PORTLAND, Ore — Oregon health leaders announced Friday the state is doing reasonably well in the battle against the coronavirus, even as federal officials name Portland as one of the top ten hot spots in the country.
The nonpartisan investigative reporting group, Center for Public Integrity, reports that Dr. Deborah Birx - who leads the national fight against the pandemic - named Portland as a virus hot spot during a recent conference call.
That's news to Multnomah County's top public health doctor. Dr. Jennifer Vines was not invited to take part in the call.
“I don't see any sign that things are taking off or getting ready to take off or get out of hand any time soon,” said Dr. Vines.
She said the city and county are doing reasonably well in the battle against the virus and does not understand where Dr. Birx is getting her information.
“She mentions Portland in that list and she refers to high levels of virus," said Dr. Vines. "And its really not clear what she means by that – in Multnomah County our positive is right around 5% which is sort of the threshold where you start to worry - and we know our cases, our running cases per 100,000, are actually quite a bit less than many of our peer counties across the country,” said Dr. Vines.
Also Friday, the Oregon Health Authority reported that while test results found 6.2% of patients positive over the last week - that’s up from 5.7% the week before - the overall spread of the virus seems to have slowed.
Instead of each positive person infecting another one and a half people - as was previously the case - health leaders say that positive person is only infecting one other person right now.
State epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger talked about that lower rate during a conference call Friday.
“These numbers tell us that many Oregonians are taking action to stem the speed at which the virus is spreading," said Sidelinger. "People are listening to Governor Brown's orders to wear face coverings, limit gathering sizes and the hours that restaurants and bars are open. People are staying physically distant."
Oregon is still a long way from controlling the coronavirus - but the past week is encouraging.
Governor Kate Brown said earlier this week that it's way too soon to relax.
“We are probably gonna have to live with the impacts of the virus for weeks and months to come and I just want to again reiterate that it’s so important - each one of us can make a difference - by taking personal responsibility and making sure that we're protecting ourselves, protecting our family members and protecting our neighbors and community members,” Gov. Brown said.
In the meantime, the Governor plans to release guidance next week for face coverings that will be required when workers return to their offices.