Covid comeback in Portlandia and Oregon

If August was a good month for slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus in our city and state, September has been not-so-good. Labor Day and back-to-school probably haven't helped, but new-case numbers are rising again around here, and so are hospitalizations statewide.

Here are the new-case numbers for the tri-county area (you may have to click for a bigger chart), but remember, when we were all housebound due to the wildfire smoke, probably fewer people went and got tested. And so the real bump in the infection rate might not be this steep, but the numbers are now back in late August territory, and Clackamas County, where the worst wildfires were, has matched its all-time high:

If new-case numbers are suspect because of fluctuations in testing, hospitalizations aren't. Statewide, Oregon is back on the rise, although intensive care populations are merely steadying after a long, slow decline:

By now, we are all used to the new ways of life that this plague has forced into. But don't get sloppy. We haven't reached even the beginning of the end.