By the Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon could face a shortage of equipment used to protect health care providers
from the coronavirus and rural hospitals could find themselves short-staffed as the
state confronts the outbreak, Gov. Kate Brown warned Tuesday.
She also said the state will need millions of dollars in financial support from the federal government to handle the impacts of COVID-19 across the state.
The governor cited the concerns in a Tuesday, March 3 letter to Vice President Mike Pence, who is leading the federal response to the outbreak of the virus.
The letter was sent following a briefing Pence gave to governors on the response to
the outbreak that has caused nine deaths in Washington state and sickened thousands
globally. While the Democratic governor struck a diplomatic tone in her letter, she did raise areas of concern.
In Oregon, state health authorities have identified three people presumed to be infected with COVID-19 and are monitoring 101 people who show no symptoms but may have been exposed.
The governor set up a task force of key state agencies and opened a command center in Portland.
Brown wrote that Oregon doesn’t have an adequate supply of personal protective
equipment, which includes respirators and other gear that prevent health care
workers from contracting the virus. She said that while federal authorities have
made more respirators available, she asked that more equipment be released from
the national stockpile. She mentioned gowns, gloves, Tyvek suits, ventilators and
others items.
She wrote that Oregon faces challenges with its large rural areas in responding to
the outbreak.
“(We) have heard significant concerns from our small rural hospitals and health
practices about potential workforce shortages and their ability to maintain appropriate staffing levels should this virus spread further,” she wrote. “Those concerns are echoed by our local public health departments.”
Brown also identified other “emerging issues,” such as how to provides services
for unsheltered Oregonians, those living in congregate care and those who rely on
home health care workers. Additionally, Brown said that her staff places to
quarantine people who have no place to isolate themselves if they are suspected of
being infected.
Responding to the outbreak will be expensive. Brown estimated that Oregon will
need between $7 million and $10 million per month for additional resources, plus
reimbursements for earlier costs.
The Legislature is currently in session and scheduled to adjourn Sunday. However, a Republican boycott of the session has prevented any legislation from moving ahead.
OHA opens command center
The state’s chief medical officer said Tuesday that Oregon is prepared for a rapid increase in testing for COVID-19 should federal authorities, rattled by a rocky start, expand the criteria of who should be tested.
Last week, the Oregon Health Authority received 1,500 kits to test for the novel coronavirus, replacing kits that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered produced erroneous results.
Oregon now has the capacity to run 80 tests per day and has received commitment from the CDC for more test kits as needed. Testing is the only way to determine presence of the coronavirus. The CDC said it has the capacity to test 75,000 people nationwide.
During a tour of the Health Authority’s operations center in Portland, Dr. Dean Sidelinger, state health officer and epidemiologist, explained the testing process and gave insight to how CDC guidelines have shaped the state’s response.
“With the emergency use authorization, since this is a new test given to us, we do have to follow their guidelines to use these (test) materials,” Sidelinger said. “They added the hospitalized criteria about a week ago after the California case, and they’ll continue to broaden those uses as the capacity to test increases.”
According to Sidelinger, at the beginning of this outbreak a few weeks ago, only the CDC was could test for COVID-19. As the quality assurance process in manufacturing test kits was clamped down, authorities last week determined that one of the three test components wasn’t working properly and tests here halted nationwide.
Every lab, including Oregon’s had to be recertified to proceed with the coronavirus tests.
The Oregon State Public Health Laboratory in Hillsboro received certification Feb. 28. Test results on eight cases are currently pending, and Oregon authorities also awaiting verification from the CDC on the three presumptive positive tests from patients in Umatilla, Clackamas and Washington counties.
To date, the Oregon lab has test results 28 people, with 17 clear of the virus, three positive and eight pending.
The Health Authority also reported that as of Monday evening, the state has monitored 327 people who don’t have symptoms but may have been exposed. Of those, 101 remain under monitoring and the rest were determined not to be at risk.
The three presumed cases involve an employee at a Lake Oswego elementary school who lives in Washington County, someone who lives in the same household, and an employee of a Pendleton casino.
State authorities said they’re confident the virus is spread through droplets, meaning one would have to come within at least six feet of an infected person to be exposed.
The CDC has recommended testing based on a mix of symptoms and patient history. Anyone with a fever and a severe lower respiratory illness that requires hospitalization should be investigated as a possible coronavirus case if there’s no alternative explanation for their symptoms, like influenza. Testing is also recommended for people with less serious symptoms who have recently traveled to an affected country or had close contact with another confirmed coronavirus patient.
The CDC has also revised criteria to test people sick enough to be hospitalized with uncertainty whether they have been exposed to the virus.