Oregon Governor Kate Brown deploying up to 1500 National Guard troops to help hospitals

Mere weeks after lifting mask mandates, the state of Oregon now needs the help of their National Guard to assist hospitals.

According to their official site, Governor Kate Brown is calling in Oregon National Guard troops to help hospitals dealing with a COVID caseload. It’ll start on August 20th with an initial 500 guard people being sent to over 20 hospitals in the state to help with equipment and testing.

But the Governor is willing to go as far as upwards of 1500 if circumstances call for more manpower.

733 people are in the hospital with COVID as of this morning with 185 of those cases in the ICU.

Governor Brown addressed the fact that even though 2.5 million people are already vaccinated, the situation with the Delta variant had to be dealt with.

"I cannot emphasize enough the seriousness of this crisis for all Oregonians, especially those needing emergency and intensive care. When our hospitals are full with COVID-19 patients, there may not be room for someone needing care after a car crash, a heart attack, or other emergency situation."

This latest development comes alongside other moves by Brown earlier this week. In response to the Delta variant, the Oregon Governor reinstated mask mandates for all indoor public spaces and mandated state employees be vaccinated by October 18th.

It was at the end of June this year that Oregon had finally lifted their initial statewide mask, social distancing and capacity restrictions.

The fight against the Delta variant comes alongside the ongoing push to mandate vaccinations whenever possible in both the United States and Canada. In the case of America, the Supreme Court recently denied a request to block Indiana University’s enactment of a vaccine mandate for students this semester.