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A health care worker wheels out a gurney in the emergency room at Salem Hospital on Aug. 20, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)

The number of Salem-area Covid hospitalizations and cases both in Marion County and statewide declined over the past week.

The average number of Covid patients at Salem Hospital and in the mid-Willamette region are down compared to last week.

As of Friday, July 29, the hospital had 34 inpatients with Covid, three in the ICU and two on ventilators. 

There were 416 of 415 adult acute and critical care beds in use. The hospital is able to care for more patients than it's licensed for due to waivers related to the ongoing pandemic.

The hospital recently expanded its licensed bed capacity from 494 to 644 with the addition of a new tower, but that total includes every potential licensed bed at Salem Hospital including those dedicated to specific uses, like pediatrics, inpatient psychiatry, and labor and delivery.

Lisa Wood, Salem Health spokeswoman, said the number of hospitalized Covid patients over the past week has remained between 34 and 42. Last week, Wood said the daily number was between 45 and 54 Covid inpatients.

Region 2, which is Marion, Polk, Yamhill, Linn, Benton and Lincoln counties, had 65 people hospitalized with Covid as of July 27, compared with 87 the week prior and 80 two weeks ago.

The number of new Covid cases reported declined both statewide and locally. This data is for the week ending July 27. 

Marion County: 83.7 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 168.8 cases per 100,000 residents.

That’s down from 114.6 average daily cases for the week ending July 20 and 115.4 average daily cases for the week ending July 13. 

10.9% of Covid tests this week were positive, up from 10.6% last week.

Polk County: 25 new Covid cases per day on average, a rate of 196.8 cases per 100,000 residents. 

That’s down from an average of 29.1 daily cases the week ending July 20 and 34.3 daily cases the week ending July 13.

11.3% of Covid tests this week were positive, down from 18.7% last week.

Oregon: 1,132.4 new cases per day on average, down from 1,410.9 average daily cases the week prior; 14.2% of tests positive, compared with 14.4% the week prior.

The Oregon Health Authority switched to a monthly report on breakthrough cases and will release its next report in early August.

Oregon’s mask mandate lifted on March 11 at 11:59 p.m. 

Salem Police Department (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)

A federal grand jury indicted a Keizer mother and daughter on charges alleging they conspired to traffic hundreds of thousands of counterfeit prescription pills from India into the U.S.

Jennifer McConnon, 48, and Sydney Sleight, 22, were indicted on charges of conspiring to distribute controlled substances and possessing with intent to distribute controlled substances.

Also indicted was an unnamed person listed as John Doe aka “Bunny Jinn,” the leader of McConnon and Sleight’s drug trafficking organization based in India.

The charges allege Bunny Jinn exported packages of real and counterfeit pills containing different controlled substances into the U.S. McConnon and Sleight received the packages in Oregon, prepared the drugs for distribution and distributed them to customers throughout the country, according to a statement Friday from the U.S. Department of Justice Division of Oregon.

The substances included tapentadol, lorazepam, alprazolam, clonazepam, diazepam, carisoprodol, ketamine and tramadol.

Bunny Jinn, McConnon and Sleight used different encrypted messaging applications and services to communicate about their operation, the justice department said.

"McConnon and Sleight, who maintained premises in Keizer to store and distribute the drugs, received more than 275 drug parcels via a post office box, and received payment for their participation in the scheme via several online payment applications," the justice department said in the release.

McConnon was arraigned in federal court Friday, pleaded not guilty and was released pending a five-day jury trial scheduled to begin Sept. 13. Sleight’s first court appearance hasn't been scheduled.

If convicted, they face maximum sentences of 20 years in federal prison, according to the release.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Salem Police Department investigated the case.

Portland Police Bureau (Aaron Hockley/Flickr)

A retired Portland police officer pleaded guilty third-degree assault and first-degree official misconduct Monday in a case prosecuted by a deputy district attorney from Marion County.

Scott Groshong, 52, hit a man with his car while working undercover for the Portland Police Bureau during a June 2020 protest in northwest Portland and did not report the crash, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt said in a news release.

District attorneys in Oregon will routinely bring in an outside prosecutor's office to represent the state in cases where there is a conflict of interest.

Schmidt's office appointed Marion County Deputy District Attorney Katie Suver to take over prosecution of Groshong's case. Suver said that was in part because Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Nathan Vasquez was a witness.

Suver said there have been other instances where Oregon district attorneys have requested the Marion County office's help, due to a conflict identified in the investigation or the prosecution of a law enforcement officer's "alleged criminal conduct."

"We have served as special prosecutors in other counties. As a general response, DA’s offices rarely seek special prosecutors (thankfully) because we rarely encounter conflicts requiring that step," Suver said in an email.

Groshong retired from the Portland Police Bureau on Aug. 31, 2020, according to records of the state’s police licensing agency, the state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. 

A Multnomah County Circuit Court judge sentenced him to three years of probation and community service. His sentence also included having his state law enforcement certification revoked.

Groshong was accused of hitting the victim with his car on June 15, 2020.

According to the statement from Schmidt's office, Groshong was working undercover and driving an unmarked van during a protest near Northwest 6th Avenue in Portland. He saw a man take an item from Portland Skate and Snowboard Shop and run across the street.

"Groshong recklessly drove his vehicle into the man, striking him and causing him a serious physical injury," the release said.

A resident in the area caught the incident on video. Groshong then failed to report the crash to a supervisor, in his police report or to the state Department of Motor Vehicles, according to the statement.

A vehicle struck and killed a Salem man on Interstate 5 early Friday morning in Linn County.

Charles Dwayne Hatfield, 45, of Salem was struck by a Toyota van after entering the road as a pedestrian, according to a statement from the Oregon State Police. 

The incident occurred near milepost 229 on the highway shortly after midnight Friday morning. 

The driver, Poblano Lopez, 39 of Lynnwood, Washington, remained on scene and according to Oregon State Police, cooperated with the investigation which is still ongoing. 

Other responding agencies included the Oregon Department of Transportation, Linn County Sheriff’s Office, Salem Police Department and Tangent Fire Department.

This article was updated to correct the pedestrian's age after Oregon State Police corrected their initial release.

Meet the Editor: Les Zaitz is nationally-acclaimed journalist with nearly five decades of experience, including more than 25 years as a reporter and editor at The Oregonian.