By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Oregon Health Authority on Thursday announced that a 72-year-old Lincoln County woman tested positive for COVID-19 last week, one day after her death.
The woman had underlying health issues and died Nov. 16 at her residence, the OHA said. Tests revealed the virus the next day.
It was the second COVID-19 related death from last week announced this week, as cases surge in Lincoln County.
The agency said a 27-year-old man, also with underlying health issues, died Nov. 17 and tested positive Nov 18.
The deaths last week are the 14th and 15th in Lincoln County since June, but the first since August.
Eleven of the Lincoln County’s deaths were elderly residents of a rehabilitation center in Newport or an assisted living facility in Lincoln City. The man whose death was announced Wednesday was significantly younger than any of the previous COVID-19 patients, who ranged in age from 63 to 96.
As of Wednesday, 882 Oregonians have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic in February.
The deaths come as cases are surging in Lincoln County.
Health officials reported the county had 23 cases Monday, 12 Tuesday, and another 10 Wednesday – 45 over three days this week. It is the highest three-day count since mid-June following a massive outbreak at the Pacific Seafood processing plant in Newport. That outbreak, which spread through the Newport community, led to countywide restrictions on businesses and social activities, similar to what Gov. Kate Brown last week instituted across Oregon through Dec. 2.
“All hell is breaking loose,” Lincoln County Public Health Director Rebecca Austen told county commissioners during a coronavirus briefing Monday. “We are in surge response; we don’t want to overwhelm our hospital system.”
But unlike last summer, the newest cases appear to be scattered across the county and the result of social gatherings, not workplace outbreaks.
“All residents should stay home and avoid social gatherings at this time so we can get this surge under control,” Austen said in a special statement issued late Tuesday. “This includes during the Thanksgiving holiday.”
On Wednesday, Gov. Kate Brown announced that business and social restrictions under her two-week “freeze” that ends Dec. 3 will loosen significantly for many Oregon counties, including Lincoln, that have not been hit as hard as others.
The deluge of new cases is straining the ability of county contact tracers whose goal is to interview each person with a positive test within 24 hours of the county being notified. Austen told commissioners Monday that an apparent glitch or overload of a state notification system led to a several-day delay in the county being told who locally had positive tests.
The tracers do an in-depth interview to find out who the sick person has had significant contact with – 15 minutes within 6 feet – for the past two weeks. The tracers then contact those people to ask them to quarantine for 10-14 days, or get tests if they are showing COVID-9 symptoms.
While the health department has re-directed many of its staff to bolster its tracing crew, it has not been able to keep up.
“… due to the increase in cases, we are urging those who know they are positive to immediately isolate and notify all close contacts,” said Florence Pourtal, the health department’s deputy director. “Do not wait for a call from Public Health. If you know you are a close contact of a positive case, please stay home.”
Similar pleas are occurring in the three-county Portland area, where the largest numbers of Oregon’s new cases are taking place. On Tuesday, health officials there said contact tracers were so overwhelmed they could not call all new cases and asked those people to notify close contacts themselves.
Case numbers, positive rates spike again
After the June outbreaks, Lincoln County had one of the highest per-capita case rates in Oregon, leading it to be the last rural county to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 of the state’s reopening plan.
But since September, COVID-19 cases in the county and the rate of positive tests have dropped dramatically, averaging just 5 cases a week in late October and a positive test rate of below 2 percent in mid-November.
Now, as another major holiday approaches, the county is averaging more than three new cases a day and as of Saturday the percentage of positive tests had climbed to 10.4 percent, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
Statewide Tuesday, the OHA announced its highest number of reported COVID-19 deaths as the state tallied its seventh straight day of more than 1,000 new cases. The agency reported 1,011 new cases and 21 deaths, the most announced on a single day since the pandemic began.
In the COVID-19 weekly report released Wednesday, the OHA said Oregon set new pandemic highs for daily cases and hospitalizations.
There were 8,687 new daily cases during the week of Nov. 16- 22, a 34 percent increase over the previous record-high week. Weekly hospitalizations from COVID-19 rose to 366, a 26 percent increase and the highest weekly yet reported in the pandemic. There were 61 reported COVID-19 reported deaths, nearly doubling the previous week’s total of 31.
