Oregon's COVID-19 case count surpasses 25,500

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Health Authority reported 222 new coronavirus cases Wednesday.

The state's new case total, since the start of the pandemic, is 25,571. In addition there were six COVID-19 related deaths, raising Oregon's death toll to 433.

Although officials said the spread of the deadly disease has decreased since July, the number of cases is still too high for students to return to school. Experts said the average amount of daily cases would need to decrease from about 250 to 60.

Last week, Gov. Kate Brown urged Oregonians to continue to follow and enforce current statewide COVID-19 safety mandates, including wearing masks inside public spaces and outside where physical distancing cannot be maintained.

If cases do not decrease, Brown warned that she may have to implement further safety measures, including closing bars and restaurants and travel restrictions.

Last week, Oregon Health Authority officials also announced that they had secured supplies to process more than 400,000 COVID-19 specimens tests — increasing the capacity of testing by 20,000 additional tests per week.

Oregon Health Authority officials will provide a weekly update on COVID-19 in Oregon at 2 p.m. Thursday.

Other parts of the state, such as Corvallis, are using sewer surveillance to comb community wastewater systems for genetic evidence of the virus that causes COVID-19.

The surveillance “cannot put an exact number on how many people are infected, but it can act as the bloodhound that sniffs the virus out,” officials said.

On Wednesday, Oregon State University announced that it received a $1.2 million grant from the health authority to expand its Coronavirus Sewer Surveillance project.

The university's College of Engineering will sample and analyze sewage weekly from 43 treatment plants around Oregon for the next 30 months. The survey includes every plant outside of the Portland metro area that serves at least 6,000 people.