As Governor Brown’s vaccination mandate deadline looms in just over a week, and a large percentage of first responders, healthcare personnel, and teachers struggle with the decision to vaccinate or possibly lose their careers, a retired Oregon Supreme Court Justice has rejected a request by 33 Oregon State Police troopers to temporarily halt a mandate that requires them to get fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 18th.
“The police power of the state includes the authority to enact public health laws that may have the effect of curtailing individual rights” the October 7th statement read. It went on to say “that based on case law, Governor Kate Brown is acting within her legislatively granted authority in issuing the vaccine mandate.”
Vaccination rates for the state continue to lag across the state. In the past week the state sat at 75.2% vaccinated, and to date, now sits at 75.9%, an increase of just .7% in the past week. Oregon Health Authority and the Center for Disease Control assured individuals that the fully vaccinated are well protected from COVID, including the delta variant.
According to the latest data from the Oregon Health Authority, breakthrough case records began being kept eleven weeks ago. In that same eleven week period, 121,779 Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19. However, in that same eleven week period, there have been 28,075 vaccine breakthrough cases identified in Oregon alone, adding 2,728 breakthrough cases alone in the past week, a growth of 5% in the past week and now totaling 25% off all cases in the state.
Vaccine breakthrough cases are defined as instances in which an individual received a positive COVID-19 test result at least 14 days following the completion of any COVID-19 vaccine series.
As of Friday, October 8th, the state of Oregon had tested 7,129,700 individuals, an increase of 143,692 individuals and now over 2,840,260 more people than the states 4,289,440 population. 6,660,881 have tested negative for the novel COVID-19 virus 468,819 have tested positive, and there are 341,113 total cases in the state.
Individuals hospitalized rose by 486 hospitalizations statewide in the past week, and now stands at 18,390 in entire state since the pandemic began. In the past week 167 deaths were recorded statewide, and Oregonians who have unfortunately succumbed to COVID-19 has now reached 3,982 individuals throughout the entire state since the pandemic began.
Curry County’s latest numbers as reported Friday, October 8th, by the Oregon Health Authority, now reports testing 22,228 individuals with 20,450 negative tests, 1,778 total positive COVID-19 tests, and the latest data from the Oregon Health Authority and has recorded 1,756 total cases and 19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Del Norte County Department of Health and Human Services reported adding 43 new cases in the past week now reaching 3,634 total confirmed cases reported by Public Health, with 46 active cases, 3 current hospitalizations and 38 deaths.
Coos County to the north, reported testing 78,843 individuals last week with 73,528 negative results, adding 168 new cases in the past week with now 4,743 total positive cases and 86 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Josephine County has seen significant increases in recent weeks and has reported testing 136,704 individuals with 124,156 negative results, 12,548 total positive test results with now 9,081 total cases of COVID-19 and now 187 deaths.
Jackson County, which includes the Medford area, with a total population of 221,290, reports testing 370,923 individuals, 149,633 more people than the counties total population, with 338,252 negative test results, 32,671 positive results, and 22,280 total cases of COVID-19 with now 294 deaths as of Friday, October 8th.
