The three-year anniversary of Oregon’s first confirmed COVID-19 case brought an 18% drop in new reported weekly coronavirus cases and an 18-bed drop in hospitalizations connected to the virus.
The smaller case count this week arose at least in part from a 13% decline in total tests reported to the state.
While COVID-19 is still circulating in Oregon and elsewhere, natural and vaccine-based immunity has reached sufficiently high levels that health officials have not said they are anticipating case or hospitalization surges in the near future.
At 232 Oregon hospital beds occupied with people who tested positive for COVID-19, hospitalizations are well below the peak 283 beds Oregon Health & Science University forecasted for the current mini-surge. Hospitalizations recently peaked Feb. 23, at 261 occupied beds, a fraction of the all-time peak of 1,178 patients hospitalized Sept. 1, 2021.
Nationally, the continuing positive outlook means the federal public health emergency declared in 2020 will be allowed to expire May 11. In Oregon, a state of emergency prompted by a surge of multiple respiratory viruses is scheduled to expire March 6.
The state has yet to say when it will lift the most prominent holdover of pandemic-era rules, the requirement to wear masks in health care settings. But officials have previously said that if the overall positive trends continue, it could be in a matter of “months.”
The Oregonian/OregonLive no longer plans to publish weekly COVID-19 updates on case and hospitalization statistics. But readers can still access the latest weekly numbers each Wednesday by visiting projects.oregonlive.com/coronavirus, which will include the newest data released by the Oregon Health Authority.
Since it began: Oregon has reported 961,523 confirmed or presumed infections and 9,361 deaths.
Hospitalizations: 232 people with confirmed coronavirus infections are hospitalized, down 18 since Feb. 22. That includes 28 people in intensive care, down two since Feb. 22.
New deaths: Since Feb. 22, the Oregon Health Authority has reported 26 additional deaths connected to COVID-19.
— Fedor Zarkhin