Oregon hospitals near breaking point during COVID surge

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Health officials say Oregon hospitals are near their COVID-19 breaking point as the state is expected to reach peak hospitalizations in coming weeks.

Fueled by the highly contagious omicron variant, hospitalizations could soon surpass the pandemic high, officials said Friday. As of Thursday there were 1,130 coronavirus-related hospitalizations. The record is 1,178, from Sept. 1.

“(The pandemic) is not behind us yet,” said Dr. Dean Sidelinger, state health officer and epidemiologist.

As of Thursday, only 59 adult Intensive Care Unit beds were available, and 94% of non-ICU beds were filled.

“Our hospitals are struggling to maintain the fragile balance between providing care for people who are ill with the virus and others needing medical care,” Sidelinger said.

In addition, earlier this week health officials reported that Oregon surpassed 6,000 coronavirus-related deaths.

“What makes these losses more painful is that nearly all our most recent deaths could have been prevented by COVID-19 vaccines, which remain the best protection against serious illness and death,” Sidelinger said.

Nearly 75% of adults in Oregon are fully vaccinated, however, less than half have received their booster shot.

A report released by the Oregon Health Authority on Wednesday shows that more than 70% of COVID-19 cases last week were among unvaccinated people. Breakthrough cases — fully vaccinated people who test positive for the coronavirus — accounted for about 29% of last week’s cases.

Since the start of the pandemic there have been at least 104,088 breakthrough cases identified in Oregon, which is about 17% of the state’s total amount of reported cases throughout the pandemic. About 2.9% of the state’s breakthrough cases have been hospitalized and less than 1% have...