PORTLAND, Ore. — There are four new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,353, the Oregon Health Authority reported today March 18, 2021.
Oregon Health Authority reported 393 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19, bringing the state total to 160,622.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported are in the following counties: Baker (3), Benton (19), Clackamas (21), Clatsop (2), Columbia (1), Coos (22), Crook (5), Curry (5), Deschutes (11), Douglas (16), Grant (2), Jackson (42), Jefferson (1), Josephine (25), Klamath (5), Lane (12), Lincoln (7), Linn (10), Malheur (2), Marion (44), Morrow (1), Multnomah (66), Polk (4), Tillamook (3), Umatilla (6), Union (3), Wallowa (1), Wasco (2), Washington (45) and Yamhill (7).
Vaccinations in Oregon
Note: On March 17, OHA saw the largest number of vaccination events submitted into the ALERT IIS system on a single day (49,166), reflecting that sites are catching up on submitting doses that were administered during the ALERT IIS outage earlier this week.
Today, OHA reported that 49,166 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 18,412 doses were administered on March 17 and 30,754 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on March 17.
Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the state’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).
Oregon has now administered a cumulative total of 1,412,232 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. To date, 1,797,545 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
These data are preliminary and subject to change. OHA‘s dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data, and Oregon’s dashboard has been updated today.
COVID-19 hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 116, which is eight more than yesterday. There are 38 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is nine more than yesterday.
The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity.
More information about hospital capacity can be found here.
In case you missed it: Dance company pivots to providing COVID-19 resources
In yesterday’s edition of Oregon Coronavirus Update, we spotlighted the work of Ballet Folklorico Ritmo Alegre in Medford. The dance company had deep connections with community members who weren’t receiving COVID-19 information in a useful way.
“There are resources out there, but if people don’t know how to access them, then we have a barrier,” says Luisa Zaragoza, the artistic and managing director. She knew her relationship with families in the community was an opportunity to help.
Last year, Ballet Folklorico Ritmo Alegre partnered with OHA and a couple of other local organizations to develop an education campaign providing information on COVID-19 and local resources through Facebook posts, phone calls, Zoom meetings and several drive-through events.
Ballet Folklorico Ritmo Alegre is also featured in a public awareness advertisement (English, Spanish) currently airing through the Safe + Strong campaign. Read the full story in yesterday’s newsletter. To subscribe, visit this page.
Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations
To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit our webpage, which has a breakdown of distribution and other useful information.