PORTLAND, Ore — There are 76 active COVID-19 workplace outbreaks in Oregon as of this week. That’s one more than the 75 active workplace outbreaks reported last week by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA).
Health officials track outbreaks of five or more employees at workplaces where there are at least 30 workers. An outbreak remains active if there has been a case within the past 28 days. The case count for each workplace includes everyone who is linked to the outbreak, whether they are workers or a close contact.
OHA said there have been 37 deaths and 8,605 cases associated with workplace outbreaks in Oregon during the pandemic.
The largest active outbreak remains at the Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario. The outbreak was first identified on June 24 and the case count has continued to rise since then. There have been 529 coronavirus cases linked to the outbreak, with the most recent onset reported on Oct. 28.
An outbreak of 128 cases at the Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, which was the state’s third largest active workplace outbreak last week, is now listed as resolved by the OHA. Outbreaks are considered resolved if there hasn’t been a known case in 28 days. The most recent onset at Two Rivers was reported Oct. 2.
Despite the removal of Two Rivers Correctional Institution from the active list, three of the four largest active workplace outbreaks in Oregon remain at prisons:
- Snake River Correctional Institution, Ontario: 529 cases (most)
- Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, Pendleton: 465 cases (second-most)
- Oregon State Correctional Institution, Salem: 92 cases (fourth-most)
Food processing and packaging facilities have also been hot spots for COVID-19 outbreaks in the workplace. Lamb Weston, a potato processing facility in Hermiston, has been linked to 192 cases, the third-largest active workplace outbreak in Oregon, with the most recent case reported on Oct. 25.
The OHA reported a new workplace outbreak of eight cases at the Beaverton Police Department this week. The investigation into the outbreak began Oct. 29 and the most recent onset was reported Oct. 27.
OHA’s list of businesses where COVID-19 outbreaks have been resolved (Table 8) now includes 55 workplaces.
The full workplace outbreak list was published in OHA's weekly report, which details the state’s response to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The data is current as of 11 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 1.
COVID-19 continues to surge in Oregon and across the country. The OHA reported more COVID-19 cases last week than any other week during the pandemic.
