Oregon and Portland Set New Daily Records of COVID-19 Cases as Virus Surges Through a Reopened State

A weekly report released Wednesday showed active outbreaks at 48 workplaces.

Patrons don masks before entering a Southeast Portland bar. (Brian Burk)

Oregon and Multnomah County both set single-day records for new COVID-19 cases today, as the virus reasserts itself in a state that attempted to resume business and social activity.

The Oregon Health Authority reports 389 new cases statewide. Multnomah County has 86 of them. Those numbers eclipse earlier one-day records from the past month.

State officials provided little detail around the new cases, saying only that they resulted from workplace outbreaks and "community spread," a term that means local health departments haven't traced the virus's transmission to a source. A weekly report released Wednesday showed active outbreaks at 48 workplaces, ranging from 61 cases at Bob's Red Mill grain company in Milwaukie to six cases at a Beaverton restaurant called the Margarita Factory.

Umatilla County, home to Pendleton and Hermiston, remains the state's epicenter, with 55 new cases. At least part of that total can be traced to an outbreak at a frozen potato packing plant.

A plurality of new COVID cases in the past two weeks have been among Oregonians in their 20s, who are returning to social activity after months in lockdown. Data shows that young people rarely die from the disease.

But deaths have begun to rise in recent days. Today, OHA announced six people died, bringing the statewide COVID death toll to 230.

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