Second resident of Newport nursing home dies as governor warns Lincoln and seven other counties that COVID-19 outbreaks must slow

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

A second resident of a Newport rehabilitation center has died of COVID-19, one day before Gov. Kate Brown put Lincoln County and seven other rural counties on notice that there could be a retightening of restrictions unless outbreaks are brought under control.

A 96-year-old woman died Thursday at Avamere Rehabilitation in Newport, Lincoln County officials announced Saturday. An 86-year-old Avamere resident died Wednesday at Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital.

Her death is the fourth in Lincoln County, which now has 346 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Most cases are centered in Newport, which has one of the highest rates of coronavirus cases in Oregon.

The coronavirus is sweeping through the rehab center with 16 of 33 residents and 10 of 53 staff testing positive.

The Oregon Health Authority reported 19 new cases in Lincoln County on Thursday and Friday, many of that number from testing of Avamere residents and staff.

Statewide totals for Thursday were 344, and then 303 Friday, bringing Oregon close to the 10,000 COVID-19 case mark since the state’s first case in February.

Brown put the eight counties on notice after the Oregon Health Authority said the COVID-19 trends the past two weeks show the virus is spreading faster in those communities and “do not have a clear epidemiological link to other outbreaks or clusters of infections and therefore indicate that the virus is spreading uncontained in a community.”

In addition to Lincoln County, the others on the state’s “Watch List” were Jefferson, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union, Wasco counties – all in rural areas of central or eastern Oregon.

The agency said state and local health officials will closely monitor the situation in these counties in coming days and prioritize additional resources to suppress the virus in these hotspot communities.

But there is also the threat of more severe measures.

“If the counties do not see a downturn quickly, restrictive measures such as business closures or tighter gathering size limits will ensue,” the governor’s office said in the statement.

The increase becomes even more problematic heading into the Fourth of July weekend, when social gatherings and travel could increase the spread of infection.

“We stand at a crossroads this weekend –– we can either stop the spread of COVID-19, or infections and hospitalizations will rise across Oregon and I will reinstate restrictive measures in impacted counties and business sectors,” Brown said.

There have been five straight weeks of increasing COVID-19 cases in Oregon.

Nursing homes a big worry for outbreaks

When the coronavirus pandemic started sweeping through Oregon in March, Lincoln County health officials had two big worries – what would happen if seasonal seafood workers and nursing home residents or staff came down with COVID-19.

The early June outbreak at Pacific Seafood in Newport has now led directly to 180 COVID-19 cases — more half of Lincoln County’s total of 326 – and spread throughout the Newport community.

While nursing home staff and residents account for only 7 percent of Oregon’s COVID-19 cases, they have had nearly half of Oregon’s deaths. There are more than 600 nursing homes, retirement communities and assisted living facilities in Oregon.

“As we see positive cases increase in our community and across the country, it will be more challenging than ever to protect our vulnerable people,” county Health Department Director Rebecca Austen said in a statement after the death of Avamere’s first resident.

The spread to Avamere’s residents and staff started last week with the announcement that a single patient had tested positive before having an outpatient procedure done at Samaritan Pacific. The county said the woman had gotten the virus from a source in the community.

That increased to 13 cases Wednesday before the center announced the 26 total cases Thursday and then the death on Saturday. The cases announced this week are the result of testing conducted of all patients and staff last week, said Dr. Robert Swinea, the center’s administrator.

Avamere said that all residents with COVID-19 have been moved to an isolation unit at the facility, which is staffed separately from other residents. Employees are also quarantining, Swinea said.

A federal Veterans Administration team was in Lincoln City on Wednesday testing 120 staff and residents at Lakeview Senior Living, where there was been an outbreak last week among staff. The team tested staff and residents Thursday at Oceanview Senior Living in Newport and SeaAire in Yachats.

Avamere said it had tested all its residents earlier in June and all came back negative. Staff have been tested monthly. Avamere said all residents and staff are now wearing face masks and the company is screening employees at the start of their shift.

Avamere is a Hillsboro-based company with retirement centers, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers stretching from Oregon and Washington to Nebraska.

State and local health officials hoped that strict visitor restrictions, some staff and resident testing, and enhanced sanitation protocols would keep the coronavirus from getting into the five nursing and assisted living centers in Lincoln County. Outside visits by family or friends to assisted living and nursing homes have been prohibited since early March under an executive order by Gov. Kate Brown.

Nicole Fields, deputy director of Lincoln County Public Health, said Avamere took all proper precautions including droplet control, personal protective equipment, monitoring of symptoms, and surveillance testing of staff and residents each week. It also offered additional testing to any staff or patient who requested it, Fields said.

The county’s two other deaths were:

• Salvador Magana Rojas, 63, of Newport, who died June 22;
• Celerino Gamez Galicia, 68, of Puebla, Mexico, who died June 16.