PORTLAND, Oregon — For the second day in a row, health officials on Friday reported no new COVID-19 deaths in Oregon. The state’s death toll remains at 521 people.
The last time Oregon reported no new deaths from the coronavirus multiple days in a row was on May 27, when the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reported zero new deaths for three days straight.
Oregon’s total number of known cases is now 30,342.
Multnomah County had the highest number of new cases on Friday with 56, followed by Marion County with 51.
The new cases reported Friday are in the following counties:
- Baker: 1
- Benton: 4
- Clackamas: 28
- Clatsop: 3
- Coos: 2
- Deschutes: 7
- Douglas: 5
- Hood River: 1
- Jackson: 14
- Jefferson: 2
- Klamath: 2
- Lake: 1
- Lane: 20
- Linn: 5
- Malheur: 20
- Marion: 51
- Morrow: 7
- Multnomah: 56
- Polk: 4
- Tillamook: 2
- Umatilla: 16
- Wasco: 3
- Washington: 36
- Yamhill: 5
OHA released its latest COVID-19 modeling report on Friday, showing that the current rate of transmission is continuing a downward trend that began in mid-July, meaning that each case is generating less than one other case.
The model looked at the following scenarios:
- If transmission continues at its present rate, then by October 8, daily infections would decrease from 360 to 190. New daily cases would decrease to 80. Severe cases – those requiring hospitalization – would decrease to 6 and the reproduction rate would remain at .87.
- If there is a 5-percentage-point decline in transmission, over the next month there would be 130 daily infections. New daily cases would decline to 50. Severe cases would drop to four, and the reproduction rate would be .74.
- If there is a 5-percentage-point increase in transmission rates over the next month, the model projects 400 new daily infections with new daily cases rising by 80. Under this scenario, severe cases would double from six to 12. More importantly, this scenario results in a reproduction rate of 1.0, meaning that the spread of COVID would be increasing, reversing the progress made in recent weeks.
As has been shown since the beginning of the pandemic in Oregon, these trends remain very sensitive to small changes in transmission levels.
The wildfires and resulting poor air quality have decreased availability of COVID-19 testing in the state, but it is unclear yet what the effects the evacuations and air quality might have on COVID-19 transmission and symptoms.
OHA said model results should be interpreted with caution, given these recent reductions in testing and uncertainty behind various COVID-19 model assumptions.
