Officials talk latest in coronavirus response

We may not have hit the biggest wave of coronavirus cases, officials say.

This is kezi9news breaking news.

>> i'm briend southeastern plane public health officials are holding a press conference.

Let's listen in.

For testing.

That number again is likely far higher.

We are getting these numbers retroactively so we're doing data collection to try to get as many of the negative numbers as possible.

To date we have 12 positive tests, 12 of those 537 have come back positive.

There were three over the weekend that we announced through local media.

I would like to give you a brief update about those individual cases.

So two of those cases were members of the same household.

Contact investigations with those individuals happened yesterday and are continuing today.

We're still learning more about those cases if there are public exposure or points of public exposures we'll be announcing that as well.

Our third case is a woman in her 30s.

Her initial symptoms started on the 16th of march.

They really started with a nonproductive cough and in addition the same similarity we have seen on a number of cases, that loss of taste and smell.

Something to be aware of there.

Then they progressed into a fever, fatigue, muscle aches and then finally some nausea as well.

Then she was tested on the 24th i believe.

So that's the cases that we have seen over the weekend.

Again, we're doing active case investigations.

That process can take a while.

As you can probably imagine an individual who has tested positive for covid has a lot on their mind and trying to recount what has happened over the last two or three weeks can be a complicated process.

So if people are wondering how is this information really rolling out, why do i see the test announcement or case announcement and then later on slowly i hear about these public exposures.

Really that just has to do with communication and the way in which we have these conversations with the individuals.

Also sometimes people are too sick to have the conversation so we're having to rely on family members or loved ones who can relay those pieces to us.

So it is a long process.

We appreciate your patience.

That brings me to an update on our public exposure which we announced over the weekend.

As you will recall there was an interfaith service that happened at the first christian church in eugene on march 11th.

That was obviously over 14 days ago.

So a lot of folks asked why are we making this announcement so -- why did it take so long for this announcement to be made.

This particular case had some medical conditions which made it really hard for them to be able to understand whether or not this was out of the ordinary for them.

Finally it progressed to a point where they assumed that they potentially had something in addition to their normal symptoms and went in to get tested and seen by a medical provider.

There was that gap, that lag.

That's a reason why we saw so many points of public exposure.

Then our recommendation for those individuals who attended that service since it's been 14 days what we're really looking for are individuals who have had symptoms since then.

Then working backwards from there.

So there's going to be a nuance approach to that.

There's not a black and white for every single individual.

Obviously everyone's health and their individual situation really plays into this as well.

We have to evaluate that on a case-by-case basis.

Our public consideration on that point is very appreciated as we continue to try to do this work.

Additionally, i would like to touch on the fact that a point of good news is that a lot of the cases that we're seeing come in have had very few points of exposure.

This is probably due to the fact that the governor's orders took place when they did, and that we have been generally speaking as a community abiding by those social distancing pieces.

So folks are not making lots of trips to public places.

That's really helping over all in the effort.

I would like to also get in very briefly to our priorities for this next week.

As an emergency response i think it helps for the public to understand what we're working on in addition to the response efforts there's a big piece of this including those communicable disease investigations that is just responding to the new information and what's coming in then we also have to plan and look forward.

How are we going to be reacting this week, next week and weeks to come.

One of those is the unhoused community.

We're proud to be working with our partners to really drill down on that effort and we're expecting a lot more cooperation and participation on than front which is going to enhance our efforts over all.

Enhancing data collection.

So you've heard from public health that we need more data.

Public health is a science and based on data and we don't have a lot of data.

It's important to be up front about that, but we are looking into other options on how we can collect what data is available.

One is called syndromeic surveillance, looking at pockets of individuals in the community who have symptoms. we may not be able to test all those but just understanding where symptoms it are taking place, how widespread that is important.

It's something we do through a system called essence with the flu.

This this situation with covid is different because we don't have that many contacts that we would normally have with like influenza.

