Oregon reports 178 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, March 22, 2021.

By Paul Hall on Monday, March 22nd, 2021 in Eastern/Southeast Oregon News Eastern/Southeast Oregon Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News Northeastern Oregon Top Stories

There are two new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,365, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 12:01 a.m. today.

Oregon Health Authority reported 178 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 161,706.

Counties approved for expanding vaccinations

Today, the Oregon Health Authority announced that 13 Oregon counties had submitted attestation letters signaling their intention to immediately offer COVID-19 vaccinations to expanded eligibility groups.

The counties are Baker, Benton, Deschutes, Grant, Jefferson, Lake, Lincoln, Malheur, Marion, Morrow, Polk, Umatilla and Union.

By attesting, these counties can now begin vaccinating all individuals listed in Phase 1B, Group 6, ahead of the previously designated statewide start date of March 29.

Group 6 is comprised of:

Adults ages 45 to 64 with one or more underlying condition with increased risk.
Migrant and seasonal farm workers
Seafood and agricultural workers
Food processing workers
People living in low-income, senior congregate and independent living facilities
Sheltered and unsheltered individuals experiencing houselessness
People displaced by wildfires
Wildland firefighters
Pregnant women 16 and older

The Get Vaccinated Oregon tool is being updated to accommodate this newly added population of people eligible for vaccination.

Vaccinations in Oregon

Today, OHA reported that 21,629 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 14,422 doses were administered on March 21 and 7,207 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on March 21.

Oregon has now administered a total of 757,970 first and second doses of Pfizer, 740,155 first and second doses of Moderna and 32,022 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.

Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the state’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).

To date, 901,485 doses of Pfizer, 902,200 doses of Moderna and 54,700 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to sites across Oregon.

These data are preliminary and subject to change. OHA’s dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data, and Oregon’s dashboard has been updated today.

COVID-19 hospitalizations

The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 116, which is four more than yesterday. There are 18 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is four fewer than yesterday.

The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity.

More information about hospital capacity can be found here.

Cases and deaths

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Benton (8), Clackamas (29), Columbia (3), Coos (8), Curry (8), Deschutes (6), Douglas (10), Jackson (6), Jefferson (2), Josephine (10), Klamath (9), Lake (1), Lane (16), Lincoln (1), Linn (4), Marion (23), Multnomah (24), Polk (1), Tillamook (4), Washington (2) and Yamhill (3).

Oregon’s 2,364th COVID-19 death is a 91-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on March 2 and died on March 19 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.

Oregon’s 2,365th COVID-19 death is a 40-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on March 14 and died on March 20 at Salem Hospital. She had underlying conditions.

Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations

To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit our webpage, which has a breakdown of distribution and other useful information.