May 6, 2021 4:00 a.m. 

While Douglas County is headed back to High Risk level for COVID-19, 15 counties will leave Extreme Risk to drop to High Risk, under updates announced by Governor Kate Brown on Tuesday.

Brown said with the statewide seven-day average increase for hospitalized COVID-19 patients dropping below 15 percent, Oregon no longer meets the statewide metrics for the Extreme Risk level.

As of Friday, 24 counties will be at High Risk, 4 will be at Moderate Risk and 8 will be at Low Risk.

Brown said, “Let me be clear: across the state, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are still high, and Oregon is not out of the woods yet. However, we have met the hospitalization metric established by our health experts for counties to return to High Risk”. Brown said from the beginning, returning counties to the Extreme Risk level was about preserving hospital capacity and saving lives. She said with the statewide hospitalization rate stabilizing, hospitals should have the capacity to continue treating patients with severe cases of COVID-19 and other serious medical conditions in the coming weeks.

Brown said with Oregonians continuing to get vaccinated each week, her expectation is that counties will not return to Extreme Risk again for the duration of the pandemic.

Brown said following an announcement from the Biden-Harris administration that they will be reallocating unused vaccines to states that need them, Oregon will ask for the maximum allowed, “…which will help us to get shots in arms faster”. She said that vaccinations are still the best path to “…protecting our loved ones, and staying on track to fully reopen our economy by the end of June”.

A complete list of counties and their risk levels is posted: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WiPCbmcZxAYEo_fQe4ey_8lMKjYvQ6Sl/view