Oregon Omicron Cases Show Large Drop, Hospitalizations Still Rise

PORTLAND, OR — While 15 more Oregonians died from Friday through Sunday and on Monday, nearly 1,100 Oregonians woke up in the hospital, there was good news out of the Oregon Health Authority. There were only 13,443 new cases of COVID-19 over the past three days.

When compared to the last two weeks, which had several days close to or above 10,000 new cases, averaging just under 4,500 a day is a positive sign.

The state says that 6,802 new cases were reported on Friday, 4,011 on Saturday, and 2,630 on Sunday.

Hospitals are still feeling the strain, which is not unexpected. Officials have said that they consider hospitalization to be a "lagging indicator," whose numbers follow cases by a week or so.

There were 1,099 Oregonians in the state's 40 hospitals on Monday morning, seven more than had been there on Sunday morning.

A forecast from Oregon Health Sciences University expects the number of hospitalizations to top out at around 1,200 and that should happen within a week.

Meanwhile, the state barely crossed the halfway mark in meeting Governor Brown's goal of getting 1 million more Oregonians to get their booster shots by the end of January. As of Monday afternoon, 504,081 Oregonians had received a booster shot since Brown issued the challenge on December 17.

Officials say that while the goal was not met, every booster shot counts.

"Every booster shot administered gets us closer to the goal we all want to attain – an end to the pandemic in Oregon," state medical officer and state epidemiologist, Dr. Dean Sidelinger, said.

As for the 13,443 new cases, they were reported across 32 of the state's 36 counties.

Here's the county by county breakdown:

Baker (41), Benton (286), Clackamas (1,070), Clatsop (97), Columbia (146), Coos (164), Crook (140), Curry (45), Deschutes (893), Douglas (216), Harney (19), Hood River (61), Jackson (817), Jefferson (208), Josephine (285), Klamath (369), Lake (7), Lane (1,353), Lincoln (127), Linn (611), Malheur (61), Marion (1,622), Morrow (30), Multnomah (1,807), Polk (302), Tillamook (69), Umatilla (281), Union (120), Wallowa (10), Wasco (81), Washington (1,741) and Yamhill (364).