Despite averaging 100 new, reported Covid-19 cases a day the past week, Lincoln County may have seen the peak of the omicron surge, county health director Florence Pourtal said this week.
Lincoln County had 2,053 reported cases in January, Pourtal told county commissioners in her weekly briefing Wednesday. While that may only represent half of the actual cases, she said numbers seem to be declining.
“We may have peaked at 650 cases a week in late January … and the numbers may be coming down,” she said.
The county had 98 reported cases Tuesday and 73 on Wednesday, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
The county’s rate of Covid-19 cases may be lagging slightly the overall rate across Oregon, which declined 22 percent the last week of January, according to the OHAy. But hospitalizations statewide, the agency reported Wednesday, increased 14 percent.
That’s currently not the case in Lincoln County’s two hospitals, according to figures Samaritan Health Services provided the county Wednesday. While North Lincoln Communities Hospital in Lincoln City was at capacity, Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport had room in both its regular and intensive care unit beds.
Hospitalizations of people ill with Covid-19 “may not be as high as predicted,” Pourtal said, while cautioning that those numbers are generally a week or two behind the height of reported Covid-19 cases.
However, she told commissioners that Samaritan may not get nearly the medical staff help it had requested from the state – and none of the non-clinic, support staff it wanted.
The Lincoln City hospital was getting seven contracted medical workers this week, including six acute care nurses and one respiratory therapist of the 32 staff it had requested from the OHA. In Newport, it was getting 12 of the 26 medical staff it had requested, including five acute care nurses, three emergency room nurses, two respiratory therapists, one surgical technician and a certified nursing assistant.
But the hospitals will not any of the 25-30 of the non-medical staff – including Oregon National Guard members — it requested, Pourtal said, to handle a variety of chores and duties around the two hospital to fill in for staff who are off work because they are sick, having to quarantine or care for ill family members.
Dr. Lesley Ogden, the chief executive officer of the two Lincoln County hospitals, told commissioners last week that if they could not get non-clinic support workers to help locally, Samaritan corporate employees from the chain’s five hospitals and headquarters have “agreed to help us wherever they can.”
Pourtal also told commissioners that while demand for booster shots is lagging, the health department will be increasing the number of clinics at schools, apartments and workplaces during February and March.
“We will be all over the place,” she said.
The county has also received 3,000 Covid-19 test kits from the state that it will be distributing through the clinics and to community organizations.
The kits are from the 2 million Covid-19 rapid test kits at the OHA warehouse in Wilsonville that it is distributing on request. The health authority ordered 6 million test kits from iHealth Labs Inc. on Dec. 28 at a cost of $60 million, which will be reimbursed by the federal government.
In a related matter, Sheriff Curtis Landers told commissioners that a Covid-19 outbreak at the jail had reached 35 inmates and 20 staff, but that it seemed to be slowing and that more staff were returning to work. Inmates who tested positive were being isolated in two areas of the jail.
“We’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel and we don’t think it’s a train headed our way,” Landers said.
