After the U.S. Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit ordered the Biden administrations mandate requiring businesses with more than 100 employees be vaccinated by January 4th, 2022, be halted until further notice, the court has also ordered that OSHA take no steps to implement or enforce the Emergency Temporary Standard ‘until further court order.’
On Wednesday, November 17th, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced that it has suspended the implementation and enforcement of President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.
On Thursday, November 18th, Washington Governor Jay Inslee and the Washington State Department of Health Secretary, committed to follow OSHA criteria regarding President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and said he was considering additional state orders to make the Biden mandate more strict.
While joining President Joe Biden in Washington D.C. earlier in the week for the signing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Oregon Governor Kate Brown was asked during an interview what metrics were being used to determine when to lift the mask mandate she reinstated earlier in the year based on a Delta variant surge. “We’ll continue to follow the science and the data to keep Oregonians safe, to keep our schools open and our businesses thriving,” the governor said.
“What’s most important to me throughout this pandemic that Oregonians stay alive and be healthy and safe, that we keep our kids in school with as minimal disruption as possible, and that our businesses are able to stay open and continue to thrive, so that is where we are focused,” Brown said.
Meanwhile, Oregon has recorded 3.7 times more Breakthrough Cases than Delta Variant cases in the past seventeen weeks with now 41,257 Breakthrough Cases, and 11,058 Delta Variant cases recorded by the Oregon Health Authority in the past 17 weeks. In the past week alone Oregon added 1,571 Breakthrough Cases while recording only 161 new Delta Variant cases by comparison.
Oregon Health Authority data show breakthrough case records began being kept some seventeen weeks ago. In that same seventeen week period, approximately 175,370 Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19. However, in that same seventeen week period, there have been 41,257 vaccine breakthrough cases identified in Oregon alone, adding 1,571 breakthrough cases in the past week, and continues to total 24% off all new cases in the state.
Vaccination rates across the state continue to lag and now sits at 72.5% of Oregonians fully vaccinated. The Oregon Health Authority and the Center for Disease Control assured individuals that the fully vaccinated are well protected from COVID, including the delta variant.
As of Friday, November 19th, the state of Oregon had tested 7,918,587 individuals, an increase of 119,8691 individuals and now over 3,629,147 more people than the states 4,289,440 population. 7,394,729 have tested negative for the novel COVID-19 virus 523,858 have tested positive, and there are 384,062 total cases in the state.
Individuals hospitalized rose by 279 hospitalizations statewide in the past week, and now stands at 20,482 in the entire state since the pandemic began. In the past week 164 deaths were recorded statewide, and Oregonians who have unfortunately succumbed to COVID-19 has now reached 4,914 individuals throughout the entire state since the pandemic began.
Curry County’s latest numbers as reported Friday, November 19th, by the Oregon Health Authority, now reports testing 24,929 individuals with 22,997 negative tests, 1,932 total positive COVID-19 tests, and the latest data from the Oregon Health Authority has recorded 1,884 total cases and 35 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Del Norte County Department of Health and Human Services reported adding 22 new cases in the past week now reaching 3,791 total confirmed cases reported by Public Health, with 26 active cases, 1 current hospitalizations and 40 deaths.
Coos County to the north, reported testing 91,506 individuals last week with 85,394 negative results with now 5,509 total positive cases and 104 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Josephine County has seen significant increases in recent weeks and has reported testing 150,489 individuals with 136,888 negative results, 13,601 total positive test results with 9,994 total cases of COVID-19 and now 225 deaths.
Jackson County, which includes the Medford area, with a total population of 221,290, reports testing 411,086 individuals, 189,796 more people than the counties total population, with 375,514 negative test results, 35,572 positive results, and 24,450 total cases of COVID-19 with now 347 deaths as of Friday, November 19th.
