The Oregon Health Authority’s weekly COVID-19 report released on Wednesday shows an increase in daily cases, hospitalizations and COVID-19 related deaths.  The OHA reported 2,026 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week ending July 18.  That represents a 54% rise over the previous week and the highest tally in seven weeks.  New COVID-19 related hospitalizations rose to 123, up from 104 the previous week.  There were 29 reported COVID-19 related deaths, up from 15 reported the previous week.  There were 62,098 tests for COVID-19 for the week of July 11 through July 17. The percentage of positive tests was 4.2%, up from 3.4% the previous week.  As of July 20, 2,452,035 Oregonians, or 57.5% of the state’s total population had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.  Case rates have generally been higher in counties with lower COVID-19 vaccination rates.  During the week of July 11 to 17, case rates in 15 counties exceeded the statewide average of 44.9 cases per 100,000 population.  All 15 counties had overall population COVID-19 vaccination rates of lower than 55%, and 13 of them had rates lower than 47%.