beckernews.com By Kyle Becker
Oregon Governor Kate Brown is deploying as many as 1,500 National Guard troops to support the state’s frontline workers amid a reported surge in Covid cases and hospitalizations.
“An initial deployment of 500 troops will take place on Aug. 20 to assist hospitals around the state with logistics, handling materials and equipment, administering… virus tests, and other hospital operations,” the Epoch Times reported.
“I know this is not the summer many of us envisioned, with over 2.5 million Oregonians vaccinated against COVID-19. The harsh, and frustrating reality is that the Delta variant has changed everything. Delta is highly contagious, and we must take action now,” Brown said in a statement.
Governor Brown recently reinstated mask mandates for all indoor public spaces and mandated that state employees be vaccinated by October 18th. In June, Oregon lifted their initial statewide mask, social distancing and capacity restrictions.
“Oregon logged a record-high 635 COVID-19 hospitalizations on Aug. 10, prompting Brown to reinstate a statewide indoor mask mandate,” the Epoch Times reported. “The number of patients hospitalized with the virus grew every day since, reaching 784 on Aug. 13, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.”
Kate Brown gave an update on the recorded hospitalizations on Friday.
As of this morning, there are 733 Oregonians hospitalized with severe cases of COVID-19, including 185 in the ICU.
I cannot emphasize enough the seriousness of this situation, which is why I am deploying up to 1,500 @OregonGuard members to support hospitals across the state. pic.twitter.com/U2M69PPXbk
— Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) August 13, 2021
“As of this morning, there are 733 Oregonians hospitalized with severe cases of COVID-19, including 185 in the ICU,” Brown said. “I cannot emphasize enough the seriousness of this situation, which is why I am deploying up to 1,500 Oregon Guard members to support hospitals across the state.”
Despite the report surge in cases and hospitalizations, which may in part reflect routine testing, the 7-day mortality rate has remained flat at 6 per day. The State of Oregon has a population of 4.2 million people.
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