New vaccine requirements for companies with more than 100 employees were announced by the Biden Administration Thursday after the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced a new emergency temporary standard to protect more than 84 million workers from the spread of the coronavirus on the job, declaring that the nation’s unvaccinated workers face grave danger from workplace exposure to coronavirus, and immediate action is necessary to protect them.
The new mandate also included workers at health care facilities that treat Medicare and Medicaid patients and extended a deadline for federal contractors.
Companies with 100 or more employees are now required to have those workers get fully vaccinated, with two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, or one shot of Johnson & Johnson, by January 4th. After that date, any employee who remains unvaccinated must provide a verified negative COVID test weekly and those unvaccinated employees also must wear masks.
OSHA believes they have the emergency authority to issue rules that pre-empt all state law to protect workers from an imminent health hazard, and that the mandate could be expanded to companies with fewer than 100 workers.
Meanwhile, after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave for more than 28 million children ages 5 to 11 approval to receive the COVID-19 vaccine shot, the City of San Francisco is reporting that children as young as 5 could soon be required to show proof of vaccination to enter indoor spaces such as restaurants, entertainment venues, and sporting events.
Vaccination rates across the state continue to lag with an increase of just .3% in the past week. In the past week the state sat at 77.2% vaccinated, and to date, now sits at 77.5%. Oregon Health Authority and the Center for Disease Control assured individuals that the fully vaccinated are well protected from COVID, including the delta variant, which increased by 721 in the past week, to now 10,055 individuals.
Oregon Health Authority data show breakthrough case records began being kept some fifteen weeks ago. In that same fifteen week period, approximately 159,817 Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19. However, in that same fifteen week period, there have been 37,539 vaccine breakthrough cases identified in Oregon alone, adding 2,115 breakthrough cases in the past week, and continues to total 23.5% off all new 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, November 5th, the state of Oregon had tested 7,668,167 individuals, an increase of 131,334 individuals and now over 3,378,727 more people than the states 4,289,440 population. 7,159,795 have tested negative for the novel COVID-19 virus 508,372 have tested positive, and there are 372,137 total cases in the state.
Individuals hospitalized rose by 369 hospitalizations statewide in the past week, and now stands at 19,749 in the entire state since the pandemic began. In the past week 132 deaths were recorded statewide, and Oregonians who have unfortunately succumbed to COVID-19 has now reached 4,469 individuals throughout the entire state since the pandemic began.
Curry County’s latest numbers as reported Friday, November 5th, by the Oregon Health Authority, now reports testing 24,028 individuals with 22,139 negative tests, 1,889 total positive COVID-19 tests, and the latest data from the Oregon Health Authority has recorded 1,846 total cases and 27 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Del Norte County Department of Health and Human Services reported adding 25 new cases in the past week now reaching 3,750 total confirmed cases reported by Public Health, with 40 active cases, 2 current hospitalizations and 40 deaths.
Coos County to the north, reported testing 87,861 individuals last week with 81,983 negative results, adding 129 new cases in the past week with now 5,294 total positive cases and 98 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Josephine County has seen significant increases in recent weeks and has reported testing 145,950 individuals with 132,673 negative results, 13,277 total positive test results with 9,712 total cases of COVID-19 and now 206 deaths.
Jackson County, which includes the Medford area, with a total population of 221,290, reports testing 398,230 individuals, 176,940 more people than the counties total population, with 363,557 negative test results, 34,673 positive results, and 23,807 total cases of COVID-19 with now 330 deaths as of Friday, November 5th.
