By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The death toll for residents of a Newport nursing home who tested positive for COVID-19 reached five Monday, as county health officials warned of increasing spread in the city and a looming shortage of reliable tests.
Lincoln County Public Health and Avamere Rehabilitation of Newport said a 95-year-old woman died there Monday. That followed the deaths of a 91-year-old man Friday, July 10 and a 99-year-old woman Thursday, July 9. That brought to five the number of deaths at Avamere since July 1 after a widespread outbreak among residents and staff that started in mid-June.
Lincoln County has had seven COVID-19 related deaths and 361 positive cases as of Monday. Lincoln County did not have any new cases reported Monday.
Lincoln County Public Health Director Rebecca Austen said the remaining 20 residents of Avamere are “extremely vulnerable people” and that neither person who died Friday and Monday had COVID-19 symptoms “so we’re not really sure what caused their deaths.”
Avamere administrator Dr. Robert Swinea said in an email to YachatsNews that the residents who died “had multiple, serious underlying medical conditions.”
Swinea said Avemere residents and staff are being tested once a week and that inspectors from the Oregon Department of Human Services are visiting the facility twice a week. Lincoln County health officials check in daily.
Residents who test positive are living in a separate wing of the facility and are handled by staff who work only in that area.
Avamere’s parent company is reporting all COVID-19 cases in all its properties on its website – an unusual procedure for the industry. As of Wednesday, Avamere in Newport said it had six active cases among its residents and that 14 had recovered, and that a single staff member was still quarantining, and that 15 had recovered.
County warned of test issues
The county’s seventh death came the same day as Lincoln County commissioners heard dire warnings of increasing statewide COVID-19 case numbers and a looming shortage of reliable test kits.
Nicole Fields, health department deputy director, reiterated warnings that Gov. Kate Brown and state health officials stated only hours earlier – that Oregon’s increasing case numbers are being led by people under the age of 40 who are not heeding warnings about social distancing.
Many of these new Oregon cases are coming from younger people attending social events and not from a known, coronavirus source “so we can’t tell where it started,” Fields said.
“This is quite a big deal,” she said. “The state is going the wrong direction.”
To illustrate how easily and quickly a COVID-positive person can infect others, county officials released a graphic showing how as many as 62 actual cases started with four co-workers contracting the illness. The coronavirus spread to family, friends, other co-workers and people they lived with, eventually leading to outbreaks in 10-14 other businesses.
“This spreads really, really easily,” said Fields. “It can go from a few people to a catastrophic spread. So many peoples’ lives and jobs are linked together; this is a small community.”
Commissioners also heard warnings from health department director Rebecca Austen that Oregon and the county are seeing a shrinking of test availability has those resources are being diverted or taken up by states like Florida, Texas, Arizona and California, which are experiencing massive outbreaks.
“The supply chain is national,” Austen said. “We don’t have much control over it in Lincoln County or Oregon.”
There is also a backlog in Oregon’s laboratories that is slowing getting test results, Austen said, and some new testing methods are less reliable, resulting in the need for re-tests.
“We do seem to be going backwards,” Austen said. “We have fewer and fewer resources at our fingertips.
“It seems that everything that can go wrong with testing has gone wrong … and continues to do so.”
What health officials and people can control, she said, are three things: wear face coverings, stay six feet apart from non-family members, and “wash, wash, wash your hands.”
Continues 24-hour hold on rooms
Given the dire news of the day, commissioners also voted 2-1 to continue its “24-hour hold” that prohibits cleaners or new occupants from entering a motel room or vacation rental in unincorporated areas of Lincoln County. The only other city with such a restriction is Yachats. Five other cities have lowered the requirement to three hours; Waldport never had the restriction.
Commissioners debated the inconsistences of different requirements for different areas of the county, acknowledging that Newport and Lincoln City have the bulk of motels and vacation rentals and allow cleaners to enter after three hours.
The lodging industry is pressing the county to drop the 24-hour rule, saying it limits available rooms by 30 percent.
Commissioner Doug Hunt, who made the motion to keep the rule until at least Aug. 18, said the county should be the leader in protecting lodging workers and the community – even if it means fewer visitors.
“Yes, it limits rooms and visitors … and I think we should do everything we can reasonably do to limit spread.”
Hunt and Commissioner Claire Hall voted to extend the 24-hour hold; commission chair Kaety Jacobson voted no, saying the rule had lots its effectiveness when Newport and Lincoln City dropped the requirement.
