By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Oregon Health Authority on Sunday reported another eight COVID-19 cases in Lincoln County as of midnight Saturday, bringing to 51 the number of new cases in the county last week. There are now have been 206 cases in Lincoln County, including the 127 workers at Pacific Seafood.
Lincoln County now the fifth highest case count of any county in Oregon and the highest case rate per 10,000 population. The other counties — all with much higher populations — are Multnomah (1,519), Marion (1,173), Washington (876) and Clackamas (482).
There have been 2,828 negative coronavirus tests in Lincoln County, an increase of 110 since midnight Friday.
On Saturday, Lincoln County Public Health also confirmed a fourth hospitalization this week, without releasing details. There was a hospitalization Thursday and another Monday. On Sunday, a Pacific Seafood worker went to the emergency room in Lincoln City and then was transferred to Corvallis Monday morning.
In announcing the new numbers, the overwhelmed Lincoln County Public Health said it would no longer provide daily reports itself, but direct people to the weekday reports issued by the Oregon Health Authority. While the county agency released case counts tallied through the late afternoon each day, the state agency has a 12:01 a.m. daily cutoff, which means it’s daily counts are cut off at midnight the previous day.
Lincoln County Public Health has also redirected much of its staff to react to the coronavirus crisis in the county. It has trained 21 of its own staff and some from other county departments to trace COVID-19 contacts and called in 46 others from other jurisdictions or volunteers to help.
It is also bringing in a specially trained group of people to conduct a one-day test of local residents who have had close contact with people with COVID-19, especially Pacific Seafood workers. It is contacting those people individually. The people getting the free tests do not have to show coronavirus symptoms, the county said, a departure from usual testing requirements. But it wants to have those people quarantine for 14 days — something that is meeting resistance among some positive cases who aren’t feeling particularly ill.
In announcing the results of private testing for its 376 workers this week, Pacific Seafood said 95 percent of the people with positive tests did not show symptoms of the illness.
The county said there were just two cases Monday and Tuesday, then six on Wednesday, seven on Thursday and 14 each Friday and Saturday.
The Oregon Health Authority reported Sunday that COVID-19 has claimed two more lives in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 176. The agency reported 101 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. Sunday bringing the state total to 5,636. The new cases reported today are in the following counties: Clackamas (10), Columbia (1), Klamath (3), Lane (1), Lincoln (8), Linn (1), Malheur (2), Marion (20), Morrow (1), Multnomah (32), Umatilla (1), Union (8), Washington (13).
Public health officials attribute the increase in cases to more testing, workplace outbreaks and increased tracing of people exposed by those with known coronavirus infections.
With this week’s outbreaks, Lincoln County now has the highest rate of COVID-19 cases in Oregon — 38.1 cases per 10,000 residents, surpassing Marion County which has 32.6 cases per 10,000 population, according to an interactive map and data published by the Oregon Health Authority. There have been 2,782 tests conducted in the county, with 7 percent of people testing positive. The statewide average for positive tests is 3 percent.
In other developments on Friday and over the weekend:
- The owner of the popular Local Ocean restaurant on the Newport bayfront, which closed last week for the rest of June after the Pacific Seafood announcement, said on Facebook Sunday that seven of her 52 employees had tested positive for COVID-19, but they were all kitchen staff and had no contact with customers.
- Friday night, Lincoln County Public Health announced that mass, drive-through testing is being made available for people who have had direct contact with known, positive COVID-19 tests. The county said it has contacted those people by cell phone text and that it will be able to test up to 300 people per day. It did not disclose where or when the testing would be.
- The Oregonian newspaper reported that it may take the Lincoln County Health Department two weeks to trace contacts from the large outbreak at Pacific Seafood. The county has pulled in more trained tracers from other counties and jurisdictions, but the process is painstaking and hampered by language issues and the hours it can take to trace one contact.
- Gov. Kate Brown late Thursday night put a one-week halt to all counties entering the next stage of Oregon’s three stage reopening plan. That angered many restaurant owners in Multnomah County, which was scheduled to enter Phase 1 — and allow limited seating in restaurants and bars — on Friday.
- The Oregon Supreme Court ruled Friday that Gov. Kate Brown’s stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic are legal and can stay in place until either she or the Oregon Legislature ends the state of emergency she invoked. The court reversed a May 18 decision by a Baker County judge, who tossed out the orders because they exceeded a 28-day limit.
“It is important to understand that this virus is in the community,” the county’s Public Health department said in Friday’s announcement. “It is vitally important to stay home as much as possible, physically distance, wear a face covering to protect others when unable to physically distance, and wash hands and sanitize surfaces frequently.”
But it was the potential of six more workplace outbreaks in a county of 50,000 people that stunned Lincoln County Public Health officials. They include restaurants and a variety of local businesses. The amount of testing has also ramped up in Lincoln County, with 2,425 tests conducted through Thursday.
Oregon Health Authority regulations prevent state or county officials from naming the businesses until five or more workers at a company with more than 30 employees have confirmed positive tests. Otherwise, the business will not be named, the county said in a news release.
But the owners of Georgie’s restaurant in Newport — which closed on Tuesday — announced on Facebook that four of their employees had tested positive, but that three of the four had no contact with the public and the fourth only limited contact. The restaurant is closed for cleaning. No employees at the company’s second restaurant, Pacific Kitchen at Nye Beach, have tested positive, the company said.
“It was already in the community and we’re finding it now,” said Susan Trachsel, spokeswoman for Lincoln County Public Health. “It’s how outbreaks grow … positive cases and their close contacts and it goes from there.
“It is vitally important to stay home as much as possible, physically distance, wear a face covering to protect others when unable to physically distance, and wash hands and sanitize surfaces frequently,” Trachsel said.
Without going into specifics, Nicole Fields, deputy director of Lincoln County Public Health, said the business cases involved 1-2 employees testing positive which triggered testing of all other employees. Having contact with a positive case allows co-workers to get a test — either though a private company hired by their employer or through Samaritan Health Systems — without having symptoms, she said.
“We using an abundance of caution (with the businesses) because of the large outbreak here,” Fields said. “We’re being really cautious.”
Trachsel said the county now has 67 people helping trace contacts from all the positive cases. It has trained 21 Lincoln County employees and has 46 others from Benton, Tillamook and Coos counties, the Siletz tribe, the state of Oregon, Oregon State University Extension and nursing students from Oregon Coast Community College.
“We’ve had huge support from the community on this,” she said.
The key will be tracking cases down and talking to everyone that person has had close contact with for the past 14 days. People will be asked to quarantine for two weeks.
There are three situations where people must quarantine for 14 days to help prevent the spread of the virus, the county said:
- A confirmed COVID-19 test, quarantining for 14 days from date of test;
- Close contact of positive case, which means being within 6 feet for over 15 minutes;
- People with symptoms of COVID-19, including a cough, chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pain, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, and a new loss of sense of taste or smell.
“We just need people to quarantine if they are in close contact with a positive,” Trachsel said.
Fields said the county and its contract tracers are getting a little push-back from people — both positive cases and their close contacts — not wanting to quarantine for two weeks.
“We really need to stay home right now,” Fields said. “I’m referring to everyone. It’s time to practice our basics. It’s not time to go out and about right now.”