A2 • Friday, December 3, 2021 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
New virus variant emerges as delta spike fades
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon is on alert for a
new COVID-19 variant, just
as the state hit record lows in
its recovery from the deadly
delta spike that swept the
state last summer.
New COVID-19 infec-
tions fell under 100 per
100,000 people statewide
last week, according to the
latest County COVID-19
Community Transmission
Report, released Monday.
The report showed the
statewide positive test rate
dropped under 6%, clos-
ing in on the 5% rate health
offi cials have said means the
spread of the virus can be
controlled.
The twin marks were
record lows signaling a
strong recovery from the
delta variant that peaked on
Labor Day and has been in a
fi tfully slow fall in the weeks
since then.
New world variant
warning: omicron
The good news about
lower levels of delta infec-
tions was tempered by a
report on Thanksgiving by
the World Health Organiza-
tion of a new, likely highly
contagious variant.
Assigned the Greek let-
tered name omicron, it was
fi rst publicly reported in
southern Africa last week.
By Monday, cases had shown
up in Hong Kong, Australia,
Europe and Canada.
President Joe Biden said
Monday the omicron variant
was reason for concern, but
not panic.
“We’re throwing every-
thing we have at this virus,
tracking it from every angle,”
Biden said in an address from
the White House. He planned
on visiting the National Insti-
tutes of Health on Tuesday
for a further update.
As of earlier this week, no
cases had been reported in
Oregon or elsewhere in the
United States. But given the
history of the virus, it’s more
a matter of when not if.
“Omicron has not yet
been detected in the United
States, but we expect it will
be in the coming days due to
its reported high transmissi-
bility,” Dr. Dean Sidelinger,
Oregon’s state epidemiol-
ogist said in a statement
Monday.
The omicron variant has a
structure with about 50 muta-
tions scientists have not seen
before. Many are in the spike
protein that the virus uses to
hook itself more fi rmly onto
healthy cells.
Sharon Peacock, who has
led genetic sequencing of
COVID-19 in Britain at the
University of Cambridge,
told the Associated Press the
new variant has mutations
“consistent with enhanced
transmissibility,” but said
that “the signifi cance of
many of the mutations is still
not known.”
If omicron does arrive in
the state, the next question is
whether is is stronger enough
to supplant delta, which has
already “crowded out” other
variants in the race to fi nd
the signifi cant but shrinking
pool of Oregonians who are
neither vaccinated or been
exposed to the virus.
Studies are underway
around the world to gauge
whether omicron has charac-
teristics which will allow it to
get around current vaccines.
“The vaccines have
remained highly eff ective
against other variants, and
we expect the same to be true
with omicron,” Sidelinger
said. “We should have early
answers in the coming
weeks.”
The Oregon Health
Authority said residents
shouldn’t wait to fi nd out.
Anyone who is not yet vac-
cinated should get inocula-
tions immediately. The most
eff ective vaccines, made by
Moderna and Pfi zer, require
two shots spaced over about
a month and another two
weeks afterward to be fully
eff ective. Booster shots are
also available for any adult
who had their second dose
more than six month ago.
After being surprised
by the rapid spread of the
delta variant last summer,
several countries are bet-
ting on travel bans to slow
the spread of omicron while
health offi cials can prepare
for its impact. Britain has
barred travelers from some
African nations, while Israel
has put a freeze on all foreign
visitors.
Given the history of the
virus in all forms, scientist
agree that the main impact
— especially severe ill-
ness and death — will fall
exponentially harder on the
unvaccinated. The spike
structure shows that it is
“supercharged” to spread in
unprotected populations.
Delta on the way down
News of the omicron vari-
ant overshadowed a strong
health authority report on the
ongoing impact of the delta
variant.
According to the state’s
community
transmission
report, Deschutes County
was the only large county in
Oregon with a per capita new
case rate over 200, and that
was just barely, at 201 per
100,000. Though high com-
pared to other parts of the
state, the county’s mark was
a big drop from 288.3 cases
per 100,000 in the previous
report released Nov. 22.
The county risk lev-
els were used until June to
decide what level of restric-
tions to activities and gath-
erings would be placed on
counties due to their mea-
surements of infection and
likely continued contagion.
A large county above 200
cases per 100,000 would
have once been placed in
the “extreme” risk level, the
most restrictive of four tiers.
Gov. Kate Brown and the
health authority phased out
the risk level system in late
June when the state closed in
on a 70% vaccination rate.
