Oregon deploys Guard to hospitals

PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon’s governor said Friday she will send up to 1,500 National Guard troops to hospitals around the state to assist healthcare workers who are being pushed to the brink by a surge of COVID-19 cases driven by the delta variant.

Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, said the first group of 500 Guard members will be deployed next Friday to serve as material and equipment runners in the most stricken hospitals and to help with COVID-19 testing, among other things. Troops will be sent to 20 hospitals around Oregon.

There are 733 people hospitalized with the virus in Oregon as of Friday, including 185 people in intensive care units — more than 60 people more than just a day before and nearly double what the number was two weeks ago.

The delta variant now makes up 96 percent of all samples tested, up from just 15 percent six weeks ago, according to Oregon Health Authority data.

“The harsh, and frustrating reality is that the Delta variant has changed everything,” the governor said.

Oregon, once viewed as a pandemic success story, has seen that progress slip away in recent weeks as the highly contagious Delta variant gains a foothold in counties with lower vaccination rates. The state kept an indoor mask mandate and social distancing rules in place until June 30, shut down restaurants, bars, gyms and other businesses repeatedly since March 2020 and had strict indoor capacity limits for businesses long after other states had returned to near-normal.

Amid the surge, Brown has mandated masks for all students and staff in K-12 schools when classes resume.