PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIAL: Delta Variant Surging In Oregon, Masks Possible Down The Road
PORTLAND, Ore. – The Delta variant of COVID-19 is surging in Oregon, according to Multnomah County Public Health Officer Dr. Jennifer Vines, “It’s growing exponentially…of the samples Oregon maps…it went from around 5 percent (of cases) to 30 percent (of cases) just in a couple of weeks in July.”
Dr. Vines told the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners Tuesday in a COVID-19 briefing that a surging Delta variant is bad news, “That tracks to what we’re seeing in the rest of the country, in terms of how contagious it is. It’s estimated at 50 to 60 percent more contagious. And there’s early consensus that it causes more severe disease.”
She says the good news is the vaccines are holding up against the virus.
But, everything is on the table if things continue to worsen, including a re-instatement of mask requirements, “That is something that we’re looking at really carefully…it sort of feels like we’re starting over, but we’re not. There’s a lot that we know that works. And it’s a question when and how we might use those non-vaccine components.”