Total at PSU as of April 11: 46
Three March cases, zero April cases
Three new COVID-19 cases have been reported at Portland State since the beginning of March with zero cases reported thus far in April, keeping PSU at 46 cases.
PSU relies heavily on a self-reporting system for people who have tested positive or inconclusive and have been on campus within two weeks. The self-reporting form can be found on PSU’s Coronavirus Response website.
The Student Health and Counseling Center (SHAC) is taking measures to obtain COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine distribution is controlled by the state and timelines are not clear at this point.
Total in Oregon as of April 11: 170,568 confirmed cases; 2,440 deaths
Total Vaccinations as of April 11: 528,894 vaccines in progress, 902,888 fully vaccinated
More than a dozen current and former inmates have sued Multnomah County over its handling of COVID-19.
In federal court documents filed this week, the inmates alleged they contracted the virus at the county’s Inverness Jail because they were deprived of proper testing and treatment, OPB reported.
The complaint filed on April 5 in Portland also stated the county knowingly put diseased guards and inmates with those who were not infected, further spreading the virus.
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, which operates the jail, said in a statement it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
On Feb. 17, more than 37% of inmates tested positive for COVID-19, court papers stated, while the general population of Oregon was contracting the virus at a rate of 3.5%.
Total in U.S. as of April 11: 30.97 million cases; 558,843 deaths
Total vaccinations: 237.79 million vaccines delivered;187.05 million vaccines administered.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been concerns that survivors could have an increased risk of neurological and mental health conditions, according to a Medical News Today report.
Initially, these concerns were based on past experiences with other coronaviruses, but presumed cases linked with COVID-19 soon followed.
In November 2020, an observational study from scientists at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom, reported survivors had a greater risk of “developing mood and anxiety disorders” in the three months after receiving a COVID-19 diagnosis.
An identical research team utilized the health records of more than 236,000 patients in the United States to “estimate the risks of developing neurological and psychiatric conditions in the 6 months after a COVID-19 diagnosis,” according to the new study. Participants received COVID-19 diagnoses between January 20 and December 13, 2020.
The researchers estimate that the overall incidence of neurological or mental health diagnoses was a substantial portion of respondents—34%, or nearly one in three people that have contracted COVID-19. In the six months after their COVID-19 diagnoses, 13% of the participants received their first diagnosis of a neurological or psychiatric condition, according to the report.
That same report, found in The Lancet Psychiatry, found the most common diagnoses were anxiety disorders, in 17% of all the participants, mood disorders in 14%, substance misuse disorders in 7% and insomnia in 5%.
The incidence of neurological disorders was lower—2.1% of all the participants experienced an ischemic stroke, 0.7% developed dementia and 0.6% developed a brain hemorrhage, the report stated.
However, primarily those who had severe or long-lasting COVID-19 symptoms were the main test group showing signs of mental or emotional distress.