So what we're looking for is ways to collect that data, potentially self-reporting then being able to tract that and derive some conclusions based on that information.

Additionally we're looking at expanding the implications of the known case sos right now we have 12 cases and while that's a small number the information that is within those cases and what we learned about them is pretty rich.

So what we're doing is working with our data team to try to tease out some of those points and make some information as we get more cases available to the public and help everyone track on what we can learn from these cases that have been known in our community.

Certainly top of mind to our community and communities across the nation.

We are currently evaluating rapid testing options and whether or not that will be something that individual doctors' offices will purchase or can afford to purchase, if public health can be part of that process, also our larger hospital groups.

So that is happening right now.

There's a lot to be learned about rapid testing.

There's one option through abbott, a company called abbott that has made it known they can receive a positive test result in about five minutes.

They are able to utilize these kits and i hate to use that word but that is the terms that they are using that already has all the chemicals necessary to process the test.

That is actually sent to a point of contact like a doctor's office and they process the tests in small batches but we see use for that so we're evaluating how we can roll that out or whether or not public health can help in that effort.

The final option on testing, some of our larger partners in the community helping to make testing available right here in lane county through the traditional long form lab process.

The same thing we have seen at the state public health lab and other labs across oregon and the west coast.

So you can be expecting probably news about that this week.

My understanding is there some movement today that could potentially be announced.

I don't want to set the expectation that we're going to have a fix-all on the testing situation because we still have shortages on the very needed chemicals to process those tests but i assure you it's top of mind to all of our health-care providers to expand testing and do it now.

That is something that we're certainly working on.

>> i have been asked, we have been asked what can we tell by the numbers that we have so far.

The 537 negative tests and the 12 positive tests.

There's not necessarily a lot just based on those two figures, however according to our health officer there's two options you can derive or two conclusions from these numbers.

One the biggest wave has not necessarily hit us yet.

That's that surge we're talking about.

That ge news in a way, it allows us more time to prepare and make sure the hospitals won't be overrun if that hits.

The second option, we still don't know which is true, that our social distancing and the governor's orders are really having a positive effect on slowing down the positive tests that are coming in.

As we wait to see which is predominantly true, likely a mix of both, we'll certainly share that information in our conclusions.

I would like to set the expectation for our community that we are doing our very best to process the information locally, make it available for you all in the greatest capacity we possibly can then also start to connect the dotsz and some of the implications.

We'll be looking into more information and sharing that with you.

At this time i will take any questions from our media.

[audio not understandable] displot first question is from emma at kezi.

Is the farmers market being open still a good idea.

Really what i would do is fall back to the governor's order on essential services and certainly food is one of those.

Those eexception services have been directed to really follow very strict social distancing guidelines.

So obviously you have a business that can follow guidelines but it also takes pawb lick participation.

With the farmers market they have the proper distancing protocol and are trying their best to make that work.

The other piece is contingent on our public.

Please as you utilize things like grocery stores, utilize things like the farmers masht you bear in mind your responsibilities to keep that distance.

They can put down guidance for you, but whether or not you follow that guidance is up to you.

[audio not understandable] this question is from kennedy at kezi, how many people in lane county have been tested and what is the criteria for getting tested?

So we have made it pretty clear i think what we do know.

So that is not a full picture.

We have to be honest about that, that the 537 negative tests is likely lower than the full amount.

The reason for that is our labs as they process the tests are really prioritizing communicating those positive test results so we can say that we know how many positive tests we have coming back from those 537 roughly but we don't know how many the full body of negative tests.

It's likely higher than 537.

The second part of her question is what are the criteria for testing.

So that range.

I think this deserves a little bit of an expanded answer so i apologize but we need to make it clear what role public health plays in this and how testing is still working within our community.

At this point the way testing is still happening is through a medical provider, a doctor through their evaluation of you.

Those doctors have received information from the centers for disease control and oregon health authority through local public health on what the criteria should be for testing.

