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2A — THE OBSERVER TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2020 STATE/REGION DAILY Cautious optimism about Oregon’s readiness for virus surge PLANNER Actions today have to Oregon Public Broad- casting, Oregon Health & Science University said, “While we are con- cerned that the number of patients with COVID-19 may increase signifi cantly over the next several weeks, we are committed to doing everything we can to pro- vide care to all those who need us.” Today is Tuesday, April 7, the 98th day of 2020. There are 268 days left in the year. consequences two or three weeks later TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT By Erin Ross TODAY On April 7, 1862, Union forces led by Gen. Ulyss- es S. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. ON THIS DATE In 1798, the Mississippi Territory was created by an act of Congress, with Natchez as the capital. In 1915, jazz singer-song- writer Billie Holiday, also known as “Lady Day,” was born in Philadelphia. In 1927, the image and voice of Commerce Secre- tary Herbert Hoover were transmitted live from Wash- ington to New York in the fi rst successful long-distance demonstration of television. In 1947, auto pioneer Hen- ry Ford died in Dearborn, Michigan, at age 83. In 1953, the U.N. General Assembly ratifi ed Dag Hammarskjold of Sweden as the new secretary-general, succeeding Trygve Lie of Norway. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower held a news conference in which he spoke of the importance of containing the spread of communism in Indochina, saying, “You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the fi rst one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly.” (This became known as the “domino theory,” although Eisenhower did not use that term.) In 1962, nearly 1,200 Cuban exiles tried by Cuba for their roles in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion were convicted of treason. In 1964, IBM introduced its System/360, the compa- ny’s fi rst line of compatible mainframe computers that gave customers the option of upgrading from lower-cost models to more powerful ones. In 1966, the U.S. Navy recovered a hydrogen bomb that the U.S. Air Force had lost in the Mediterranean Sea off Spain following a B-52 crash. In 1983, space shuttle astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson went on the fi rst U.S. spacewalk in almost a decade as they worked in the open cargo bay of Challenger for nearly four hours. In 1994, civil war erupted in Rwanda, a day after a mysterious plane crash claimed the lives of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi; in the months that followed, hundreds of thousands of minority Tutsi and Hutu moderates were slaughtered by Hutu extremists. In 2006, a British judge ruled that author Dan Brown did not steal ideas for “The Da Vinci Code” from a non- fi ction work. LOTTERY Megabucks: $2.0 million 1-8-17-29-34-36 Mega Millions: $127 million 24-38-44-57-58-17 x4 Powerball: $190 million 8-31-39-40-43—PB-4 x3 Win for Life: April 4 10-24-48-59 Pick 4: April 5 • 1 p.m.: 7-2-6-7 • 4 p.m.: 7-1-0-4 • 7 p.m.: 5-3-3-5 • 10 p.m.: 5-4-4-1 Pick 4: April 4 • 1 p.m.: 3-9-9-2 • 4 p.m.: 7-6-4-6 • 7 p.m.: 2-8-8-7 • 10 p.m.: 0-9-7-0 Pick 4: April 3 • 1 p.m.: 2-0-7-2 • 4 p.m.: 3-4-2-9 • 7 p.m.: 7-6-4-6 • 10 p.m.: 6-4-3-2 DELIVERY ISSUES? If you have any problems receiving your Observer, call the offi ce at 541-963-3161. TODAY’S QUOTE “Money is in some respects life’s fi re: it is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.” — P.T. Barnum, American showman (born 1810, died this date in 1891) Oregon Public Broadcasting SALEM — In mid- March, one statistic defi ned how ill-prepared Oregon was for the expected surge of coronavirus patients: It led all states with the lowest number of staffed hospital beds per thousand residents. But after two convulsive weeks of preparation — by health care systems, shut- tered businesses and stay- at-home residents alike — state health offi cials now say they’re cautiously opti- mistic that Oregon may now have enough beds to avoid some of the worst repercus- sions of the pandemic. “It appears that we will not see a dramatic spike in cases over the next month here in Oregon,” state epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger said, citing the latest mod- eling data from the Uni- versity of Washington, speaking to reporters on a teleconference. If that is the case, it’s good news. An increase in patients could be man- aged by hospitals, if that increase is spread out over enough days and weeks that it doesn’t overwhelm the available number of staffed hospital beds, ventilators and medical clinicians on duty. But there are a lot of things that still need to go right for that to happen. “I think that’s an important distinction to make,” cautioned Andrew Phelps, director of the Oregon Offi ce of Emer- gency Management, speaking on the same call. “This is not about pre- dicting the future, it’s about identifying trends based on the most current data for the information that we have.” Those trends can be used to help hospitals prepare. Modeling assumes continued distancing The models assume people are practicing social distancing, and that they will continue to do so. Oregon adds ventilators Oregon Health & Science University photo/Kristyna Wentz-Graff Medical assistant Jillian Zalunardo works with a patient being tested for COVID-19 at the Oregon Health & Science University drive-through testing site in Hillsboro on March 24. The site is for OHSU patients who have been directed by their health care provider to get tested and for fi rst responders with COVID-19 symptoms. “It appears that we will not see a dramatic spike in cases over the next month here in Oregon.” Dr. Dean Sidelinger, state epidemiologist Sidelinger says that sec- ondary data, like data from traffi c cameras and cell- phone GPS data, indi- cates many Oregonians are staying home. But whether they’re staying home enough, or practicing good social distancing proto- cols when they do go out, remains to be seen. It also depends on acquiring enough masks and other personal protec- tive equipment (or PPE) to keep doctors from getting sick, too, and potentially spreading the virus to their families. “If we can accomplish those