State discloses virus outbreak at Astoria care home
Oct. 14—The Oregon Health Authority has disclosed a coronavirus outbreak of three people at Clatsop Care Retirement Village in Astoria.
The virus cases were among two residents and one staff member — all fully vaccinated, according to Lauren Beard, the facility's administrator. The outbreak was first reported on Aug. 31.
The cases were disclosed on Thursday in a health authority report on COVID-19 outbreaks at care homes. The health authority has dialed down the cadence of these reports to the second Thursday of each month.
The retirement village's two infected residents tested positive while in the hospital for other medical reasons and were asymptomatic of COVID-19, Beard said.
The residents quarantined for two weeks when they returned to the care home. "And that was that," she said.
The outbreak, Beard said, did not spread beyond the three cases.
Thursday's report also revised downward the virus case counts of resolved outbreaks.
The total number of cases attributed to an outbreak first reported on June 23 at Suzanne Elise Assisted Living Community in Seaside now stands at 25, down from a previously reported 26.
A leader at Suzanne Elise could not immediately be reached for comment.
In addition, the report said that an outbreak first reported on Aug. 8 at Neawanna By The Sea in Seaside led to a total of eight cases, down from a previously reported 10.
Shawna Weist, Neawanna's executive director, said she did not know why the number went down. She speculated that a change in testing methods during retesting could have led to different numbers.
Rudy Owens, a public affairs specialist at the health authority, said that the data published in the agency's reports are "based on what is known at this point in time, and the data are provisional and subject to change.
"Data are continuously reviewed and cleaned," he wrote, "which can sometimes lead to cases no longer being associated with an outbreak for multiple reasons."
In September, the Clatsop County Public Health Department announced a change in its COVID-19 reporting.
The county stopped publicizing virus deaths and discontinued the public health department's COVID-19 dashboard that provided updates on outbreaks, virus cases and vaccination rates in the community.
Instead, the county is directing the public to the health authority and federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention websites.
At this stage in the pandemic, the county has shifted its focus to vaccination, testing and public education, a spokesperson said in an email.
As of Wednesday, the health authority had recorded 5,928 cases and 58 deaths for Clatsop County since the start of the pandemic.
