Douglas County Covid-19 Data Overview - July 30, 2021

Here is the latest Covid-19 data overview released by Dr. Bob Dannenhoffer, the Douglas County Public Health Officer and the Epidemiology Team at DPHN. DOUGLAS COUNTY COVID-19 DATA OVERVIEW We have been asked a lot of questions about our local COVID-19 statistics and data, so Dr. Bob Dannenhoffer, our Douglas County Public Health Officer and the Epidemiology Team at DPHN dove into our local data, and provided us with an overview of their findings. The main areas of interest were around vaccination rates, breakthrough cases, hospitalizations and deaths. So, as promised, here is an overview of our local data to date. Douglas County Vaccination Rate As of Tuesday, July 27, 2021, 56% or 53,176 Douglas County residents age 16 and above had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. We continue to make vaccines available to all areas of Douglas County, and we continue to add residents to our vaccine database every week. In fact, last week we added 382 residents to the vaccine list in Douglas County. The number of residents that chose to get the COVID-19 vaccine last week is up 63% from the previous week. As we have stated before, there are a number of vaccine doses given to Douglas County residents that are still not being attributed to our numbers on the State and Federal level. So, the rate provided above also includes our best estimate of vaccine doses (based on information shared with us) given at the Roseburg VA and Cow Creek Tribal events, as well as doses received in other states, that have not been added to the OHA or the CDC’s counts. The overall vaccination rate is still low and not where we want to be in order to be effective in combating the future spread and continued mutations of the virus. The CDC website reports that 50% of residents in Douglas County are fully vaccinated. We understand that the variance in reporting is confusing, but the good news is that our numbers and the CDC numbers for vaccines administered are starting to converge, so we are confident that our accurate numbers will be reflected very soon at all levels. Also, we would like to note that our vaccine series completion rate of 97.7%, is among one of the highest in the nation. Douglas County Breakthrough and Unvaccinated Case Rates Since January 1, 2021, Douglas County has reported 2,997 new cases of residents with positive test results of COVID-19. Of those cases since January 1, 2021, 2,909 were individuals who were not vaccinated, which represents 97% of our new cases. Thus, 88 or 3% of our new COVID-19 cases were identified as breakthrough cases. We are classifying a breakthrough case as a case were a fully vaccinated person tests positive for COVID-19. The main cause of new cases still remains exposure and contraction to the virus while traveling to and from other states, especially while traveling to those areas that are considered ‘hot spots’ for COVID-19 variants like the Alpha and Delta mutations. Another issue that our epi teams are seeing is the prevalence of individuals who are choosing to go to work, visit friends and family or visit businesses when they are sick. Again, we encourage you to please stay home if you are sick or asked to isolate or quarantine from others. Local Hospitalizations, Variants and Deaths Since January 1, 2021, 248 of the 2,997 total new positive local COVID-19 cases were hospitalized with complications related to contracting the COVID-19 virus. 238 or 96% of the hospitalized cases were unvaccinated. Which means that 10 or 4% of the hospitalized cases were breakthrough COVID-19 cases. Our local breakthrough cases ranged in age from 18 years to 91 years of age with an average age of 56 years old. Of those cases, 9 were positive for variants of concern: 6 were positive for B.1.1.7 (Alpha), one was the P.1 (Gamma) variant, one was the B.1.429 (Epsilon) variant, and one the B.1.526 (Lota). Unfortunately, DPHN is currently not able to sequence all cases, so this data represents the confirmed variant cases that we have verified in our county. It is important to note that in the United States, laboratories currently do not have the resources or capacity to sequence every COVID-19 positive specimen, so our data represents a sampling of what we have seen in Douglas County. We only send test samples to sequence when we see specific indicators that someone might have been exposed to a variant. With the introduction and apparent increased spread efficiency of the COVID-19 Delta variant mutation in the United States, the Epidemiology Team at DPHN is expecting to see higher numbers of breakthrough cases, as they have seen happening worldwide. However, the good news is that the COVID-19 vaccines are still showing to be the most effective prevention measure for slowing the spread and contracting COVID-19, being hospitalized for COVID-19 or dying from COVID-19 infection, even with the newer variants. Sadly, since our very first case was announced in March 2020, 88 Douglas County residents have passed away with complications related to the COVID-19 virus. Since, January 1, 2021, we have reported 48 deaths related to COVID-19. Of those deaths only one was a breakthrough case. Each death related to COVID-19 is painful for all Douglas County residents, and a sad reminder of the terrible impact COVID-19 has had in our local communities. We hope that you have found our data overview helpful in understanding the latest impact of the COVID-19 virus in Douglas County. Our plan is to periodically provide our readers with an overview of our data and statistics in our future updates. THE SURGE OF NEW COVID CASES CONTINUES TO PLAGUE OREGON States and counties across the United States and in Oregon continue to reel from the influx of new cases and increased hospitalizations from the latest COVID-19 surge. A few Oregon counties are still reporting triple digit single day new case counts. Click here to read more from OHA about the 1,026 new cases and 285 hospitalizations reported by OHA yesterday in Oregon. For the second time this week, Douglas County surpassed our previous single day COVID case record (from July 27, 2021, with 58 new positive test and presumptive cases), with 66 new positive test and presumptive cases reported on Thursday, July 29, 2021. And again, we sadly, also surpassed our highest single day record for hospitalizations, from July 28, 2021 with 24 residents hospitalized, to yesterday, July 29, 2021, with 25 Douglas County residents being hospitalized with issues related to contracting the COVID-19 virus. We also wanted to note that 24 of the 25 hospitalized patients are not vaccinated. The surge of new cases comes at a time when we have more access and availability to COVID-19 vaccines in Douglas County than ever before. The Douglas County Commissioners set a goal for vaccination accessibility in Douglas County in early January this year to have COVID vaccines available to every resident within 5 miles of their home. We are happy to report that we have achieved that goal. COVID-19 vaccines are here and available for those that are eligible and want to get them. Again, as we have said since the beginning, the Douglas County Board of Commissioners, Dr. Bob Dannenhoffer our Douglas County Public Health Officer and our partners at DPHN and within our local medical communities continue to encourage our residents to be safe, protect your families, take the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of the virus, stay home if you are sick and make the choice to get vaccinated. COVID-19 RECOVERY RECAP FOR THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2021: On Thursday, July 29, 2021, at 2:00 pm we had SIXTY-ONE (61) people with new positive test results and FIVE (5) new presumptives to report, bringing our total number of cases of people with positive test results and presumptives in Douglas County to 4,489*. We had TWENTY- FIVE (25) Douglas County COVID-19 patients hospitalized, twenty-one locally and four out-of-the-area. Also, DPHN was supporting 340 cases in isolation, 339 cases in quarantine for a total of 679 in isolation and quarantine. COVID-19 RECOVERY UPDATE FOR FRIDAY, JULY 30, 2021: As of 12:00 pm today, Friday, July 30, 2021, there are THIRTY-EIGHT (38) people with new positive test results and FOUR (4) new presumptives to report following our Thursday recap listed above. The total number of cases of people with positive test results and presumptives in Douglas County is now at 4,531*. Currently, there are TWENTY-FOUR (24) Douglas County COVID-19 patients that are being hospitalized, twenty locally and four out-of-the-area.