When the delta variant sent
risk levels to new record
highs, the state did not rein-
state the restrictions, saying
it was up to local authorities
to make decisions.
Though no longer linked
to restrictions, the state
has continued to issue the
weekly reporters. The sig-
nifi cantly lower levels state-
wide in the latest report were
driven in large part by sev-
eral counties with large pop-
ulations reporting very low
numbers than in turn pulled
down the state average.
Multnomah
County,
which
includes
Port-
land, reported 68 cases per
100,000. The state’s sec-
ond most populous county,
Washington, reported 77.
Lane County, home of the
University of Oregon in
Eugene, had 80. Benton
County, home of Corval-
lis and the main campus of
Oregon State University, had
50.7.
Counties that had previ-
ously seen rapid spread of
the delta variant reported
lower numbers as the pool of
people to infect grew smaller.
Umatilla County, which has
seen spikes after large pub-
lic events attended by sig-
nifi cant numbers of unvacci-
nated people — such as the
Pendleton Round-Up in Sep-
tember, was at 50.3. With
a few exceptions, many of
the less populated counties
in Eastern Oregon showed
improvement in their num-
bers of cases and positive
infection rates from high lev-
els of the past two months..
The trend was not down
everywhere. Clatsop County
was one of the few coun-
ties to show a rise in num-
bers. It reported 114.1 cases
per 100,000, nearly dou-
ble the rate of 60.8 from the
previous report. It also saw
its positive test rate rise to
17.8%, nearly three times its
previous rate of 6.8%.
Only two other counties
had rates over 200 cases per
100,000: Wallowa, with a
population under 7,000 peo-
ple reported 237.4 cases per
100,000. The rate in Baker
County, with a population of
just over 16,000 people was
218.8. The health authority
has said per capita fi gures for
smaller counties are less reli-
able because small changes
in actual numbers can cause
big swings up and down on
the rate. The health authority
often concentrated on total
case counts and positive test
percentage in determining
risk for less populous areas.
With a small population of
just over 7,000 and its prox-
imity to Idaho and Washing-
ton, the weekly numbers in
Wallowa County have fre-
quently swung rapidly back
and forth throughout the pan-
demic. The past four weekly
reports have listed 26, two,
four and 17 new cases. That
leads to ping-ponging results
from extremely low to high.
unfairly by a construction crew
and wants a callback.
4:22 p.m., N. Wahanna/
Shore Terrace: Subject pulled
a car out of the driveway and
then abandoned it on the
road, blocking the road.
PUBLIC SAFETY LOG
SEASIDE POLICE DEPT.
PUBLIC SAFETY LOG
Prom: Caller reports a distur-
bance outside her residence.
11:26 a.m., 2500 block S.
Roosevelt: A deceased person
is reported.
Nov. 21
Nov. 20
Nov. 19
2:53 a.m., 300 block Fourth
Avenue: A deceased person is
reported.
10:29 a.m., Mill Ponds/Alder-
mill: A person is arrested on a
warrant.
1:08 a.m., 1100 block Avenue
A: Caller reports his girlfriend
won’t let him leave the apart-
ment.
8:57 a.m., 400 block S. Edge-
wood: Attempted theft of a
boat trailer.
9:14 a.m., Broadway Bumper
Cars: Subjects horsing around
broke a window. They are gone
prior to police arrival.
10:38 p.m., 1500 block N.
11:20 a.m., 2300 block S. Roos-
evelt: Sex crimes are reported.
12:01 p.m., Police headquar-
ters: A person came in to
register as a sex off ender.
7:21 p.m., 2600 block Millcreek
Lane: Caller says male subject
won’t return her keys.
9:19 p.m., 1800 block S.
Roosevelt: A business reports
someone stole a hammer.
Nov. 22
9:01 a.m., U.S. Highway 101,
milepost 28: Offi cers assist at
the scene of a crash.
12:53 p.m., 12th and Franklin:
Caller feels she was treated
12;59 p.m., Avenue G and
Roosevelt: Responding to a
report of a possibly intoxicated
driver, the driver is located and
arrested and charged with DUII.
3:02 p.m., 1500 block Lewis and
Clark Road: Caller reports mul-
tiple cars on the property were
entered and things were stolen.
The caller believes this occurred
around 5 a.m. that day.
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Even in these challenging times, you can count on
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care for you and your family.
Thank you for choosing Providence.
Providence.org/northcoast
10:11 p.m., Library: Sub-
jects loitering at the library
after hours are advised of
trespass.
See Public Safety Log,
Page A3