things, we are cau- tiously optimistic that here in Oregon, the cases seem to be rising about a level that will be able to care for the people who need it most,” said Sidelinger, who chose his words carefully to include qualifi ers like “if,” “cautiously,” and “seems.” “What I’m hearing is that now is not the time to take the foot off the brake,” he elaborated. “We can’t go back to business as usual like we had in February.” He said Oregon needs to make sure the curve stays fl at for the rest of the outbreak. Sidelinger wasn’t ready to declare what kind of impact Oregon’s social dis- tancing and stay home poli- cies have had on the spread of the coronavirus. That’s because once someone gets infected, it can take any- where from a few days to two weeks for them to start showing symptoms. From there, it’s usually a few days before they seek medical care, and a few more days before they get sick enough to qualify for testing. And once they’re tested, it can take a few days to more than a week for results to come back. Essentially, Sidelinger said, the numbers we see today refl ect the state of Oregon two or even three weeks ago. Suppression efforts paying off Data and case counts over the next week or so should help shed light on how well suppression efforts have worked. Just 14 days ago, so many visitors fl ooded Oregon beaches and hiking trails that towns along the coast and in the Columbia Gorge responded by discouraging nonlo- cals from visiting. Parks and public lands agencies restricted access. “The actions we take have consequences two or three weeks later. We don’t want to be reacting, we’re trying to anticipate what’s happening,” Sidelinger said. It’s also unclear how the spread of the virus will impact different regions, some of which are less equipped to handle a surge in patients than others. GPS data reported March 24 shows that in the largely rural stretches of Eastern Oregon, people were still traveling more than they were in the more densely populated Western Oregon. But they also have fewer hospital beds available for patients, and they generally don’t have the same fi nan- cial resources hospitals in urban and suburban parts of the state have. Hospitals are con- tinuing to prepare for a potential surge in patients, said Becky Hultberg, the president and CEO of the Oregon Association of Hos- pitals and Health Systems. It’s more diffi cult now, because many of them also are treating COVID-19 patients. “They’re looking into staffi ng, how and when to discharge patients, even what to wear,” she said. In a statement provided Arlene Schnitz er, prominent Portland philanthropist and arts lover, dies at age 91 Associated Press PORTLAND — Arlene Schnitzer, a philanthropist who gave away more than $150 million to thousands of civic projects in Portland and helped bring arts in the city to another level, has died. She was 91. Her son, Jordan Schnitzer, said she died on Saturday after having some intestinal issues. “In the end, at 91, I think she just decided she’d had a pretty amazing life,” Jordan Schnitzer told The Oregonian/OregonLive. Portland’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall is named after her. She and her husband, Harold Schnitzer, who died in 2011 at age 87, helped establish the Center for Northwest Art, and a curatorial and awards program. “Both my parents were proud Portlanders,” Jordan Schnitzer said. “They were born and educated here. It was their village, they used to say. They felt if they didn’t help build the insti- tutions in this town, who would? The most valuable and respected source of local news, advertising and information for our communities. OHSU currently has 79 adult and 29 pediatric intensive care unit beds. OHSU said measures like stopping elective proce- dures helped make more beds available. OHSU also has 178 ventilators for severely ill patients who can’t breathe on their own. One hundred are standard ventilators, and 19 of them were rented to help prepare for a surge. Thirty-eight are single-use ventilators, and 40 are anesthesia machines that can be converted to ven- tilators as needed. OHSU also said it currently has “adequate” staffi ng, but has plans in place should more be needed. OHSU did not say how many of those beds or ventilators were currently occupied. OHSU is one of the bet- ter-resourced hospitals in the state, with a large campus in an urban area. According to Hultberg, hospital preparedness can vary dramatically from one hospital to another. Hult- berg said many commu- nity hospitals in Eastern Oregon, for example, pri- marily serve as outpatient clinics. If someone is seri- ously ill, those hospitals have the resources to sta- bilize them until they can be moved elsewhere. Those community hospitals also have fewer medical cli- nicians on staff, and less money to hire more nurses and doctors in the event of a surge. As one measure of hos- pitals’ improving state of readiness, there are cur- rently 762 ventilators in the state, up from around 680 prior to the pandemic. Thir- ty-eight COVID-19 patients are currently on ventilators across Oregon. La GRANDE AUTO REPAIR 975-2000 www.lagrandeautorepair.com Bruce Guenther, former chief curator of the Port- land Art Museum, said the Schnitzers transformed philanthropy by making large donations, and that other wealthy patrons begin doing so also. Harold and Arlene Schnitzer donated to a variety of causes. Recip- ients included New Ave- nues for Youth, community gathering places such as the Oregon Zoo, schools such as the University of Oregon and Lewis and Clark Col- lege, Jewish cultural agen- cies such as the Mittleman Jewish Community Center, and arts institutions from the Oregon Symphony and Oregon Ballet Theatre to the Portland Opera and Portland Art Museum. The couple’s main way of donating was through the Harold & Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, funded by the sale of the Claremont Hotel for $88 million. “I think of her as a big wave,” said Lucinda Parker, a painter who met Arlene when they were both art students in the 1950s. “She encouraged and embar- rassed everyone to do what FAMILY OWNED she was doing. She made her way. She had no fear.” Harold and Arlene Schnitzer met in 1949 and were married fi ve weeks later after Arlene proposed. 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