Oregon COVID-19 New Cases Pass 10,000 In 1 Day, End Not In Sight

PORTLAND, OR — While health officials and researchers in Oregon say that the state will reach a point where the numbers start back down, it's getting hard to imagine. The sky's the limit doesn't seem to do the fear justice.

On Friday, the Oregon Health Authority announced that on Thursday, there were 10,451 new cases of COVID-19 reported across the state. It was the fifth day out the last seven that the state had hit a record high.

There have now been 459,700 cases since the pandemic began.

OHA says that there are 625 people in the hospital, up by 37 from Wednesday.

Forecasters from OHSU say that the number is expected to reach more than 1,600 people hospitalized. That is not expected until the end of the month. After that, they forecast a slow decline in the numbers.

"Anything Oregonians can do now to reduce the spread of the virus will help to preserve hospital capacity for those who need it most," Director of the OHSU Office of Advanced Analytics Peter Graven said.

"If we can spread the peak out over two months rather than just a few weeks, it will help ensure Oregonians get the timely hospital care they expect and deserve."

The omicron-fueled surge that's gripping Oregon is taking a toll on the state's hospitals.

As of Friday morning, there were only 47 beds available for adults in intensive care units across the state. Several counties have no ICU beds available at all. Hospitals in twelve counties – Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Tillamook, Washington, and Yamhill – have only 1 percent of their non-ICU beds available for adults.

The state also says that 33 more deaths were reported on Thursday, bringing to 5,761 the number of Oregonians who have died since the pandemic.

The 10,651 new cases were reported in 35 of the state's 36 counties.

Here's the county by county breakdown.

Baker (27), Benton (301), Clackamas (1,132), Clatsop (55), Columbia (66), Coos (127), Crook (35), Curry (23), Deschutes (940), Douglas (103), Gilliam (3), Grant (9), Harney (5), Hood River (1), Jackson (291), Jefferson (63), Josephine (96), Klamath (63), Lake (6), Lane (578), Lincoln (42), Linn (237), Malheur (40), Marion (1,286), Morrow (24), Multnomah (2,380), Polk (183), Sherman (2), Tillamook (19), Umatilla (170), Union (12), Wallowa (5), Wasco (26), Washington (1,891) and Yamhill (210).