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Since July, when Gov. Kate Brown announced criteria for school reopenings, Oregon has yet to meet the statewide criteria she established: no more than 5% of tests coming back positive for COVID-19 in a single week.
Brown is requiring the state to meet that criteria for three weeks in a row, and the state has not achieved that metric even once since June 27.
For the last two weeks, the positivity has hovered just above 5%. This week's testing summary shows 5.4% of tests came back positive in the past week. The previous week's figures showed 5.2% of tests came back positive.
Individual counties must also remain below the 5% positivity rate, as well as have no more than 30 new cases per 100,000 people for each of the previous three weeks for a full reopening. (Only one county, as of Aug. 8, currently meets the criteria for a full reopening: Wheeler.)
This week, the state revealed plans to increase testing capacity. Oregon still lacks sufficient tests across the state.
"Laboratories are reporting that allocations for most COVID-19 test manufacturers cannot keep up with the demand and are consequently sending specimens to outside labs for testing," the weekly testing report states. "Approximately 20% of specimens in Oregon were sent out of state for testing last week due to these restraints."
But the Oregon Health Authority reported an agreement with a company to increase testing supplies.
