November 15, 2022 10:40 a.m. 

On Monday, Governor Kate Brown issued an executive order in response to a surge in pediatric cases and hospitalizations for respiratory viruses across Oregon.

A release said this includes Respiratory Syncytial Virus – commonly known as RSV.

The executive order will give hospitals additional flexibility to staff beds for children, allow them to draw on a pool of medical volunteer nurses and doctors, and take other steps to provide care to pediatric patients.

The release said RSV is a common respiratory virus that spreads through virus-containing respiratory droplets produced from coughing and sneezing. For most children, RSV produces mild illness. However, young children are especially susceptible to RSV. Children under the age of two are at increased risk of severe disease.

Governor Brown’s release said since the onset of Oregon’s RSV season in late October, the statewide pediatric hospitalization rate has more than tripled, and is likely to exceed its previously recorded weekly hospitalization rate imminently. With only two pediatric specialty hospitals in the state with a pediatric ICU – OHSU’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel – and a third hospital, Providence St. Vincent’s Hospital which has a limited number of pediatric ICU beds – the executive action will help ensure hospitals have the tools they need to care for sick children, both from RSV as well as from other illnesses that may bring kids to the hospital, according to the release.

State health experts at the Oregon Health Authority encourage all individuals at increased risk of severe disease, and their caregivers, to take steps to prevent RSV and other respiratory infections this flu season.

A copy of the executive order is linked: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uIm0KL4tG5fou5OaOrwk0n9SskGPePPR/view