Oregon COVID-19 Cases Drop, Herd Immunity Reached: New Forecast

PORTLAND, OR — Everyone in Oregon could be getting a holiday present on Dec. 26, the day after Christmas. A new forecast from medical researchers at Oregon Health Sciences University says that the state could reach herd immunity against the delta variant of COVID-19 on that day.

In Oregon's case that would mean that 85 percent of the population was immune as a result of vaccination or recent infection.

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While the forecast says that 22 percent of the state's population is still vulnerable, that number is expected to decrease as the virus finds it harder and harder to find hosts.

"A lot of people have gotten infected over the past three months, and it's become harder for the virus to find susceptible people," the director of OHSU's Office of Advanced Analytics, Dr. Peter Graven, says.

"There’s still time for people to take action to prevent transmissions and to get vaccinated, but we're projecting that a whole bunch more people are going to get infected in the next month."

If the numbers do what's expected, Graven says that it will provide a well-needed easing of the strain on the state's hospitals.

You can read the whole forecast here.