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The Columbia Press May 21, 2021 3 What new CDC guidelines mean for Oregonians and state businesses The Columbia Press The Centers for Disease Control late last week issued new guidelines about face masks and social distancing as a means of combating the spread of COVID-19. A few days later, the state clarified what that means for individuals and businesses in Oregon. While the CDC says it’s no longer necessary for fully vaccinated people to wear masks, those who haven’t been vaccinated or who are not yet fully immune still need to wear them and re- main socially distanced. “Individuals in Oregon are no longer required to wear a face mask or physically dis- tance, whether indoors or outdoors, two weeks after their final COVID-19 vacci- nation dose,” according to Oregon Health Authority in a written statement. A fully vaccinated individ- ual is one who has received both doses of a two-dose vaccine or one dose of a sin- gle-dose vaccine and at least 14 days have passed since the final dose. “However, fully vaccinated individuals are required to continue wearing a mask and observe physical distanc- ing on public transportation and in schools, hospitals and clinics, homeless shelters, youth and adult correctional facilities and long-term care facilities,” according to the state. Businesses and other em- ployers can choose to scrap the mask and physical dis- tancing requirement only if the business requires visi- tors and employees to show proof of vaccination and re- view the proof. A business must have a pol- icy for checking the vaccina- tion status of customers and A nurse at the Uni- versity of Oregon prepares to test a saliva sample for COVID-19. Courtesy UO employees if they are not wearing masks. Fully vacci- nated people must provide proof if they want to remove face coverings. During a press confer- ence on Tuesday, the state’s top health officer, Dr. Dean Sidelinger, answered ques- tions about the increased burden placed on the state’s businesses and why every- thing isn’t just opening up as some states have done. “Oregon has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the country and we have not yet achieved even half of our population fully vaccinated,” Sidelinger said. Businesses have a choice. If they don’t want to check the vaccination status of pa- trons, they can continue with the mask and social distanc- ing protocols that have been in place for the past year, he said. Complaints from custom- ers about businesses violat- ing privacy or HIPPA (the protection of sensitive medi- cal information) rules aren’t valid, he said, because the customer has the option of wearing a face covering as an alternative. There are no other choic- es to abide by state rules in place right now, Sidelinger said. Just “trusting the public” to do the right thing isn’t enough, he said. “We know that over half of individu- als are not fully vaccinated against COVID and that we have a significant amount of the disease spreading throughout the community.” He recommends people take their card or a copy of their card to any business that allows entry with proof of vaccination or to keep a photo of their card on their cell phone. “The CDC guidance was about individuals,” Sidelinger pointed out. “Business rules are more strict … (because) we know there are significant numbers of people who are not protected. It’s by work- ing together and doing things that protect ourselves and our loved ones that we will get through this together.” Nose swab vs saliva Not everyone who’s been tested for COVID with a swab inside a nostril has found it a pleasant experience. Earlier this month, the Uni- versity of Oregon’s COVID-19 Monitoring and Assessment Program piloted an alterna- tive source for samples: sali- va. Using the new process, pa- tients pool saliva in their mouths and passively drool into a small plastic cup. Tech- nicians extract a sample into a miniature test tube, which is sent to the UO’s clinical lab using advanced liquid han- dling robots. Saliva samples can be pro- cessed at a fraction of the cost of a nasal swab and at far higher volumes, UO sci- entists said. Saliva contains fewer biological materials that might interfere with lab tests. It costs about $3 to test a saliva sample versus $20 for a nasal swab test, said Doug- las Turnbull, interim senior director of the Genomics & Cell Characterization Facility at UO. The UO tests about 2,000 students each week. UO scientists have been working on the testing meth- od since July 2020 in part- nership with Yale School of Public Health, which devel- oped a test called SalivaDi- rect. The UO is awaiting approv- al from the Federal Drug Ad- ministration to use an auto- mated method to process the saliva samples using robots, but in the meantime is pro- cessing the samples manual- ly. The statistics Clatsop County Public Health Department has re- ported 10 new COVID cas- es in the week that ended Wednesday. That’s a total of 986 cases since the pandemic began. Twenty-five people have been hospitalized and eight have died. Statewide, there had been 196,787 cases as of Wednes- day with 2,601 deaths. To date there have been 21,769 cases and 113 deaths attributed to workplace out- breaks. The only active workplace case in Clatsop County is at Funland Entertainment Cen- ter in Seaside, where five cas- es were recorded. However, no new cases have been at- tributed to the center since April 29. Clatsop County had fully vaccinated 14,855 as of May 14 (vaccination statistics are released on Fridays) with more than 2,000 additional doses scheduled to be given this week.
