February 29, 2020 7:30 a.m. (updated at 9:45 a.m.)
Officials with the Oregon Health Authority confirmed Oregon’s first, presumptive case of novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in an announcement Friday afternoon.
An OHA release said the person is an adult resident of Washington County who experienced symptoms of COVID-19, beginning February 19th. A sample was collected from the individual on Friday. The sample was sent to the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory in Hillsboro, which used the new COVID-19 test kit it received Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The lab tested the sample, only hours after it validated the new CDC test.
OHA Director Patrick Allen said “our first concern is for the individual, to make sure they’re being cared for and is able to recover”. He said the next priority is finding out who the individual had contact with, and making sure they know about the risks, so they can get care if they need it. Allen said officials have said this was a fast-moving situation, and that has proven to be true.
The release said the case was not a person under monitoring or under investigation. The individual had neither a history of travel to a country where the virus was circulating, nor is believed to have had close contact with another confirmed case. As such, public health officials are considering it a likely community-transmitted case, meaning that the origin of the infection is unknown.
The person has been identified as an employee of Forest Hills Elementary in the Lake Oswego School District. A district release said the person works in a role that typically does not come in contact with students. That school has been closed through Wednesday for a thorough cleaning according to the release. The district cancelled all activities at schools in the district for the weekend.
The OHA said the individual has been isolated and is being cared for at Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro.
OHA epidemiologists are working closely with public health investigators at the Washington County Department of Health and Human Services to identify close contacts of the case.
Health officials are urging Oregonians to use good hand hygiene, cover coughs, and stay home if they are sick, to prevent the spread of many respiratory illnesses.
The announcement came only a few hours after Governor Kate Brown announced the formation of a Coronavirus Response Team.