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As daily COVID-19 cases doubled in the past week, Oregon health officials reported Thursday that the highly transmissible delta variant has become the dominant coronavirus variant in the state and poses a great risk for unvaccinated people.
The Oregon Health Authority reports that in the past month, nine out of 10 people who tested positive for COVID-19, were hospitalized or died from the virus were unvaccinated.
“As I heard a health officer say earlier this week, ‘If you are not vaccinated and you live in a community where vaccination rates are low, it’s not a question of whether you will get COVID-19, it’s only a question of when,” Patrick Allen, the director of OHA, said during a news conference.
In Josephine County, 48% of people age 18 and older are vaccinated. In Jackson County, that number is 54%.
“My message today is to people who have not yet been vaccinated, you are in harm’s way,” said state epidemiologist Dean Sidelinger during the news conference.
Sidelinger said that if cases, hospitalizations and deaths surge then “nothing is off the table” when it comes to the possibility of reinstating mandatory restrictions.
At Asante, it’s no time to let down our guard
The quickly rising number of COVID-19 cases is a stark reminder that the virus and its highly contagious variant are still very much present in our community. Even as the state has eased restrictions, letting down our collective and individual guards are not an option for Asante or our employees. All employees must observe these precautions:
- Masks are required in all Asante locations, including non-patient care areas. This includes employees, patients and visitors. Please continue to escalate concerns when noncompliance is observed.
- Visitors and employees continue to be screened for COVID-related health concerns when entering our facilities.
- Eye protection is required in all clinical locations.
- Continue to physically distance and avoid in-person meetings.
- Practice hand hygiene in accordance with our Infection Prevention protocols.
- Do not come to work if you are sick.
Combined, Asante’s three hospitals have seen the number of COVID-positive inpatients triple in recent weeks. This time last month we had about 8 to 10 patients a day compared with 25 to 32 this month.
If you have a question, please contact the author or relevant department directly.
2 Comments. Leave new
So appreciate the update. Thank you for including our visitor policy information. It would be helpful to our community if our policy was read and understood by all of us at Asante.
I’m including this link for reference: Asante Visitor Policy.