After Governor Brown’s outdoor mask mandates and vaccination mandates for Oregon employees, healthcare workers and Oregon school faculties began Friday, August 27th, multiple Oregon county Sheriff’s, state employees and school faculties began pushing back.
In the midst of a pandemic, surrounding county bodies, officials and several Oregon county Sheriffs, have made public declarations of their intent to not enforce what are being described as “over-reach” or what “many consider unconstitutional” mandates in open letters released to the public recently by many Oregon Sheriff’s and county officials while public demonstrations were attended by hundreds at local hospitals in support of individual and ‘medical freedom’.
With the stress of dealing with COVID-19 mandates for over a year now, pandemic fatigue, and now workers who question working throughout the pandemic with out vaccine, are now becoming a staffing issue. Many workers who are now being mandated to vaccinate or lose their employment, are now choosing to leave their profession. Industries already struggling with staffing shortages such as healthcare, first responders, police officers, firefighters and many more, are now fearing that up 25% of their staff could refuse to comply, resulting in serious staffing issues.
Through September 3rd, the Oregon Health Authority has identified 16,265 COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough cases, an increase of 6,726 cases in the past week according to Thursdays Oregon Health Authority report. The Delta variant also increased by 1,078 cases since last week, rising to 2,409 individuals infected with the Delta variant.
Vaccination rates for the state slowed even further in the past week as the state sat at 71.3% vaccinated last week, and to date, now sits at 72.8%, an increase of 1.5% 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 booster shots continue.
As of Friday, September 3rd, the state of Oregon had tested 6,396,316 individuals, an increase of 168,462 individuals and now over 2,106,876 more people than the states 4,289,440 population. 5,999,061 have tested negative for the novel COVID-19 virus and 397,255 have tested positive. Oregon has recorded 15,472 new cases in the past week, and 283,873 total cases. Individuals hospitalized rose by 1,100 hospitalizations statewide in the past week, and now stands at 15,629. In the past week 157 deaths were recorded statewide, and Oregonians who have unfortunately succumbed to COVID-19 has now reached 3,272 individuals throughout the entire state since the pandemic began.
Curry County’s latest numbers as reported Friday, September 3rd, by the Oregon Health Authority, now reports testing 18,530 individuals with 17,040 negative tests, 1,490 total positive COVID-19 tests, and the latest data from the Oregon Health Authority and has recorded 1,526 total cases and now 16 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Del Norte County Department of Health and Human Services reported adding 249 new cases in the past week now reaching 3,054 total confirmed cases reported by Public Health, after testing 17,764 individuals with 14,710 negative results, with 191 active cases, 23 current hospitalizations and 26 deaths.
Coos County to the north, reported testing 66,756 individuals last week with 62,845 negative results, adding 247 new cases in the past week with now 3,911 total positive cases and 56 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Josephine County has seen significant increases in recent weeks and has reported testing 120,919 individuals with 110,236 negative results, 10,683 total positive test results with now 7,629 total cases of COVID-19 and now 129 deaths.
Jackson County, which includes the Medford area, with a total population of 221,290, reports testing 328,896 individuals, 107,606 more people than the counties total population, with 300,634 negative test results, 28,262 positive results, and 18,970 total cases of COVID-19 with now 215 deaths as of Friday, September 3rd.
