Crook County is seeing its first reported case of COVID-19. The county health department announced Wednesday afternoon that one person had tested positive for the virus, and stated that the case appears to be related to travel.
The person is not hospitalized, and officials said the person is cooperating with public health officials.
According to the most recent figures released from the Oregon Health Authority, 15 people have been reported as testing negative for the virus in Crook County, which has a population of roughly 24,000 people, according to 2019 data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Today’s announcement was the first positive reported case.
“The leadership of Crook County and the City of Prineville respects and values the privacy of community members and the confidentiality regarding medical information,” the department’s release read. “Therefore, no identifiable information will be released about presumptive or confirmed cases in Crook County.”
According to the most recent OHA figures, Central Oregon’s Jefferson County—with a population estimated at 24,658 as of July 2019—continues to have no reported cases, with 16 people testing negative for the virus.
Deschutes County—estimated population 197,692 as of July 2019—has 27 reported positive cases as of Wednesday, with another 277 in testing negative for COVID-19.
Today’s announcement makes Crook County the 27th of Oregon’s 36 counties to have positive reported cases of the virus.
This article appears in Mar 25 – May 20, 2020.
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How many have been tested.
Exactly, here is the problem. We can’t get tested. My doctor thinks I have Covid-19 but won’t test me. Instead I had to get blood work drawn up, and EKG and a chest X-ray to rule out other possibilities. God knows what that will cost me with insurance deductibles. We are not getting tested and so we are not in the numbers. Because our numbers are so low from not getting tested, we will not get sent the resources we will need. Our government should mandate testing. I guarantee the numbers would be much higher in all counties. My doctor said that the CDC and our local government said no testing unless you are 60 years old or you need a vent…this is ridiculous. We are not in the national numbers either. I get they will treat you with the same protocol unless you can’t breathe but people need to know. We live in America and pay a fortune for medical insurance and we have the right to know if we have this virus. We will need to know anyway for immunity reasons as well down the line.
Dale — As the story says, 15 people have tested negative in Crook County… which, adding up the one positive case, would indicate that 16 people have gotten their results, though we don’t know how many others are awaiting results. As I have been watching the numbers daily, Crook and Jefferson counties have been reporting about one negative test per day–indicating that they’re testing about one person per day in those counties… though that’s just based on the negative results.