PORTLAND, Ore. — Last week, Oregon had its lowest weekly COVID-19 death toll since early July, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) announced Wednesday.
Seventeen coronavirus-related deaths were reported from Monday, Feb. 15 to Sunday, Feb. 21, down from 114 deaths the previous week, according to OHA's weekly report. It's the lowest weekly death toll reported since the week of June 29 to July 5, when 11 Oregonians died of the virus.
The weekly report says cases and hospitalizations also dropped sharply.
There were 2,260 cases reported last week, a 35% drop from the week before. Hospitalizations fell from 272 to 159, a 42% drop.
The recent downward trend in cases has allowed for 16 Oregon counties to improve their COVID-19 risk levels starting Friday, Feb. 26. That includes two counties in the Portland metro area.
OHA's daily update
In its daily update Wednesday, Feb. 24, the health authority said 32 more Oregonians have died as a result of the pandemic. That's nearly twice as many deaths as reported all of last week.
The statewide death toll is now 2,194 people.
In addition, the health authority reported 437 new COVID-19 cases, which brings the state's total count to 154,062 cases.
Multnomah County reported the most new cases with 55 and Washington County reported the second-most with 41. Here's a county-by-county breakdown of the new cases:
Baker (6), Benton (22), Clackamas (38), Clatsop (6), Columbia (10), Coos (16), Crook (8), Curry (1), Deschutes (28), Douglas (28), Jackson (27), Jefferson (7), Josephine (20), Klamath (4), Lane (33), Lincoln (2), Linn (6), Malheur (3), Marion (33), Morrow (5), Multnomah (55), Polk (11), Sherman (1), Tillamook (3), Umatilla (15), Union (1), Wasco (1), Washington (41) and Yamhill (6)
Vaccinations
Oregon has administered a total of 858,481 COVID-19 vaccine doses, including more than 294,000 second doses. To date, 1,133,695 vaccine doses have been delivered to sites across the state.
OHA has added a new dashboard tool that shows a map of vaccine administration sites across the state. As of Wednesday, the state has 1,110 vaccination sites.
Hospitalizations
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Oregon is now 162, which is three fewer than Tuesday. There are 46 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, two more than Tuesday.
