Oregon health officials on Wednesday reported the first increase in positive COVID-19 test results in more than two months.
For the week ending April 3, the Oregon Health Authority saw a 42% increase in reported COVID-19 cases and a 16% increase in tests administered. The percentage of tests coming back positive for the virus also increased slightly, from 2.7% to 2.9%.
Reported COVID-19 cases had been steadily declining for the past nine weeks after a spike caused by the highly contagious omicron variant.
Hospitalizations continued to steadily decline and are at weekly levels last seen in July 2021. The number of COVID-19-related deaths — typically a lagging indicator — was higher for the week ending April 3 than the previous weekly reporting period that ended March 27.
There were 97 COVID-19-related hospitalizations, a 44% decline over the previous week.
There were 140 COVID-19-related deaths, up from 99 the previous week.