Three Times as Many Oregonians Are Now on Ventilators With COVID as During December Virus Surge

After two months of rising COVID-19 cases across Oregon, the state is now reaping the inexorable result: severe illnesses and deaths.

As of Thursday morning, 187 Oregonians are on ventilators with COVID-19. That’s three times the daily high in December, during a winter surge that marked the previous nadir of the pandemic in Oregon. On Dec. 15, 2020, 67 people were on ventilators.

Deaths will follow. In an unusually candid meeting with the Salem Chamber of Commerce, reported Sept. 2 by the Statesman Journal, Salem Health CEO Cheryl Nester Wolfe said the 16 patients on ventilators in her hospital were unlikely to survive.

“Those 16 are not going to make it,” Wolfe said. “That’s the reality of what we’re dealing with.”

The statewide numbers support her prognosis: Oregon saw 119 deaths associated with COVID in the past week—the highest weekly total since January. And in the past week, 1,000 new patients were hospitalized, setting a new record.

New data also shows that Oregonians are now dying of COVID at a younger age. In its weekly report, the Oregon Health Authority notes: “During this eight-week surge, 35% of COVID-19-associated deaths have been among persons 80 years of age [and older], compared to 50% prior to that.”

If these numbers feel surreal and at odds with daily experience, that’s because Oregon is essentially experiencing two pandemics during the Delta variant surge: one that has largely subsided among the vaccinated, and another that rages on among those who reject or cannot receive the shot.

The latest OHA report shows 84.1% of new COVID cases are among unvaccinated people. Just under 16% of new cases were among the vaccinated. “To date, 4.9% of all vaccine breakthrough cases have been hospitalized and 0.9% have died,” the OHA report says. “The median age of the people who died was 81.”

For that reason, the Delta variant is largely sparing Portland.

In Multnomah County, where 77% of residents 12 years and older are vaccinated, figures from The New York Times show an average of 26 people per 100,000 are contracting the virus each week. In Douglas County—at the southwest corner of the state—the 12-and-up vaccination rate is 50%, and 135 people per 100,000 are contracting the virus.