Joint Release from Douglas County Board of Commissioners and Douglas Public Health Network
(Douglas County, Ore.) As of this 12:30 pm, Tuesday, March 24, 2020, County Public Health officials report that there are two new cases of COVID-19 in Douglas County to report, bringing the confirmed number of cases in the county to three. Partial results are back from the Douglas Public Health Network sponsored COVID-19 Drive-thru clinics last week, but DPHN is still waiting on the majority of those test results. The two new confirmed positive cases were not from the drive-thru clinic. Of the 52 tests done at the drive-thru clinics on March 17th and 20th, 6 have been returned as negative. DPHN reports that as of 12:30 today, Tuesday March 24th, we are still waiting on the remaining 46 tests.
DPHN has launched their epidemiology investigation related to these two new cases, identifying who these individuals may have had contact with. Identifying information about the two new residents with COVID-19 is not being released at this time. Close contacts of the confirmed cases will be notified by public health.
“We know that COVID-19 is already here, in Douglas County, and although we are still waiting on dozens of test results to come back, the early numbers coming in of positive and negative tests tell us that our efforts of social distancing to reduce the spread of the disease is working. It is not a time to give up our efforts, the next 14 days will be critical,” says Laura Turpen, Communicable Disease Epidemiologist at DPHN.
Facebook Live Tonight with Dr. Dannenhoffer at 5 PM
Another Facebook live with Dr. Bob Dannenhoffer, Douglas Public Health Officer will happen tonight at 5:00 pm, on the DPHN Facebook page.
Stay Informed with the Accurate Information
Your Douglas County Board of Commissioners, Douglas County Public Health Official, Dr. Robert Dannenhoffer, officials from Douglas Public Health Network (DPHN), Douglas County Emergency Management, Aviva Health, Mercy Medical Center, Evergreen Family Medicine and Umpqua Health Alliance have been working hard to cooperatively provide accurate and timely COVID-19 information and response to Douglas County residents. If you have questions about resources available, call the COVID-19 hotline, staffed by local volunteers at (541) 464-6550.
Stay up to date on COVID-19 in Douglas County on the DPHN website at www.douglaspublichealthnetwork.org. Find additional information on state, federal and international COVID-19 response from the following websites: Oregon Health Authority, Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization and by calling or logging onto 211Info.