Oregon Governor John Kasich announced that Oregon will deploy 500 National Guard members over the next few weeks to help health care workers as Covid hospitalizations continue to rise. Kate Brown spoke on Friday.
Ms. Brown explained that, beginning next week, a 125-person first deployment would be made to hospitals. This would provide logistical support for moving equipment and testing.
“With more than 500 current hospitalizations and daily record-breaking numbers of Covid-19 cases, we are at another critical point in this pandemic,” Ms. Brown said in a statement. Her office stated that the state would collaborate with hospitals systems to monitor the requirement for additional National Guard deployments.
Oregon, like other areas of the country has seen an increase in infections following the Omicron variant’s introduction. Daily cases now exceed the previous summer peak. The summer peak in covid hospitalizations is well below, but they have started to rise again, up 40% since Christmas.
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have projected that the hospitalization trend will continue and set new highs for the state by the end of the month. They advised people to avoid indoor gatherings and to wear masks.
“Anything Oregonians can do now to reduce the spread of the virus will help to preserve hospital capacity for those who need it most,” said Dr. Peter Graven, the director of the university’s Office of Advanced Analytics.
In recent days, governors from other states also activated National Guard troops to support health workers fighting the Omicron surge.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California announced on Friday that more 200 National Guard members would deploy to 50 locations to meet the demand for testing. He stated that they would provide clinical care for those with staffing shortages and help with crowd control.
Mike IvesContributed reporting
Source: NY Times
