PORTLAND, Ore. — There are nine new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,928, the Oregon Health Authority reported today August 12, 2021.
Oregon Health Authority reported 2,387 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, which is a record number of cases and brings the state total to 236,698.
Cases and deaths
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (6), Benton (21), Clackamas (198), Clatsop (35), Columbia (62), Coos (55), Crook (10), Curry (25), Deschutes (108), Douglas (137), Harney (3), Hood River (11), Jackson (416), Jefferson (20), Josephine (133), Klamath (15), Lake (1), Lane (210), Lincoln (31), Linn (32), Malheur (5), Marion (148), Morrow (14), Multnomah (210), Polk (42), Tillamook (27), Umatilla (121), Union (22), Wallowa (7), Wasco (25), Washington (189) and Yamhill (48).
Vaccinations in Oregon
Today, OHA reported that 9,965 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 2,610 were initial doses and 1,051 were second doses administered on Aug. 11. The remaining 6,275 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Aug. 11.
Oregon has now administered 2,708,131 first and second doses of Pfizer, 1,803,388 first and second doses of Moderna and 187,629 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
As of today, 2,536,877 people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2,342,257 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series.
Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused lags in providers reporting updated information. 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).
These data are preliminary and subject to change.
Updated vaccination data are provided on Oregon’s COVID-19 data dashboards and have been updated today.
COVID-19 hospitalizations: ‘It’s like watching a train wreck coming…’
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 670, which is five more than yesterday. There are 177 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is five more than yesterday.
“Our hospitals are full. Patients are boarding and being cared for in emergency departments when they should be admitted to hospital beds. Our ICUs are full. Our doctors and nurses are exhausted and rightfully frustrated because this crisis is avoidable. It is like watching a train wreck coming and knowing that there’s an opportunity to switch tracks, yet we feel helpless while we watch unnecessary loss of life. That is why it is essential that we all do our part to get vaccinated and wear a mask indoors,” said David Zonies, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., FACS, FCCM, Associate Chief Medical Officer and Professor of Surgery at Oregon Health & Science University.
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.
Doctor in Klamath Falls seeing younger and sicker patients
Dr. Grant Niskanen, Vice President of Medical Affairs at Sky Lakes Medical Center in Klamath Falls, recently spoke with the Oregon Health Authority about what he is seeing in his Southern Oregon community hospital.
“We had one person a couple weeks ago that got a lung transplant … we have a second person that now is being evaluated for a lung transplant, and when I talk about the patients — like nine or 10 that are currently in our hospital, that’s for an acute infection — that’s not talking about the four or five that have been here for 20 plus days, who are no longer infected, but still need such amounts of high flow oxygen that we’re unable to send them home.”
Dr. Niskanen says the key to all of this is to get vaccinated.
“If we all were vaccinated. This would shut down the spread of the virus and shut down the mutations and the variants that are occurring. We’re talking about lives here. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of the vaccinations.
“As a physician, what we really do is just support you. As a patient told me yesterday, (who’s on oxygen) — they said — ‘Can you give me something to make me feel better?’ Well, no we’re just supporting you at this point and trying to help you breathe as best as possible. It’s a very frustrating illness for both physicians and nurses to care for and to watch these people go on and get progressively sick.”
He says almost all the patients he treats with COVID-19 ask him later if they can get the vaccine once they’re sick in the hospital.
“By the time you’re in the hospital and critically ill, no, it doesn’t work like that. And all of them say, ‘If I had known about this and how I felt and the effect on my family, I would have gotten the vaccine.’“
Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations
To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, including a breakdown of distribution and other important information, visit our webpage (English or Spanish).