SIUSLAW NEWS | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020 | 7A
VIRUS from page 1A
“Lane County Emergency
Management updates the
local group with accurate
information from the state
and national levels by con-
ference call. Then, the local
group determines how this
applies to us locally in the
Florence area.”
The purpose of the joint
meetings is to get credible
and accurate information
out to the local communi-
ty and show “that all local
agencies are on the same
page with regards to emer-
gency operations, including
dealing with how to deal
with a potential spread of
the coronavirus,” Grzesko-
wiak continued. “All of the
local groups have previously
trained together for how to
respond to other emergen-
cies like a fire, earthquake or
mass casualty incident.”
The letter came just one
day after Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown declared a state of
emergency over the virus.
As of Tuesday, 15 presump-
tive and confirmed cases of
COVID-19 were reported in
Oregon, with the latest case
being identified in Mult-
nomah County — bring-
ing the total number of
counties reporting cases of
COVID-19 to seven.
By comparison, neigh-
boring Washington state
currently has the highest
number of reported cases
of COVID-19 in the coun-
try, with 136 presumptive
(meaning confirmed by
state health officials but not
yet confirmed by the CDC)
and confirmed cases.
However, “We do think
that even though we are
reporting 15 cases, this dis-
ease is much more wide-
spread in our community
as many of these cases were
identified as potential com-
munity transmission,” said
Dr. Dean Sidelinger, Oregon
Health Authority (OHA)
state health officer and epi-
demiologist, on Monday.
The declaration was is-
sued to unlock a variety of
resources to help prevent
the spread of the disease, in-
cluding:
• Creating more COVID
-19 testing sites at more re-
gional hospitals.
• Bringing in emergency
volunteer healthcare pro-
fessionals to add services,
particularly in rural com-
munities such as the Siuslaw
region.
• Expanding telemedicine
for remote care so patients
can be screened, and in
some cases treated, without
exposing more people to the
virus
To prevent the virus from
spreading to and within the
Siuslaw region, prevention
will be key.
“The coronavirus should
be treated like the flu or
other infections that pass
through communities or
schools,” Grzeskowiak said.
These include Centers for
Disease Control and Pre-
vention (CDC) recommen-
dations, such as washing
hands with soap and water;
covering coughs and sneez-
es; not touching hands, face
or mouth; and avoiding sick
people. All of these are still
the best forms of preven-
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tion.
If school officials see a
student who is sick or ac-
tively coughing in a class-
room or work area, “Please
send them to the office so
that they can go home for
monitoring and then make
sure to have custodial ser-
vices sanitize the area,”
Grzeskowiak told his staff.
If teachers believe they
may have COVID-19, they
should stay home and away
from others. Instead of go-
ing directly to the hospital,
they — as with the rest of
the public — should call
first.
“After being at home
and symptoms like fever,
coughing or shortness of
breath are not getting bet-
ter, call the hospital and
professional medical staff
will determine if someone
needs to come to the hos-
pital,” Grzeskowiak wrote.
“If someone is directed to
come to the hospital, med-
ical staff will be properly
prepared to receive them.”
This is done so hospital
staff can properly organize
prevention techniques and
not put other patients in the
waiting room at risk.
Again, there have been
no incidences of transmis-
sion in the region or coun-
ty, but if there were to be a
spike, the district absentee
rate would be a major first
indicator of COVID-19 in
the region.
“One of the few things
that is actually trackable
on how this might progress
is student absences,” Grz-
eskowiak told the Siuslaw
School Board in a meeting
Friday night. “Typically, we
are, on any given day, 7-8
percent absent, for whatev-
er reason. When we hit 10
percent, we are in sanita-
tion mode. We’re bringing
in extra staff during the
day and evening, and this
is when we start talking to
Lane County Health.”
If the school is at 20 per-
cent of the population ab-
sent due to illness, “There’s
a good chance that we’ve
got a wave coming that’s go-
ing to mandate a closure,”
he said.
Getting 20 percent infec-
tion is not unheard of, as
the school once battled an
aggressive case of norovi-
rus.
