On 7/2/2022 7:19 AM, Technobarbarian wrote:
"24 Oregon counties, including Multnomah, enter high risk for COVID spread"
"COVID19-cases in Oregon continue to increase, as do hospitalizations,
but health officials say the numbers so far are manageable compared to previous waves.
Earlier this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
designated nine Oregon counties as being in a high risk for COVID
spread. By Friday, that number jumped to 24, including the state’s most populous county, Multnomah.
The agency suggests people living in high-risk counties wear masks
indoors in public spaces. Multnomah County had already recommended
residents wear masks indoors.
Even so, state health officials said the high COVID cases aren’t a cause for alarm.
“The good news amongst all of that COVID in the community is that we’re not seeing a large increase in hospitalizations,” state epidemiologist
Dr. Dean Sidelinger said. “A slow trend up over the last week or so, but not a huge trend up.”
On Wednesday, the state reported 1,875 positive cases, a 305-case
increase from the previous Wednesday. Altogether, from June 23-29, the
state counted 11,324 positive cases, a 563-case increase from the week before.
From June 23-29, there were 2,550 people hospitalized with COVID — up
419 people from the week before.
While those numbers are the highest they’ve been since early March, they’re not enough to burden Oregon’s hospital system, Sidelinger said.
“We still have over 300 people in the hospital with COVID right now, and people in the hospital for other reasons, and some catching up on care,”
he said. “Our hospitals are not empty, and not by any means not busy.
But we’re not at a point where we’re near those levels that really strained the capacity.”"
At this point most of our counties are in the high risk category, including all of the Portland metropolitan area counties. The ones that aren't high risk are in the medium category.
I'm still testing positive and life goes on as usual. I think I'll start with some pancakes today.
TB
The poop doesn't lie.
"Oregon wastewater data shows far more people have COVID than is
apparent through testing
By Amelia Templeton (OPB)
June 23, 2022 5 a.m.
A rise in home testing and decrease in disease severity have masked a
large increase in COVID-19 infections in Oregon, but the state’s poop doesn’t lie
Last month, a new COVID-19 variant from the omicron family spread across Oregon, causing a seventh wave of infections.
On paper, this seventh wave hasn’t looked particularly impressive,
peaking in late May at about 1,500 new cases reported per day. But data
from sewage samples collected at wastewater treatment plants across the
state suggests that the BA2 omicron variant is silently causing far more infections than are showing up in state testing tallies.
“Wastewater across the state is more or less at record highs or near
record highs,” said Tyler Radniecki, an associate professor of
environmental engineering who is leading the wastewater sampling
research effort at Oregon State University.
The OSU project is part of a nationwide COVID-19 wastewater surveillance effort. The viral concentrations in Oregon during the current surge look similar to what the team saw during the peaks of the delta surge last
August and the first omicron surge in January."
https://www.opb.org/article/2022/06/23/oregon-covid-19-cases-wastewater-data-infections-positive-tests/
TB
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)