed cases which is a 104% increase over the previous week (1,195) and a 226% increase over the week before that (747).
OHA said as of Thursday, 3,062,365 people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2,779,724 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series.
COVID-19 hospitalizations
OHA reported that 588 people across the state are hospitalized with COVID-19. They also reported 110 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units.
There are currently 42 available adult ICU beds out of 645 – providing 7% availability. There are also 221 available adult non-ICU beds out of 4,072 – providing 5% availability.
New cases by county
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (17), Benton (317), Clackamas (756), Clatsop (45), Columbia (49), Coos (219), Crook (41), Curry (42), Deschutes (159), Douglas (91), Grant (14), Hood River (27), Jackson (441), Jefferson (62), Josephine (105), Klamath (70), Lake (4), Lane (623), Lincoln (74), Linn (204), Malheur (33), Marion (501), Morrow (34), Multnomah (1,598), Polk (275), Sherman (2), Tillamook (21), Umatilla (306), Union (27), Wallowa (1), Wasco (21), Washington (1,333) and Yamhill (103).