Lane County coronavirus update, May 6: 690 new confirmed cases this week
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Lane County Public Health reported 88 confirmed or presumptive new cases COVID-19 and one new death on Friday, raising the countywide case count to 59,051 and the total local death count to 536.
On Thursday, public health reported 248 confirmed or presumptive new cases of COVID-19 and three more deaths. New cases were not reported on Wednesday so the additional cases and death account for both Wednesday and Thursday.
Cases continued to trend upward this week, hitting triple digits consecutively for the first time since February. The past week's average new case count is 99; the week before, it was 64 and the week before that it was 49. However, these figures are 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. So far this week, 11 cases have been reported.
The number of county residents reported hospitalized for the virus Friday was 14, up three from Thursday. One person is in intensive care and one is on a ventilator, unchanged from Thursday.
Of the 14 residents hospitalized, 10 are not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated.
As cases trend upward 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.
As of May 1, 277,231 people in Lane County — 72.69% of the total population — received first or second vaccine doses with 689,380 doses administered in Lane County, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
— The Register-Guard
FDA restricts use of Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine due to blood clot risk
The Food and Drug Administration put rigid limits on who can receive Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, saying the vaccine should only be given to people who cannot receive a different vaccine or those who specifically request it.
After the single-dose vaccine was authorized in February 2021, the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention temporarily paused administering the shot in April after reports of blood clots in a small number of people who received it. The pause was lifted 11 days later, with the health agencies determining the benefits of the J&J vaccine outweighed the risks.
But the FDA has reversed course, ruling the risks of the side effect, called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, outweigh the benefits. The condition, also known as vaccine-induced thrombatic thrombocytopenia, is the combination of a blood clot with low platelet count. The blood clots form in unusual places, such as veins that drain blood from the brain.
Until late 2021, the U.S. had treated all three COVID-19 vaccines available to Americans – Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson – as an equal choice, since large studies found they all offered strong protection and early supplies were limited. But in December of last year, the CDC officially recommended the Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines over J&J’s.
Thursday’s decision goes one step further, formally limiting the vaccine’s use.
Read more of this USA TODAY story here
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Lane County COVID-19 update: 690 new confirmed cases this week
