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The same day as some Oregon doctors and nurses received their first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, state officials offered another reason for hope: For the first time in two months, the second wave of the pandemic showed signs of slowing.
The lull was modest: an 11% decline in new cases of the virus from the previous week. That week, beginning Nov. 30, was the worst since the pandemic began in terms of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. All three declined the week of Dec. 7, albeit only slightly.
"Four hundred ninety-one Oregonians were hospitalized with COVID-19 during the week, compared to 494 the previous week," the Oregon Health Authority said in its weekly report. "One hundred sixteen Oregonians died in association with COVID-19—down from 133 the previous week."
But those numbers don't appear to reflect the 102 deaths reported in just two days this week.
Any reprieve from the virus would be welcome: Cases had increased for seven consecutive weeks before last week, despite a "freeze" on the state intended to slow spread of the disease. Workers in Portland-area hospitals described to WW a strain on resources like they've never seen before and, in the poorest and most ethnically diverse neighborhoods, test positivity rates nearing 50%.
"One week, we had a 45% positive rate, which I guarantee blows out of the water any other testing site," Multnomah County nurse Kjersten Olsgaard told WW in this week's cover story, describing a testing site in outer Southeast Portland. "And 45% is astronomically high. To me, it relates to the fact that these are some of the most vulnerable patients because of their language barrier or cultural barrier, the poverty that they see."
The state's weekly report continues to show the disproportionate impact COVID is having on Latinx residents in Oregon.
People of Hispanic origin make up 13% of the state's population but 38% of cases. One hundred thirty-six of the 1,161 people to die from COVID-19 in Oregon were Hispanic—that's 12%, or roughly proportionate to population figures (although the ethnicity of 264 victims is unknown).