Oregon rate for positive COVID-19 tests rises to 6.1 percent; Lincoln County’s is 5.4 percent

The percentage of positive COVID-19 tests cases in Oregon hit their highest levels in four months, state health officials reported Monday.

The Oregon Health Authority said the percentage of tests coming back positive was 6.1 percent for the week of July 26-Aug. 1. That is the highest percentage since mid-March.

The positive test level in Lincoln County is 5.4 percent as of Monday. The county has had 383 positive tests out of 7,066 total tests, according to the OHA. The figure does not include “presumptive” cases.

State health officials had expressed some guarded optimism when the positive test rate fell to 4.8 percent in the previous report, breaking a streak of eight weeks of rising percentages of positive tests. The positive rate had reached 5.8 percent during the two weeks following the July 4 holiday.

Also on Monday, OHA announced 272 newcases of COVID-19 bringing the state total to 19,366. There were two more deaths, bringing the state total to 328. 

Lincoln County had four new cases reported Monday.

During the initial outbreak, the positive rate was 9 percent and 7 percent respectively for the first two weeks of March. Gov. Brown declared a state of emergency on March 8, which began a shutdown of many offices, retail stores and restaurants.

The positive test rate fell to a low of 1.6 percent in mid-May, just before the phased “reopening” of businesses in most of the state. The rate rose for eight straight weeks before the dip in the previous report.