Oregon’s state epidemiologist says respiratory virus activity remains high and hospitals are under strain, but he adds they are seeing improvements.  Dr. Dean Sidelinger of the Oregon Health Authority says the state is well past the peak of RSV in children, and hospitalizations from it are decreasing rapidly.  Influenza activity remains high in both adults and children, but Sidelinger said we are past the peak of the flu season for adults, and it is starting to decrease among children.  COVID-19 hospitalizations have dropped in the last week.  Sidelinger adds Oregon Health Sciences University modeling predicts a small increase in that number over the next month due to the highly contagious XBB.1.5 variant, and health officials are watching the variant closely.  Sidelinger says while this variant is the most transmissible so far, at this time there is no evidence it is associated with more severe infection, so health officials see no significant cause of concern.  Sidelinger added bivalent boosters do provide protection against this sub-variant and others.