Oregon is now recording more cases each day than at any point in the pandemic, and hospitalizations, now averaging 968 a day, have reached a new peak.
Health care workers in Portland pleaded for action at a news conference this week. Levi Cole, an I.C.U. nurse at Portland Providence Medical Center, said he had measured the ages of some of the people he has recently put into body bags: 20, 37, 42, 45, 52.
The enemy has gotten meaner, and society as a whole sort of let its guard down, Mr. Cole said. We are all pretty overwhelmed and pretty exhausted and are running out of the available will and faith in society to do its part.
Ms. Brown, in the interview, said part of the challenge in states such as Oregon that largely contained the virus early in the pandemic was little natural immunity in the population, allowing the more contagious variant of the virus to run rampant.
She also acknowledged that, a year and a half into the pandemic, one of the challenges is fatigue.
The most draconian restrictions of last year such as closed restaurants and limited gatherings are unlikely to be as necessary this time around in any case, she said, when there are easy and effective tools available: masks and vaccinations.
If we continue to mask up and get vaccinated, she said, we know that these tools will save lives and keep our schools, businesses and communities open.read more
Facing Its Worst Virus Surge, Oregon Adopts Nation’s Toughest Restrictions
