Live updates: As diagnoses climb, who’s in charge of enforcing COVID-19 restrictions?
The Oregon Health Authority reported 252 COVID-19 diagnoses on Sunday, and one new death.
A large share of new diagnoses were in the Portland metro area, with 67 in Multnomah County, 29 in Washington County and 26 in Clackamas County. Marion County reported 40 new cases.
The people whose deaths were announced Sunday were an 86-year-old Clackamas County woman who died Thursday at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center, one day after she was diagnosed, and a 52-year-old Multnomah County woman who died Friday at Providence Portland Medical Center, nine days after she was diagnosed. Both had underlying medical conditions.
Since the start of the pandemic, 23,262 people in Oregon have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 388 deaths have been linked to the virus.
On Friday, state officials reported an outbreak of 22 cases of COVID-19 at Columbia Basin Onion in Umatilla County. That case count includes all people linked to the outbreak, such as employees, their household members or other close contacts. An outbreak investigation began Aug. 1, the Oregon Health Authority said, but the initial case count at the time was below the threshold for public disclosure.
Another 38 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and one person – a man in his 70s with undetermined underlying conditions – has died, officials in Clark County, Washington, said Friday. The county public health agency said 2,219 Clark County residents have tested positive and 43 people have died since the start of the pandemic.
Statewide, Washington has confirmed 66,139 COVID-19 cases and 1,755 deaths, according to the latest available data.
Earlier this month, popular evangelical songwriter Sean Feucht gave a free outdoor concern in downtown Portland. It was the kind of event primed to make a public health expert shudder: hundreds of people, many likely from out of town, swaying and singing together, few covering their faces. A video montage he produced from his stay shows a handful of attendees later receiving baptisms in the Willamette River.
He had no permits for the event, which appeared to violate numerous requirements of Gov. Kate Brown’s COVID-19 emergency orders. And Feucht and his followers appeared to face no enforcement actions or pressure from public officials to maintain social distance, keep crowd size down, or cover their faces.
While the county looked to the city, which looked to the state, who looked back to the county, Feucht came and left unheeded and unfined.
Related: Can Oregon prevent large, maskless gatherings?
In one study, Oregon researchers collected samples from a hospital’s ventilation system and found genetic material from the virus that causes the coronavirus. This seems to demonstrate that the virus might be transmissible through HVAC systems. But scientists did not assess if the genetic material was enough to cause infection, and there’s no other evidence documenting COVID-19 transmission through air conditioning units.
Still, experts say, there are risks posed by heat waves that send people to cooled indoor spaces.
