Statewide hospitalizations see uptick
Over the past week, COVID-19 cases in Jackson and Josephine counties held well below statewide counts.
There were 38 cases in Jackson County Monday. The next day, it climbed to 54 cases. But infections came down the rest of the week, to 35 Thursday.
Overall, Jackson County reported 235 new COVID cases and three deaths this past week, up slightly from 220 cases and one death reported the week before.
Josephine County started and ended the week with 15 new cases, dipping to just eight cases Wednesday, May 11.
Altogether, Josephine County reported 84 COVID cases and two deaths last week, the same numbers as the previous week.
Statewide, OHA reported 9,506 COVID-19 cases this week, up 1,252 from the previous week. The agency reported 32 COVID-19 deaths this past week, up six from the previous week.
On Monday, 19 COVID patients were being treated in Rogue Valley hospitals. On Friday, that number had dipped to 13 — strikingly similar to the previous week, when 18 hospitalizations were reported Monday before decreasing to 13 by the end of last week.
On Monday, 199 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized in the state, climbing to 210 Friday. Those figures were higher than the 171 hospitalizations reported in Oregon the previous week.
Following a winter surge of COVID-19 cases, local case counts bottomed out in March. They’ve been trending up since then, but not reaching the high numbers seen in previous pandemic surges.
Public health officials in both Jackson and Josephine counties are advising residents to get tested if they believe they have COVID-19. Treatment works best when administered early, they said.
Reach reporter Kevin Opsahl at 541-776-4476 or kopsahl@rosebudmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KevJourno. Reporter Vickie Aldous also contributed to this article.
