Person who went to work with COVID symptoms is linked to 7 deaths, Oregon officials say

After one person went to work with coronavirus symptoms, two outbreaks in southern Oregon resulted in seven deaths and 300 people having to quarantine, officials said.

An employee knowingly went to work while sick and later tested positive for COVID-19, according to Douglas County officials who called such decisions “super spreader actions.”

Officials did not publicly disclose the name of the workplace.

One outbreak resulted in seven deaths, and the other forced 300 people and their families to quarantine, the Douglas County COVID-19 Response Team said in an update on Dec. 17.

“We can’t even imagine the tremendous remorse these people are feeling right now, and we sympathize with them,” officials said.

The seven deaths account for nearly 20% of Douglas County’s coronavirus death toll since the pandemic began. As of Tuesday, the county had reported 1,315 COVID-19 cases and 37 deaths.

Douglas was one of 29 Oregon counties designated “extreme risk” by the state last week.

Oregon reported at least 1,282 new daily cases on Tuesday and 35 coronavirus deaths, according to the state’s health department.

Last week, Gov. Kate Brown extended Oregon’s state of emergency until March 3, which permits executive orders to continue to restrict gatherings, businesses and indoor dining.

“As we near 100,000 cases of COVID-19 in Oregon, and with hospitals and health care workers stretched to their limits, there is no doubt that COVID-19 continues to pose a public health threat,” Brown said in a statement on Dec. 17. “We continue to lose too many Oregonians to this deadly disease, including over 100 reported deaths in the last two days.”

This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 10:23 AM with the headline "Person who went to work with COVID symptoms is linked to 7 deaths, Oregon officials say."