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OHA officials say new COVID cases are undercounted every day

Two rapid antigen tests showing a negative result on the left and a positive result on the right.
Tiffany Eckert
/
KLCC
Two rapid antigen tests showing a negative result on the left and a positive result on the right.

The number of new coronavirus cases in Oregon could be ten times higher than what is reported by the state. Dr. Tom Jeanne, with Oregon Health Authority said Wednesday, the case under-count is mostly due to un-reported positive results from at-home antigen tests.

While this under reporting estimate may be alarming, Jeanne said he doesn’t think it is a serious problem because general trends of the disease can still be tracked even if the magnitude of cases if off.

“At this point, what we care about the most, what we’re worried about the most is the hospital capacity,” said Jeanne. “The ability of our health care system to treat people and to keep people healthy and alive if they get COVID-19.”

Even with the presumed thousands of additional, uncounted cases, Jeanee said the state’s hospitalization rate is relatively low-- averaging fewer than 100 COVID patients per day in April. This he attributed to the state’s vaccination rate and increased levels of natural immunity.

Tiffany joined the KLCC News team in 2007. She studied journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia and worked in a variety of media including television, technical writing, photography and daily print news before moving to the Pacific Northwest.