February 111, 2021 1:50 p.m.
On Thursday, the Douglas County COVID-19 Response Team announced that the county had the highest daily case count for COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
An update said 41 more people have received new positive test results with 3 new presumptive cases. That means there have been 116 new cases reported in the past 3 days. The total number of cases is now at 2,108. Of those, 2,000 are people that have received positive test results and 108 are presumptive. There have been 51 deaths. 12 Douglas County COVID-19 patients are hospitalized, 9 locally and 3 outside the area. 227 people are in isolation. 460 people are in quarantine. That means the staff with the Douglas Public Health Network are supporting 687 people that are either in isolation or quarantine.
County Public Health Officer Dr. Bob Dannenhoffer said the local surge comes at a time when cases in much of the rest of the country are declining. Dannenhoffer said he has been seeing more gatherings and “…some unfortunate laxity with physical distancing and the use of face masks”.
Dannenhoffer said the biggest outbreak is at a skilled nursing facility in Roseburg. In less than a week, they went from 1 positive case on February 5th to over 33 as of Thursday. Dannenhoffer said the facility is cooperating with DPHN and the Oregon Health Authority to prevent further spread. The update said that staff and residents of that facility who chose to get the COVID-19 vaccine were almost all protected from contracting the virus. Dannenhoffer said that means almost all of the cases are among unvaccinated patients and staff.
Dannenhoffer said he is urging all front-line care givers who are eligible, to get vaccinated.
The update said 44 percent of the current outbreaks are associated with 19 schools in all parts of the county. It said in almost all the cases, the disease is brought from outside the school by students or staff. A spread among sports team members has been seen, but no obvious spread between students and teachers or among students in the classroom. Over 300 school students and staff are now in quarantine.
Dannenhoffer said there have not been any large outbreaks related to the gyms, restaurants and bars that have re-opened over the past 6 weeks. However, he said there is another surge in church cases happening.
The next drive through testing clinic with DPHN will be Friday in Roseburg.
Go to www.douglaspublichealthnetwork.org for more local information about COVID-19.