“We went from almost 10
to 20 percent in a day, with
kids literally getting sick in
the hallways,” Grzeskowiak
said.
The school closed over
a long weekend to do deep
sanitation.
One middle school in
Hillsboro, Ore., already
experienced a student with
COVID-19, but the school
was advised by the OHA
not to close. In that case,
a student who had mild
symptoms attended school
last Tuesday before self-iso-
lating at home.
The district contacted
OHA, the Oregon Depart-
ment of Education and the
Washington County Health
Department (WCHD), and
it was determined not to
keep the school open and
do a deep clean.
“The unfortunate real-
ity is that COVID-19 is in
our community,” Hillsboro
Superintendent Mike Scott
wrote to students. “Updat-
ed guidance from OHA
and WCHD is that closing
schools may not be an ef-
fective method for stopping
the spread of the virus. This
is the same stance currently
being taken by school dis-
tricts in other major metro-
politan areas and commu-
nities around the country
and around the world.”
Despite the newly sani-
tized school and assurance
of safety, 45 percent of that
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school’s students opted to
stay home once news broke
about the infection.
Grzeskowiak stated that
if there were any large-scale
disruptions to the school
schedule, it would most like-
ly be students staying home
out of fear of the virus, not
actually contracting the vi-
rus itself. Another possibil-
ity for a modified schedule
would be if Siuslaw Middle
School is used as a triage
and refuge center, which
would force the school to
split classes for those stu-
dents in other buildings.
If the school does have to
be closed down, the first five
days would see no discern-
ible change in education for
the students. The district
has enough professional de-
velopment days left in the
year to use as instructional
days.
If the closure goes beyond
that, the school will turn to
online education for a large
portion of the school, with
teachers teaching modified
courses on programs such
as Facebook Live.
“We’re going to have kids
that might have internet at
home, but no computer, so
we’re going to deliver them a
Chromebook,” Grzeskowiak
said. “If the kids are without
internet, we can give them a
paper equivalent.”
Class materials would
be dropped off to students
through bus stop points.
“Kids know where the bus
stops are, whether they take
the bus or not,” Grzesko-
wiak said. “We can get the
word out by phone or email,
deliver the materials on a
Tuesday, and then pick them
up on Friday.”
Drop off/pick up runs
would also allow the school
to deliver food to students
throughout the week. As of
now, the district has enough
meals (around 10,000) to
last students for two weeks,
while programs like Food
Backpack for Kids could
use the drop-offs to deliver
meals. The drop-off spots
could be used for the broad-
er community as well.
The district is also speak-
ing with programs such as
Food for Lane County.
“They’re interested in de-
livering other staples while
we’re making those runs,”
Grzeskowiak said.
This schedule will al-
low staff to keep working
throughout the week, either
through teaching or prepar-
ing materials, so they do not
have to miss paychecks.
If needed, Siuslaw School
District also has backup
water supplies, including
hundreds of gallons of water
and 6,000 water bottles that
are used for field trips and
sporting events.
“We could continue this
plan for at least a month,”
Grzeskowiak said, pointing
out that anything beyond
that would be unprecedent-
ed.
To be able to enact any
of these procedures, multi-
ple local, county and state
authorities would have to
be coordinated with, along
with the help of the school
board.
“From this meeting for-
ward, if any board member
feels more comfortable with
meeting online, the staff has
set up a way for us to do
that,” School Board Presi-
dent Guy Rosinbaum said.
District staff provided the
board with instructions on
how to link up to an online
platform where a majority
of members could legally
hold a public meeting.
For more information on
disease prevention, the dis-
trict provided the following
links:
• Siuslaw School District:
w w w.siu slaw.k12.or.u s/
notes-on-communicable
-disease-prevention
• Oregon Health Author-
ity: oregon.gov/oha/PH/
DISEASESCONDITIONS/
DISEASESAZ/Pages/emerg
ing-respiratory-infections.
aspx
• CD C: w w w.cdc.gov/
coronavirus/2019-ncov/
index.htm
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