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.