Local officials and hospital administrators say Central Oregon is at a turning point. People in the community can either obey orders and stay put, or patients suffering with severe symptoms of COVID-19 will soon overwhelm local hospitals.
During a virtual press conference today with nearly 50 attendees, local officials—joined by St. Charles Health System administrators—urged local media outlets to convey one simple message to the public: Do not leave your house unless absolutely necessary.
The presenters repeated and expanded on the message multiple times. Do not make physical contact with anyone outside of your immediate household. Remain 6 feet away from other people.
SCHS CEO Joe Sluka made a short presentation, showing projection models for available hospital beds and respirators in Central Oregon. He displayed a graph published by covidactnow.org that demonstrated how Oregon hospitals will become completely overwhelmed without aggressive social distancing interventions.
Sluka said the region has entered a “point of no return” requiring direct action for the next six days, or hospitals will be overrun. Hospital admissions will spike to 465 by the end of April, the projection shows, versus 117 admissions if the public works to flatten the curve. Fifty-eight new ventilators per day will be required in the region’s hospitals by April 28, versus 15 new ventilators per day required with aggressive social distancing.
Mayor Sally Russell read some quotes from Dr. Emily Landon, the chief infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Chicago, whose speech on Saturday, March 21 went viral after Illinois went on lockdown.
“All we have to slow the spread is distance,” Landon said, as quoted by Russell. “Social distance. If we let every patient with this infection infect three more people and then each of them infect two or three people, there won’t be a hospital bed when my mother can’t breathe very well or when yours is coughing too much.”
After Russell spoke, St. Charles CEO Sluka took over the virtual floor to explain St. Charles’s three main objectives: protecting its caregivers, patients and the community.
You can’t transmit it if you don’t come in contact with it. The growth of this disease is exponential: Hospitals [in the U.S. and around the world] are being overwhelmed. -St. Charles Health System CEO Joe Sluka
“We have two strategies to defeat COVID-19: Prevent and contain,” Sluka said. “To prevent, we need aggressive and extensive social distancing. Containing is identifying and isolating those who have COVID-19.”
Sluka said Central Oregon is still short on tests: Right now only vulnerable populations with symptoms of the coronavirus qualify to get tested. This may change quickly as more commercial tests come online.
“You can’t transmit it if you don’t come in contact with it,” he said. “The growth of this disease is exponential: Hospitals [in the U.S. and around the world] are being overwhelmed.”
Sluka said St. Charles has been prepping for many weeks and has a plan in place for a surge, and the hospital is working to “shore up” staffing.
Sluka ended his presentation with a clear call to action:
-Only leave the house for essential reasons
-Socialize only with people who live in your house
-No picnics, camping, visits to the dog park, hikes, or trips to the coast (Yes, this one will be hard Bendites!)
-Exercise alone, or keep 6 feet from the person you are with
-Enforce social distancing for kids and teenagers: no playdates or hanging out with others
Action and responsibility from the bottom up is more powerful than from the top down. -Rep. Cheri Helt
Dr. George Conway is the Deschutes County Health Services director and has been the face of the county’s response since he reported the first COVID-19 case March 11.
“Every time you stay at home, you help the community,” Conway said. “This is not just an order for the elderly. Forty percent of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the U.S. have been between the ages of 20-54. We’re protecting our family, friends, co-workers and saving lives.”
State Rep. Cheri Helt (R-Bend) reiterated the messages of the other presenters, encouraging social distancing.
“Action and responsibility from the bottom up is more powerful than from the top down,” she said.
Helt also focused on economic recovery, and said she believes “help is on the way” from both the state and federal government. This includes unemployment for workers, low- and no-interest loans for small businesses, and other assistance for those recently unemployed.
Helt said the Oregon state legislature will meet sometime over the next 10 days to pass emergency relief bills.
St. Charles is currently unable to replenish some of its essential supplies, including personal protective equipment, according to Dr. Jeff Absalon, chief physician executive at St. Charles. It uses 800 masks and the hospital has a “few weeks” worth of supplies on hand, Absalon said. SCHS has 270 beds between its four Central Oregon hospitals, it is working to double its capacity. By canceling all elective surgeries, the hospital has more beds available than usual.
Helt reported that the State of Oregon has—as of this afternoon—received 45% of the emergency supplies it requested from the federal government, including 87,000 masks, 9,000 gowns, 14,000 gloves.
