COVID-19 continued to decline in Oregon, with more counties registering low levels of community spread including Crook County, according to information released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC reported two Oregon counties Thursday at high levels of community spread, 14 at medium and 20 at low. Deschutes and Jefferson counties remained at medium levels.

On Aug. 11, the CDC ranked five Oregon counties at high levels of community spread, 17 at medium and 14 at low.

Two weeks ago, 12 counties were ranked at high levels of community spread.

The state also reported the daily average case count falling below 900 new cases.

While reported cases can be unreliable indicators of how widespread the virus is, other measures also indicate the current surge’s peak has passed.

Wastewater monitoring in about 40 Oregon communities shows infections may have peaked mid-July with general declines since then.

The percentage of COVID-19 tests that come back positive has also fallen, with about 1 in 10 tests showing a coronavirus infection, compared to as many as 15 in 100 on certain days a month ago. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 fell from a peak of 464 occupied beds July 17 to 328 reported Wednesday.

But the fall is expected to bring a renewed uptick, an Oregon Health & Science University forecast shows.

And concerns about the virus are likely to grow as the school year starts at the end of the month, with no statewide masking mandates for schools. Districts have the freedom and power to enact whatever preventative measures they see fit, the state has said, with no interventions planned unless a particularly virulent and infectious strain of the virus appears again.