People aged 20 to 49 have accounted for 55 percent of the cases, while people 70 and older have accounted for 74 percent of the deaths.
During the week of Nov. 15-21, there were 129,564 COVID-19 tests administered in Oregon and the percentage of positive tests was 7.2 percent.
Austen told commissioners Monday that the health department had been waiting to see if Lincoln County would experience a spike in case numbers that many other areas of Oregon are experiencing.
Given Tuesday’s numbers, Austen said Lincoln County’s residents need to pay attention to the governor’s freeze order.
“This holiday season is not going to be like any other …” she said.
Hospital has first COVID-19 patient since August
Already this week, Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport admitted its first COVID-19 patient since August, said Dr. Lesley Ogden, chief executive officer of the two hospitals.
“This signals that the recent spike in cases may lead to increased hospitalizations,” Ogden said.
Between its Newport and Lincoln City hospitals, Ogden said Samaritan has nine intensive care unit beds and 27 acute care beds. On Tuesday, the Newport hospital had 18 of 25 beds occupied and Lincoln City had 5 of 16 occupied with surgical and emergency cases.
Austen also told commissioners that OHA’s ongoing coronavirus testing at Newport’s wastewater treatment plant showed a “very big spike” in November. Newport and Lincoln City are two of 29 Oregon cities taking part in a wastewater testing program by Oregon State University.
“There seems to be some activity in Newport now that we’re not quite aware of yet,” Austen said.
If there was any good coronavirus news this week, it was the result of 1,140 COVID-19 tests the county coordinated in four cities two weeks ago. Only six of those tests came back positive, Austen said.
Getting the word out leads to online flap in Waldport
It was the lack of contact by a county tracer that led TiAnne Rios of Seal Rock to take matters into her own hands – or social media account – last weekend and cause a big stir in the Waldport community.
Rios, an officer of Waldport’s Women of the Moose, attended a district convention of approximately 45 delegates from across Oregon at the lodge Nov. 7. She registered, stayed for the start of a meeting and then left because she didn’t feel comfortable with the group seated – but socially distanced — in the dining room. She then met her 13-year-old daughter at a program at the Waldport Library.
On Sunday, Nov. 15, Rios gathered with 15 friends at the Adobe restaurant in Yachats to celebrate her 64th birthday.
On Monday, Nov. 16, Moose Lodge manager Jim Sehl told Rios that a couple from LaPine who had attended the district meeting had tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 10. Rios said Sehl told her to “spread the word.”
On Tuesday, Nov, 17, Rios began having cold symptoms and Thursday got a COVID-19 test along with her daughter. Test results came back Friday afternoon – both were positive.
On Saturday she posted her positive test on the Waldport Community Facebook page, describing her experience at the Moose meeting and asking people to spread the word.
As can happen on Facebook, many commentators came down hard on the Moose Lodge for hosting the meeting of people from around the state during a pandemic, even before the governor issued her “freeze” and travel advisory. Comments got so heated that Rios eventually deleted the post.
Sehl told YachatsNews that the lodge was within the state’s 50-person guideline for gatherings, even though there were other members in the bar and pool and poker area. He said the dining area where the meeting was held had tables 6 feet apart.
“We were absolutely within the guidelines,” Sehl said.
Once he heard of the LaPine positive test, Sehl said the Waldport lodge notified its members of the case and contacted 10 other lodges who sent members to the meeting.
“To suggest that it came out of the Moose Lodge is just not accurate,” he said. “It could have come from anywhere.”
Rios told YachatsNews that she never would have organized her birthday celebration if she knew earlier of the LaPine couple’s positive test. She said she later saw via a private Women of the Moose Facebook page that five others from the Willamette Valley who attended the Waldport meeting also tested positive.
“I’m not pointing fingers a them, they do a very good job requiring masks and cleaning,” she said. “But they have a responsibility to let the community know.”
Still, Rios never heard from Lincoln County Public Health contact tracers over the weekend. On Monday she had to phone the county’s call center to notify them of her positive test. Later Monday a case manager called to open an investigation, but as of Tuesday there was still no call from a tracer.
Rios says that might not be necessary – she’s spent the last three days notifying everyone she’s had close contact with of her positive test.
“I’m upstairs in my house calling everyone I know,” she said.