ONTARIO
Along with announcing a goal of vaccinating 70% of Oregonians, age 16 and older to reopen the economy, Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday announced new county risk levels. For now, Malheur County will remain at âhigh risk,â as it pertains to COVID-19, and the vaccination rate remains lower than the stateâs overall goal and new targets set for counties to begin to reopen.
There were a total of 64 new cases in the county from April 25 to May 8, according to metrics released from the Oregon Health Authority on Monday. This is up from 37 cases from April 18 to May 1. Additionally test positivity was put at 6%.
How COVID-19 case rates, deaths and hospitalizations differ in Idaho and Oregon
While Oregon is going through a bad surge right now, an Oregon health department director believes the state is still in a better position than Idaho. Author: Joey Prechtl Updated: 10:21 PM MDT May 3, 2021
BOISE, Idaho Across the Idaho border, COVID-19 cases are surging. Oregon is recording the highest case rate in the country, while the Gem State s case rate has been declining.
The difference between the two states is regarding the amount of COVID-19 restrictions: Oregon has numerous restrictions, while Idaho has very few.
Oregon s seven-day moving average is currently around 800 per 100,000. At the beginning of April, the state s average was around 400.
PAYETTE â While COVID-19 case counts in Payette County remain low and relatively stable, the local demand for COVID-19 vaccines is slowing down. This is according to Payette County Emergency Manager Adam Gonzalez in his report to the Payette County Board of Commissioners during its regular meeting Monday.
Following are excerpts from Gonzalezâ report.
In Payette County, Gonzalez reported a total of 2,494 total cases, with a higher count among women than men: 1,299 - 1,145. Southwest District Health confirmed 1,982 of these as of Tuesday. There have been 36 related deaths countywide.
Gonzalez also added data on deaths with preexisting conditions to his report; He reported the highest concentration of deaths with such conditions were among those age 80 or older, 7-5, and the youngest death, in the age 40-49 bracket, did not have preexisting conditions. He also reported a test positivity rate of 2.95% and a daily incidence rate of 1.07 per 10,000 people.
MALHEUR COUNTY
As health authorities around the country fall in line with federal guidance to push the pause on distributing anymore of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine until further review, officials with the Malheur County Health Department say the reason is for an âextremely rare potential side effect.â Additionally, they state that if it is related, looking at the overall data matters.
âIf it is related, itâs important to keep in perspective that itâs six out of 6.8 million, and that the risk of potentially damaging health effects and risk of death from COVID-19 are far greater,â reads an emailed reply from Erika Harmon, public information officer at Malheur County Health Department on Tuesday morning. âVaccines are safe and effective, and they are necessary to save lives.â
MALHEUR COUNTY
COVID-19 cases in Malheur County are low enough now that as of Friday, the county will go into the lowest risk category of four risk levels, ranging from âextreme riskâ to âlower risk,â as established by Gov. Kate Brown. This also moves the county out of a two-week caution period.
Malheur County has been in the âmoderate riskâ level since Feb. 26. Prior to that, the county had been in âextreme riskâ restrictions since Nov. 18, 2020; that was meant to be a two-week âpause,â however, Brown extended it indefinitely on Dec. 3.
Moving up and down in categories is based on new case counts and test positivity rate. For Malheur County, from March 21 to April 3, there were 15 new cases, and a 2.9% test positivity rate, according to data from the Oregon Health Authority.