Total at PSU as of April 27: 49
Three March cases, two April cases
Three new COVID-19 cases have been reported at Portland State since the beginning of March and two cases have been reported thus far in April, keeping PSU at 49 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 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 25: 180,700 confirmed cases, 2,485 deaths
Total Vaccinations as of April 26: 563,000 vaccines in progress, 1.74 million fully vaccinated
The Oregon House of Representatives has logged two COVID-19 cases in the last seven days.
In an email this week, the legislature’s human resources director, Jessica Knieling, warned lawmakers and their staff working in the Capitol that their office was told of a new positive COVID-19 test. The notice would not say whether or not the infected person is a lawmaker, but it noted the person was “last in the building on April 15.”
This is when the virus was last active on the House floor, according to officials. That infection, announced April 19, encouraged House Speaker Tina Kotek to cancel floor sessions in the House this week, according to OPB. The chamber is currently scheduled to meet April 26 and the latest positive case is unlikely to change what is happening legislatively.
Total in U.S. as of April 26: 31.9 million cases, 569,272 deaths
COVID-19 cases are rising so rapidly in some parts of Oregon, certain counties have been placed in the national rankings on The New York Times’ coronavirus tracker.
“If you take a two-week look at this as the New York Times does, we’re, I believe, the fourth-highest state in the country for rate of growth of cases for that two-week period,” said Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen in a statement reported on by KGW8.
COVID-19 cases around the world are at their highest levels since the start of the pandemic. As of April 21, approximately 5.6 million new established cases were reported over the previous week, more than double the last February numbers, and higher than the preceding peak in December, according to Our World in Data, a project based at Oxford University.