Those guidelines are really made in order to preserve the limited number of tests that are available nationwide.

So you see lots of different numbers being floated around.

High populations will have higher numbers of tests.

We're we believe we're commensurate or on par with other locations.

Our tests are matching more or less the national average but those are ordered by a medical doctor using that criteria then they are sent to a lab.

Each individual lab has different criteria for the kinds of people and cases that they will test, again to preserve the resources.

The state public health lab in hillsboro is only testing people who really need that litmus test of needing to be hospitalized, most severe cases.

Other labs are also taking tests from individuals who are in certain risk groups who might be experiencing symptoms like individuals with compromised immune systems, with compromised respiratory symptoms or complications.

But each individual lab has a different criteria.

So we're seeing a variability on who is getting tested.

We're seeing that leading to a lot of confusion and frustration from people calling their provider and the provider says they can't be tested even though they are experiencing pretty severe symptoms. i think that that is to be expected as each individual provider is looking at you as an individual and assessing your health history and what they know about you and then really making that determination based on that versus what resources are available and trying to be good steward.

I also think it's important to understand the recommendation will be the same.

If you get tested or if you don't get tested you'll be asked to stay home and asked to separate yourself from other people in the event you have covid or any other number of respiratory illnesses.

Obviously people want peace of mind.

They want to know they don't have covid but the recommendation will remain the same.

Hopefully that elaborates a little on the testing situation.

I don't want people to believe that public health can somehow ramp up testing by ourselves.

This is a community-wide effort and certainly we're trying to do our part.

We're not processing the tests.

We don't have a lab here, public health does not own a lab in lane county so we're relying on our partners locally and in the region to try to get this done.

[audio not understandable] >> so bryan's question is what are we doing to address security at the two respite centers for the unhoused and i'll have to get back to you, brian.

I do know that that is a top priority for us, the safety of those individuals, we do have staff in place there 24 hours a day.

Those staff are tasked with various functions from evaluating health symptoms to making sure social distancing is happening, communicating information, providing food and i'm sure that security is part of that but i will need to get a more detailed response for you.

[audio not understandable] alex from kval, are there roadblocks for local public health to obtain more tests and what are the roadblocks or what would those be.

So again, local public health does not provide the tests.

Local public health really what we do is we take the recommendations, we weigh them based on our local situation, and we work with our providers, our medical doctors, to assess individuals on whether they should order a test or not.

What we are trying really hard to do is to be an advocate for our community, to push state and federal officials to make more testing available.

One of the greatest impediments to testing right now is the chemicals needed to process the tests.

So we need a greater supply of these chemicals.

However that happens that's what really needs to happen.

That is going to happen at the federal level, also at the state level.

Here at the local level since we don't have those labs it's not really going to be of an effect here locally.

When we're talking about some of the rapid tests they use a smaller amount of chemicals and do individualized testing like the abbott test, for instance.

That could potentially be a solution but what we have to do is evaluate.

That we can't rely on a news story or some other report about the efficacy of the tests, we have to evaluate it, look into t.

That takes some time.

It's frustrating but we have to make sure whatever we do it's going to be an effective strategy, not just something that rolls with the momentum we see happening in other places.

[audio not understandable] so testing is certainly a hot topic.

The question is with more testing rolling out here locally do we expect more testing to happen.

Again, with all the complications around testing and shortages i want to make sure that we have that caveat, that disclaimer in there that there still are shortages nez necessary to process the test.

More testing available should be happening.

What that will look like is probably not the entire county being able all 375,000 people being able to be tested, but it will expand our capability, it will allow us to look across the great number of individuals experiencing symptoms and evaluate a greater number of those.

But it's important to outline there's no magic bullet on testing.

It's not an overnight thing.

We're working on various avenues to increase that.

It will be incremental.

What we are really hoping for is that this week we'll see improvement.

Next week we'll see improvement and we'll keep building on that understanding