Absalon concluded that the only people that should go to the emergency department are those with a fever, cough and a significant shortness of breath. Those without a shortness of breath should contact their primary care provider.
“Just look to Italy and New York,” Absalon said. “I’m begging you to stay home, stay home now. Our caregivers don’t have a choice.”
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Perhaps this would be a good time to ask whether Oregon has relaxed its certificate of need process so that hospitals may add the facilities it thinks it needs without a regulatory approval process.
I hope the city of bend will shut down vacation rentals for awhile. We got to keep people from importing the illness. There’s nothing open anyways….
Shutting down vacation rentals is necessary now. Call City Hall and demand it.
I think this info should also be on the news tonight, along with an order to enforce fining parents who are letting their teenagers go out and meet in groups. Granted you can’t watch every minute but people are allowing them out with cars and pictures taken in the neighborhood show groups “tailgating”, hanging out , etc.
Palm Springs just shut down all vacation rentals and hotels unless to help mitigate coronavirus. See https://www.palmspringsca.gov/home/showdoc…
March, 24, 2020Palm Springs City Manager David H. Ready today clarified the City and State of California moratorium declaring vacation rentals, homeshares and/or other lodging facilities such as hotels, are not allowed to operate within City limits unless they are being used for mitigation and containment measures related to the spread of Covid-19, otherwise known as coronavirus.Additionally, longer rentals of over 30 days of such facilities are prohibited, unless the purpose falls within a Covid-19 exception.The order notes that “no new reservations shall be accepted until after the Covid-19 emergency declaration with the City has been officially ended and restrictions lifted.”Any and all bookings through April 30, 2020, other than those for immediate mitigation and containment measures should be cancelled immediately.“Visitors currently staying in a vacation rental, homeshare or hotel should return to their home community immediately and shelter in place,” said Ready.Ready added this is a temporary measure, effective immediately and that the order will remain in effect, unless modified by the Director of Emergency Services, City Council, County of Riverside, state or federal government.“The health and safety of Palm Springs residents is our top priority,” said Ready. “We continue to strongly urge our residents, unless they are an essential worker, to stay home and shelter in place per our emergency declaration mandate.”
Sunriver is Full of people on Spring Break.
Houses are Full. Were did they come from and now those who live here, are exposed to someone new.
I drove to Sunriver market, was shocked at the people, children. Bike riders.
Did not get out of car.
Really People.
Yes, I live in Sunriver and I’m quite shocked. There isnt the usual amount of spring breakers, but 1 is to many. The rental agencies here are not doing their part by not shutting down and cancelling people’s reservations. Also, the people who decided to come and vacation are not acting responsible. It’s very frustrating to see this kind of behavior going on here.
I share my home on Airbnb. I have prayed about what to do. I keep getting guidance to stay open… To be of service. Three days ago I got a request from a young man who recently moved to Bend. He is a medical courier. He could not find an apt now. He agreed to stay 6′ distance. I am in the “senior” age category. I am glad there is someone else living in my home safely. I am glad I could be of service. I hope I am not FORCED TO LIVE ALONE.
Please keep this in mind:
The coronavirus determines our timeframe,
Not the economy!
Please stay home and stay ALIVE!
This is why we need UBI during this pandemic. What is going to happen when people can’t work and have to pay rent or mortgages? Be a vector and make money to have shelter or stay home? Quite the system we have built for ourselves.
Thanks for all of your comments guys. I did ask Mayor Sally Russell about shutting down hotels and vacation rentals during this press conference, and she responded that the “stay home” messaging was coming from the State as well as Visit Bend so people should know not to come here. I think this is just one of hundreds of different examples of how the U.S. is struggling to balance the free market economy with the truly extreme measures that governments around the world have taken to contain the virus. New York Times infectious disease reporter Donald McNeil said that the only way to get this under control is a complete two-week lock down throughout the country. Instead, I think a lot of politicians fear getting blamed for economic fallout, so they aren’t going far enough.
And a new order from City Manager Eric King discouraging tourist travel:
https://www.bendoregon.gov/Home/ShowDocume…
It’s crazy to look back now and find out all this was just BS government control and just dystopian efforts by the deep swamp democrats to gain as much control over people’s lives as they possibly could. The information coming out now about the gov’t corruption, Big-Tech & Big-Pharma all working together and all the damage from the fake vaccine and the people murdered by hospital protocol is unreal. What a system we have unleashed on ourselves. Oh and thanks China!