Oregon reports 71 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, no new deaths

PORTLAND, Ore. — The state’s death toll from COVID-19 is unchanged from yesterday and remains at 148, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

Oregon Health Authority reported 71 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday bringing the state total to 4,038.

The new confirmed and presumptive cases reported today are in the following counties: Clackamas (4), Hood River (1), Jackson (5), Lake (2), Lincoln (1), Marion (6), Multnomah (41), Polk (2), Wasco (2), Washington (5), Yamhill (1).

Lincoln County Public Health announced today a “presumptive” COVID-19 case. This resident is symptomatic, has had contact with a confirmed case, and is waiting for test results. If this resident does test positive, this new case will bring Lincoln County’s total to 10 confirmed cases.

This case is presumptive, which means although the county is waiting for official test results, it is reasonable to assume they will test positive based on known exposure to COVID-19 and current symptoms. Public Health and the resident are treating this situation in the same way that a confirmed case would be handled. The person is not hospitalized and is self-isolating per Public Health guidelines.

The OHA website is reporting Lincoln County has 11 cases. This is due to the one new presumptive case mentioned above and one case that is a duplicate case. The correct number should be 10 cases in Lincoln County.

OHA investigating COVID-19 increase

OHA and local county health authorities are investigating an increase in COVID-19 cases tied to an outbreak at specific locations of a business that operates in the Tri-county region and the Willamette Valley. At this time, there is no indication that the outbreak at these locations poses any significant risk to surrounding communities.

The situation remains under investigation as health officials gather more information. OHA expects more positive test results to be included in the state’s case totals over the next few days as test results are completed. More details about the outbreak, including location information, will be made available in coming days.

Weekly Report Notes Continued Increase in Testing, Decrease in Positive Cases

OHA’s COVID-19 Weekly Report was released today, showing that OHA recorded 289 new cases of COVID-19 infection last week, a 26 percent drop from the previous week, while tests reported rose by five percent to 17,214. The percentage of those tests which came back positive fell to 1.7 percent. Percentage positive is a key indicator that epidemiologists track in understanding the spread of the disease. The lower the percentage positive the better. Regrettably, deaths rose by 10 last week, to 148 people (0.3 deaths per 10,000 Oregonians) since the beginning of the outbreak.

New this week in the Weekly Report is a breakdown of where Oregonians are hospitalized with COVID-19. The data, which are based on voluntary hospital reporting, show hospitals with 10 or more cases with specific numbers while hospitals with fewer than 10 hospitalized COVID-19 patients are listed without specific numbers.

Also of note: The COVID-19 Weekly Report has changed the publication day from Tuesdays to Wednesdays, starting today.

Daily Update now included in the daily new cases releases

OHA is now including a link to the Oregon COVID-19 Daily Update in the daily new cases news release. The Daily Update is a detailed look at COVID-19 in Oregon, including testing data, hospital capacity, and cases broken down by demographic information such as age groups, gender, race and ethnicity.

Stay informed about COVID-19:

Oregon response: The Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Office of Emergency Management lead the state response.

United States response: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention leads the U.S. response.

Global response: The World Health Organization guides the global response.