Correction: This article mistakenly said that there were current outbreaks in some facilities in Benton County. The details of recent outbreaks in assisted living facilities and in county schools has been updated. We apologize for any concerns this raised.
According to the New York Times, COVID cases in Benton County have increased and are at a very high level of concern. While the number of people hospitalized has gone down, the number of people testing positive has increased county-wide by 16% for an average of 28 cases per day. This means that, since the beginning of the pandemic, one in 18 residents of Benton County have been infected for a total of 5,291 reported cases. There were no COVID deaths this week.
Looking at the data from the Oregon Health Authority, Benton County breakthrough cases numbered 607 last week, with the Delta variant contributing the majority of new cases statewide.
There were some outbreaks of concern in the county. Bonaventure of Albany Assisted Living recently had six cases. County schools had the following outbreaks over the last month:
- Santiam Christian Schools in Adair Village saw 10 cases, nine of which were students
- Garfield Elementary School in Corvallis saw six cases, five of which were students
- Philomath Middle School saw three students with COVID
- Alsea Charter School had 13 cases — 12 of which were students
- Corvallis High School saw eight students with COVID
- Philomath High School saw four cases, three of which were students
- Kings Valley Charter School in Philomath saw two students with COVID
- Crescent Valley High School saw nine students with COVID
- College Hill in Corvallis saw four students with COVID
- Monroe Grade School saw five cases, four were students
- Adams Elementary School saw two students with COVID
- Lincoln Elementary School saw six students with COVID
- Linus Pauling Middle School saw five cases, four were students
- North Albany Middle School saw two students with COVID
- Monroe High School saw one student with COVID
- Mountain View Elementary School saw four students with COVID
- Muddy Creek Charter School in Corvallis saw two students with COVID
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still strongly recommends that people in Benton County continue to wear masks. Looking over the maps countrywide, unless you’re living in very small communities like Ziebach County, SD, then you are living in a high–risk zone and should continue wearing a mask when outside of your own home.
Oregon had a daily average of 1,093 cases, which equates to 26 cases per 100,000 people. This is a decrease of 29% over the last two weeks. There has been a two week average of 706 hospitalizations — equating to 17 per 100,000 people — giving us a decrease of 23% for the state.
The Intensive Care Units throughout Oregon are looking slightly better. Currently, COVID patients are filling only 20.8% of the ICU beds in the state and only 10.8% of the general hospital beds.
The U.S. currently has a daily average of 83,576 new cases and 1,528 deaths. This represents a two–week decrease of 22% and 19% respectively.
Brown’s Mandate
Oct. 18 saw the vaccine mandate imposed by Governor Kate Brown come due throughout the state, requiring state employees, health care workers, and teachers to be vaccinated or have a legal exemption. Brown is facing many legal challenges regarding this mandate, although none have taken hold to date as the plaintiffs begin to look more closely at religious exemptions as well as the constitutionality of the mandate in general.
Oregon is the only state that explicitly prohibits mandatory vaccinations for health care workers — a law that’s been on the books since 1989. One longtime supporter of this unique law, Senator Wayne Fawbush of Hood River, said to the Oregonian that “had he understood all the implications of the law, he probably would not have supported it.”
OPB spoke to Jim Oleske from Lewis & Clark Law School about the mandate lawsuits. He said that a religious exemption — the most likely type now available to workers looking to not be vaccinated — would have to prove that the recipient had a “sincere” belief that this vaccine would somehow go against their held principles. Oleske believes that most rejections will be on “sincerity grounds.”
At least 10 challenges have lined up to be heard, the most recent being a last ditch effort by 42 state employees. This effort was heard by U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon — the first federal judge to hear one of these cases from an Oregon complaint.
Simon wrote, “In the middle of a global pandemic while infections and hospitalizations continue at high rates, Plaintiffs are not likely to succeed in showing that their individual interests in remaining unvaccinated outweigh the State’s interest in public health and welfare.” The case was denied.
Other businesses in the state can require vaccination.
Boosters
Booster shots of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines were both authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. This means that very soon people will be able to get their third shots — second in the case of J&J.
The FDA has also come out saying that the booster shot you receive will not be dependent on the maker of the original shot received. The “mix and match” approach should allow more flexibility to states.
Testing of this approach toward boosters was funded federally, and found that recipients of the J&J vaccine who went on to receive the Moderna booster saw a 76-fold rise in 15 days, whereas a J&J original vaccine with a J&J booster saw only a fourfold increase in antibodies in the same time period.
It should be noted that this study was done on a small group over a short timeframe.
Around The Country
In other news, former Secretary of State Colin Powell died from COVID-19 amid his ongoing cancer battle. Powell was the youngest and first African-American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush, and the first African-American Secretary of State serving under President George W. Bush. Powell was fully vaccinated.
Washington State University football coach Nick Rolovich and four of his assistant coaches lost their jobs for refusing to get the vaccine. Washington Governor Jay Inslee also set Monday, Oct. 18 as the date by which state employees had to be fully vaccinated.
This is a weekly column updating the residents of Benton County on local, national, and international news on the pandemic. If you would like to make suggestions of topics to cover related to the virus, please email any resources or thoughts to covidupdate@corvallisadvocate.com.
Correction: In the original article, we mistakenly said that Nick Rolovich was with the University of Washington. Rolovich was a coach at Washington State University.
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