For two consecutive days, Oregon has reported the deaths of people younger than 40 due to the coronavirus.
A 37-year-old Washington County woman with underlying medical conditions died of the virus at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, the Oregon Health Authority said Saturday. That news comes a day after the state agency announced the death of a 29-year-old Multnomah County man with no underlying medical conditions at OHSU hospital.
In keeping with a policy of protecting private health information, the state provided few details on either death, other than to say the 29-year-old tested positive on Aug. 22 and died the same day, and the 37-year-old tested positive on Aug. 10 and died Aug. 15.
The Oregon Health Authority also announced details of six other deaths Saturday, bringing the confirmed COVID-19 death toll in Oregon to 454. All had underlying medical conditions:
State health officials also reported 252 COVID-19 diagnoses Saturday, bringing total confirmed and presumptive cases in the state to 26,293 since the start of the pandemic.
At a press briefing Thursday, officials with the Oregon Health Authority said coronavirus diagnoses, hospitalizations and deaths have gradually declined over the past three weeks, although not at the pace necessary to reopen schools in most of the state.
Unemployed Oregonians will be able to get $300 more per week as part of a federal program created by executive order of President Donald Trump. Officials at the Oregon Employment Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Friday evening that Oregon has been approved for the Lost Wages Assistance program, a fund that promises $44 billion to help the nation’s unemployed after an earlier pandemic assistance program’s funding expired.
Oregon officials have tried to temper expectations regarding how long the funding will last. Oregon Employment Department Director David Gerstenfeld said the federal funding is projected to cover three to five weeks of $300 payments for thousands of out-of-work Oregonians, possibly a little further. But because the money is coming from a disaster relief fund, it could disappear quickly if natural disasters, such as hurricanes, draw down the fund.
Another 32 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Clark County, Washington, the local public health department reported Friday. To date, 2,534 residents of Clark County have tested positive for the virus and 49 have died.
Since the start of the pandemic, 73,301 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Washington, and 1,905 have died, according to the latest count available from the state.
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