Percentage of COVID-19 Tests Coming Back Positive Rose During the Wildfires

The state for two weeks running has not hit the target for school reopenings.

St. Boniface Catholic Church in Sublimity, Ore. (Alex Wittwer)

For the past two weeks, wildfires have reduced the number of Oregonians who received COVID-19 tests. One result: a higher percentage of tests coming back positive.

For the week beginning Sept. 13, 6.2% of tests came back positive, according to initial data. The previous week, it was 5.4%.

The likely upshot? An even longer wait for school classrooms to reopen.

Gov. Kate Brown has set a benchmark—less than 5% positivity on tests statewide for three consecutive weeks—as the target required for reopening schools.

But wildfires made getting a COVID-19 test more difficult: Drive-thru testing sites closed amid smoke, for example. That meant that people who still sought testing were more likely to be sick, so the positivity rate increased.

Fewer tests, with a higher positivity rate, hint that health officials have even less of an idea of where the disease is spreading.

As a result of the wildfires, many Oregonians stayed home to avoid the smoke, which could reduce the spread of COVID-19. But at the same time, the state saw thousands of evacuations, including at state prisons, which could result in increased spread as people were sent from one location to another.

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