PORTLAND, Ore. — There are 73 active COVID-19 workplace outbreaks in Oregon as of this week. That’s 14 fewer than the 87 active outbreaks reported last week by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA).
The largest active outbreak remains at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton. The outbreak there was first identified on July 8 and the case count has continued to rise since then. There have been 264 coronavirus cases linked to the outbreak, with the most recent onset reported on Aug. 28.
Health officials track outbreaks of five or more employees at workplaces where there are at least 30 workers. Health officials say 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.
The four largest active outbreaks are at food processing facilities and correctional facilities. In addition to the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution outbreak, 256 COVID-19 cases are connected to the Snake River Correctional Institution in Malheur County. That's an increase of 39 cases over the past week. Another 184 cases are linked to Lamb Weston in Hermiston, and Shearer’s Foods in Hermiston has been tied to 69 cases.
Interactive: Workplace outbreaks in Oregon
There were also 114 workplace outbreaks reported as resolved this week, up from 92 last week (Table 8). The largest of those was an outbreak of 187 cases at Pacific Seafood in Newport, where the last onset was reported on July 26. Oregon State Penitentiary saw an outbreak of 185 cases, but a new case has not been reported there since July 22.
The OHA weekly report also showed that from Aug. 24 through Aug. 30, OHA recorded 1,558 new cases of COVID-19 infection. That's down 8.6% from last week’s total of 1,704. It's also Oregon’s lowest weekly total since the end of June.
The percentage of positive tests also dropped to 4.4 percent, the lowest in two months. The number of Oregonians who died from the coronavirus went up, from 32 to 39.
