Thread by @Oregonian

Six months ago this Friday, the governor announced reality had finally hit Oregon: After months of the epidemic raging in China, the first person in the state had tested positive for COVID-19. (1/14)

Since then, Oregon public health officials have reported more than 25,000 known cases and more than 400 coronavirus deaths, marking a grim and ongoing chapter in the state’s history. (2/14)

But Oregon has fared far better than many others -- ranking 45th in the number of overall infections per capita and 43rd in the number of deaths per capita since the pandemic began.

Why? (3/14)

Public health experts credit a mixture of geography, demographics, public health orders, the willingness of a substantial number of Oregonians to abide by them and even a bit of luck.(4/14)

“Overall, we have done really well,” said Dr. Renee Edwards, chief medical officer at Oregon Health & Science University. “An important piece is we had some time to prepare and in large measure we’ve treated this like a public health emergency.” (5/14)

To be sure, Oregon is not Texas, Florida or Arizona – three of the states hit especially hard by the disease. Oregon also doesn’t have the international connections and population density of New York or New Jersey. (6/14)

Conversely, Oregon has a lot more in common with sparsely populated places like Montana and Wyoming than neighboring states, which have all been hit much harder by the coronavirus. (7/14)

Washington has seen 66% more per capita cases and two and a half times the rate of deaths than in Oregon. (8/14)

Idaho has reported nearly triple the cases per capita and 60% more deaths per capita than in Oregon. (9/14)

“Idaho is kind of on fire right now, from a case standpoint,” Pat Allen, director of the Oregon Health Authority, said earlier this month. (10/14)

But Oregon is performing well only relative to the rest of the United States, which overall has floundered in its response. The country accounts for about 25% of cases and 22% of deaths in the world, but only about 4% of the world’s population. (11/14)

Oregon, for example, has seen more cases and deaths than the entire country of South Korea, which is 12 times more populous. (12/14)

So it comes as no surprise the pandemic still holds a tight grip over Oregon as well as the rest of the nation -- shuttering schools and businesses, forcing millions into unemployment or to work from home and altering nearly every other facet of daily life. (13/14)

Read the full story: trib.al/Io7coL8 (14/14)

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