Early last week, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill approved in a special session to provide more rental relief and address drought issues. Gov. Kate Brown held a press conference last Friday to talk about the state’s ongoing response in the pandemic.
The governor was joined by representatives from the Oregon Health Authority and OHSU; such include, Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen, State Epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger, Oregon Health & Science University Chief Medical Officer Dr. Renee Edwards and OHSU Business Intelligence Unit Lead Data Scientist Dr. Peter Graven.
In Oregon, which has maintained low death rates through the pandemic, nearly half of all fatalities have occurred since the delta surge. The state released a new vaccine breakthrough report showing that 70 percent of the 4,983 reported COVID-19 cases between Dec. 5 and Dec. 11 occurred in people who were not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated. The other 30 percent were among fully vaccinated individuals, roughly in line with the share of breakthrough infections in recent weeks.
But officials are worried breakthrough infections could spike in the weeks ahead as early evidence indicates omicron can evade baseline vaccine protections. The average age of the breakthrough cases during that period was 44. To date, there have been 49,250 COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases in Oregon.
