PORTLAND, Ore. — The COVID-19 omicron variant is already flourishing in Oregon and health officials say that the state will soon see the sort of outbreaks that the rest of the country is already living with.
“What we're seeing is a trend and its zeroing in on Oregon next and you know, it’s essentially imminent,” said Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) epidemiologist Dr. Peter Graven.“We know that omicron makes up a large share of all the cases right now, and is expected to spread through both vaccinated and unvaccinated populations shortly."
Hospitalizations spiked in September 2021 with the delta variant sweeping across Oregon and filling ICUs. Then, we saw numbers settle slightly but they are climbing again and officials are worried it will be worse than we saw in September.
"We’re all predicting, and I was in a meeting this morning with all the health care systems in the region, that within these next 7 to 14 days we should see things take off in a near-linear straight line up,” said Graven.
RELATED: OHSU raises Oregon hospitalization forecast for omicron
Dr. Seth Podolsky is an emergency room doctor and the chief medical officer at Legacy Health. He said he is worried about the speed of omicron.
“Omicron is different,” Podolsky said. “We thought delta was different, but omicron is doing in about four weeks what delta took about four months to do and which prior strains took even longer to do—so the rise up with omicron is almost a solid line.”
In September, hospitals and ICUs saw more patients than they could handle. Healthcare officials were begging people to be vaccinated and to practice things like masking and social distancing because the hospitals were filled to and beyond capacity.
And again, health experts like Podolsky and begging for people to protect themselves and others.
"So I truly, on behalf of all my colleagues in medicine, implore you, plead with you,” said Podolsky. “If you are not vaccinated, please get vaccinated. It is what we can do to protect one another and it’s our civic duty to protect our country.”
On Monday, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reported 9,701 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases in the state and 11 new deaths from over the weekend.
Monday’s recorded infections bring the total number of infections in the state to 430,931 since the beginning of the pandemic. The state’s death toll climbed to 5,666.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Monday were found in the following counties:
Baker (16), Benton (243), Clackamas (1057), Clatsop (50), Columbia (58), Coos (44), Crook (22), Curry (27), Deschutes (881), Douglas (119), Gilliam (5), Grant (3), Harney (7), Hood River (7), Jackson (572), Jefferson (71), Josephine (161), Klamath (27), Lane (696), Lincoln (96), Linn (280), Malheur (11), Marion (231), Morrow (16), Multnomah (2565), Polk (66), Tillamook (69), Umatilla (61), Union (41), Wallowa (6), Wasco (21), Washington (2079), Wheeler (2) and Yamhill (91)
“We already have seen the impacts of the highly transmissible omicron variant across the country since late December,” said Tom Jeanne, M.D., M.P.H., deputy state health officer and epidemiologist in an OHA news release. “Our data show the omicron variant is here and now fueling the surge in cases. It will likely lead to a rise in hospitalizations and, sadly, deaths.”
OHA also urges everyone to be vaccinated and receive their boosters when they are eligible to do so.
On Monday, OHA reported 498 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, which is 36 more than was reported on Sunday. Emergency departments are already experiencing the strain of COVID-19. OHA asks that if you need to be rested for COVID-19 that you do not go to an emergency department but instead visit a commercial pharmacy or testing center.
Here is a list of places you can be vaccinated or receive a booster at.