550 new virus cases, Oregon’s largest daily total to date

SALEM, Ore. — The Oregon Health Authority reported 550 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, the state’s largest daily total since the the start of the pandemic.

Health officials called the number of cases “troubling” and said that based on current COVID-19 modeling in the state, if Oregon remains on the path it is now, the state could reach capacity in its hospitals by mid-December.

“While higher than any total we’ve reported to date, it’s nearly in line with the modeling estimates that we published last week, which showed that daily reported cases could rise into the high 400s, absent Oregonians redoubling their efforts to slow the spread,” said Shimi Sharief, the Oregon Health Authority senior health advisor.

The previous daily case count record in Oregon, which also occurred in the month of October, was 484. Officials called Friday’s record-breaking number of new cases in the state “a reminder that Oregonians cannot let their guards down.”

Sharief said health officials “remain cautious” about giving a single-day’s total “too much weight.”

“That said, we believe this increase is due to continued community transmission from social gatherings, as well as household clusters,” Sharief said.

Officials have attributed the rise in cases to Labor Day gatherings, the return of college students to campus, the interruption of testing during recent wildfires in Oregon and “small clusters” of outbreaks across the state.

State and health officials are already urging people to to avoid Halloween celebrations and rethink their plans for Thanksgiving.

The total amount of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Oregon, since the start of the pandemic, is 41,348. The death toll is 649.

Currently out of Oregon’s 723 listed intensive care unit beds, 22 percent are still available, based on data on the Oregon Health Authority’s website. Out of the non-ICU adult hospital beds in the state, 14 percent are still available.

“We are nearing capacity,” Sharief said. “We still have hospital beds available, but based on our current models we could be reaching capacity towards the middle to end of December.”

In addition, earlier this week Kootenai Health, a hospital located in Coeur d’Alene, announced that people with COVID-19 in northern Idaho soon may be sent to Seattle or Portland, Ore., because the region’s hospitals are nearing capacity.

Officials at the hospital said that the facility was at 99 percent capacity for patients.

For six weeks, Oregon’s COVID-19 cases were in a downward trend until mid-September. Since then, officials warned that numbers were again increasing at an alarming rate.

During October, Oregon has reached grim COVID-19 milestones including the state’s largest daily case count since the start of the pandemic, surpassed 600 deaths and reached 40,000 confirmed cases.

The record breaking daily case count in Oregon followed suit with the nation as the United States is also approaching a record for the number of new daily coronavirus cases,

The seven-day rolling average for new daily COVID-19 cases in the U.S. surpassed 61,140 Thursday, compared with 44,647 two weeks ago. The record was reached July 22 when the rolling average was 67,293 in the midst of a summer outbreak driven largely by surges of the virus in Florida, Texas, Arizona and California.

The U.S. recorded 71,671 new cases Thursday, with several states setting records across the Midwest and West.

For months health officials have urged Oregonians to continue to follow the statewide implemented safety measures.

As cases continued to rise this month the health authority again expanded face covering requirements to include all private and public workplaces, including classrooms, offices, meeting rooms, work spaces, outdoor markets, street fairs, private career schools and public and private colleges and universities.

“We all need to aggressively adhere to the face covering guidance and always wear a mask,” Sharief said. “We know everyone is tired and we all wish this would go away, but the reality is this disease is spreading in Oregon and it’s on all of us to protect ourselves and each other.”

In the past, Gov. Kate Brown has discussed travel restrictions or shutting the doors of businesses again if need be. However there are no further “specific restrictions at this time that (the health authority) is considering.”