Lane County coronavirus update, May 3: New cases in the triple digits for second day in a row

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Lane County Public Health reported 107 confirmed or presumptive new cases of COVID-19 and two more deaths on Tuesday, raising the countywide case count to 58,715 and the total local death count to 532.

This is the first time since February that LCPH reported triple digit new case counts two days in a row. Cases continue to trend upwards. The past week's average new case count is 75; the week before, it was 60 and the week before that it was 40. This is likely an undercount, officials have said, since many at-home positive test go unreported. From April 18 to April 24, the University of Oregon reported 68 cases from staff or students, and the next week, April 25 to May 1, UO reported 49 cases.

The number of county residents reported hospitalized for the virus Tuesday was 12, down two from Monday. Two people are in intensive care and one is on a ventilator, unchanged from Monday.

As cases trend upwards again, LCPH recommends residents get any boosters they're eligible for, keep gatherings small, utilize outdoor spaces when possible and consider wearing a mask when in crowded, enclosed spaces.

Of the 12 residents hospitalized, five are not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated.

As of April 25, 277,014 people in Lane County — 72.64% of the total population — received first or second vaccine doses with 684,263 doses administered in Lane County, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

— The Register-Guard

Idaho health care provider reports climbing COVID cases

BOISE — Coronavirus cases are again edging upward in parts of Idaho, prompting some health care officials to urge renewed caution for big gatherings.

"The data in the last 10 days is quite striking," said Dr. David Peterman, the CEO of Primary Health Medical Group, which includes 22 urgent care and family medicine clinics in southwestern Idaho. "While there are many different ways you look at coronavirus in a pandemic, the goal is to get a positivity rate of less than 5%."

Southwestern Idaho was hitting that mark in March, with only about 2% of the patients tested at Primary Health being positive for COVID-19. But that rate steadily increased throughout April, and last week 10.8% of people being tested at Primary Health were positive, Peterman said.

The number of people seeking coronavirus tests is also growing, he said.

"What we saw in the past week is the number of patients we tested increased by over 35% to more than 800," Peterman said. "We have more people that are wanting to be tested that are symptomatic."

COVID-19 cases have been slowly increasing in nearly every state as the highly contagious BA.2 subvariant of coronavirus spreads across the U.S. Most of those cases have been relatively mild, however, and vaccination continues to provide strong protection against severe illness.

Still, Idaho is faring better than its neighboring states of Oregon and Washington. Oregon ranks 16th in the country for new COVID-19 cases per capita, and Washington state is currently ranking 13th, with one out of every 510 people testing positive in the past week, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University.

Statewide, about one in every 3,544 people in Idaho tested positive for COVID-19 in the past week, according to Johns Hopkins, making it 46th in the nation for new cases per capita. Experts say the current testing rates represent an undercount, however, since many people are administering coronavirus tests at home and not reporting the results to health care providers.

The increase comes as many families are preparing for Mother's Day gatherings.

"How do you respond with all of us wanting to return to normal activity, visiting grandparents, congregating, going out to eat? I urge people in every situation to look at what seems appropriate for them," Peterman said. "Let's take a grandparent who has been ill or has a chronic disease like diabetes — in that case, if we're going to congregate, I would encourage them to be in a situation where there is good ventilation like eating outside, or wearing masks."

Gatherings are made safer if everyone — children and adults — is vaccinated against coronavirus, Peterman said.

"That's the gold standard because even if someone gets coronavirus, the data is overwhelming that the protection keeps you away from being hospitalized and dying," he said.

— Rebecca Boone, The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Lane County coronavirus update, May 3: 107 new cases, two new deaths