The Oregon Health Authority on Thursday reported 867 new confirmed or presumptive coronavirus cases and 10 more fatalities as the state said, for the second straight day, that technical issues had deflated the case count.
On Wednesday, the agency said the case count was lower than expected because of a server outage that affected the state’s database and the count was expected to return to normal soon. On Thursday, though, officials said “today’s case count is lower than anticipated because of technical issues,” but did not specify what the issue was.
The Oregon Health Authority did not immediately respond to questions about how far off the count was or how long it would take to fix.
Before the artificially low numbers, Oregon’s seven-day average had been climbing for the last week from a low of 879 new cases per day Dec. 29 to 1,174 Tuesday. The positivity rate has been climbing as well, with the weekly average rising from 6.5% to 7.8% as of Thursday.
Those are worrying signs. Increasing cases and test positivity rates preceded the fall spike that sent cases to a record daily average of about 1,500 in early December — eventually resulting in record deaths that month.
The slow pace of vaccine distribution continued as well this week with 3,428 doses administered Wednesday, according to preliminary state figures. In total, the state has given out 66,920 doses of the 250,100 it has received, meaning nearly 75 percent of the state’s supply has yet to be doled out.
Gov. Kate Brown has called for the state to administer at least 12,000 doses per day by the end of next week. She’ll hold a news conference at 11 a.m. Friday to discuss the state’s response.
Where the new cases are by county: Baker (3), Benton (30), Clackamas (44), Clatsop (1), Columbia (1), Coos (7), Crook (15), Curry (1), Deschutes (44), Douglas (14), Grant (3), Harney (3), Hood River (10), Jackson (71), Jefferson (20), Josephine (5), Klamath (3), Lake (10), Lane (76), Lincoln (7), Linn (33), Malheur (17), Marion (134), Morrow (3), Multnomah (17), Polk (27), Sherman (10), Tillamook (7), Umatilla (159), Union (14), Wallowa (2), Wasco (9), Washington (33) and Yamhill (34).
New deaths: Oregon’s 1,559th death linked to coronavirus is an 88-year-old Marion County woman who tested positive Dec. 3 and died Jan. 3 at her residence.
The 1,560th fatality is a 74-year-old Clackamas County man who tested positive Dec. 22 and died Jan. 2 at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center.
Oregon’s 1,561st death is an 85-year-old Tillamook County woman who tested positive Dec. 29 and died Jan. 5 at her residence.
The 1,562nd fatality is a 56-year-old Umatilla County man who tested positive Dec. 30 and died Jan. 2 at his residence.
Oregon’s 1,563rd death is an 87-year-old Washington County man who tested positive Dec. 14 and died Dec. 20 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.
The 1,564th fatality is an 88-year-old Washington County man who tested positive Dec. 21 and died Jan. 1 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.
The 1,565th fatality is a 72-year-old Yamhill County woman who tested positive Dec. 4 and died Dec. 24 at her residence.
The 1,566th fatality is a 73-year-old Linn County man who tested positive Dec. 31 and died the same day. Officials were working to confirm where he died.
The 1,567th fatality is an 88-year-old Josephine County man who tested positive Dec. 3 and died Jan. 5 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center.
The 1,568th fatality is an 81-year-old Josephine County man who tested positive Dec. 15 and died Dec. 26 at his residence.
Each person had underlying health conditions or state officials were working to determine if the person had underlying medical conditions.
The Oregon Department of Corrections also reported two deaths among inmates diagnosed with COVID-19 — a man between 85 and 95 years old housed at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla County who died Wednesday at a hospital and a man between 70 and 80 years old housed at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem who died Thursday at the prison. Those deaths are not yet included in the Oregon Health Authority’s official tally.
The prevalence of infections: On Thursday, the state reported 1,758 new positive tests out of 21,215 tests performed, equaling an 8.3% positivity rate.
Who got infected: New confirmed or presumed infections grew among the following age groups: 0-9 (39); 10-19 (84); 20-29 (183); 30-39 (149); 40-49 (131); 50-59 (131); 60-69 (75); 70-79 (46); 80 and older (29).
Who’s in the hospital: The state reported 462 Oregonians with confirmed coronavirus infections were currently in the hospital Thursday, 18 fewer than Wednesday. Of those, 91 coronavirus patients were in intensive care units, 29 fewer than Wednesday.
Vaccines administered: Oregon has administered 66,920 doses out of 250,100 received, or 27% of its supply. Nearly 1,000 of those doses were second shots, completing the full inoculation schedule.
Since it began: Oregon has reported 121,085 confirmed or presumed infections and 1,568 deaths, among the lowest totals in the nation. To date, the state has reported 2,762,331 lab reports from tests.
— Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale