UPDATE (April 5, 2:35 p.m. PT) — Oregon state and local health officials reported 71 new known cases of the novel coronavirus Sunday, bringing the state's total to 1,070.
The Oregon Health Authority announced one new death Sunday afternoon: a 62-year-old Multnomah County woman tested positive on April 2 and died the same day in her residence. According to OHA, it’s unknown if she had underlying health conditions.
OHA identified 69 newly diagnosed cases across 12 counties, including the first presumptive positive case in Sherman County.
Josephine and Lane Counties also reported new cases following OHA’s report Sunday.
Additionally, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs announced another death Saturday evening — a resident at the Lebanon veterans’ home. The home has reported 18 positive cases and three deaths related to COVID-19.
The state now has 28 known deaths from the virus.
Washington sends excess ventilators to states in need
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Sunday that the state plans to return more than 400 ventilators it received from the Strategic National Stockpile, so they can go to hard-hit states like New York.
Washington expects to receive in the coming weeks 750 more ventilators it recently purchased.
According to Dr. Raquel Bono, Washington’s leader of COVID-19 response efforts, the state has fewer infections than anticipated, allowing it to help other states that have more immediate needs.
Oregon sends 140 ventilators to New York
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Saturday that New York will receive 1,000 ventilators from China and 140 ventilators from Oregon.
“It’s going to make a significant difference for us,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo had said Thursday that the state would exhaust its stock of ventilators within a week if the number of critically ill patients with coronavirus continued to grow at the same rate.
“New York needs more ventilators, and we are answering their call for help,” Gov. Kate Brown tweeted Saturday morning. “Oregon is in a better position right now. We must all do that we can to help those on the front lines of this response.”
“Oregon doesn’t have everything we need to fight COVID-19 — we need more PPE and testing — but we can help today with ventilators. We are all in this together,” she tweeted, referring to personal protective equipment by an acronym.
Oregon received 140 ventilators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the end of March.
In a media briefing Thursday, state health officer Dr. Dean Sidelinger said current modeling shows that staying home is working, likely cutting down infections by 50% to 70% in Oregon. Sidelinger said that avoiding a big spike in Oregon cases depends on people following Brown’s stay-home order and health care workers having adequate personal protective equipment.
310 people have died with COVID-19 in Washington
The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Clark County was 137 as of Friday night, and eight people are known to have died from COVID-19, according to public health officials. Clark County Public Health announced six new positive cases Friday and no additional known deaths.
Washington had 7,591 diagnosed cases of the coronavirus and 310 related deaths as of Friday night, according to the Washington Department of Health.