UPDATE (2:15 p.m. PT) — Oregon State University is teaming up with the Benton County Health Department to conduct a door-to-door testing program meant to ramp up public-health information about COVID-19 in Corvallis.
University officials hope that the Team-based Rapid Assessment of Community-Level Coronavirus Epidemics — TRACE-COVID-19 for short — will serve as a template for other universities to provide critical information to the public.
Ben Dalziel is an assistant professor in OSU’s College of Science, and one of the project’s leaders.
“Testing nationally and locally has been focused on those with symptoms, but it’s likely that some people who carry the virus display no symptoms, and they may have been inadvertently involved with spreading the disease without having known that they had the virus,” Dalziel said in a statement.
According to the university, trained field staff with the study will visit randomly selected Corvallis households, collecting samples from 960 people. The study will be completed over four consecutive weekends through May 16.
Participants of each household who choose to take part will be given a nasal-swab kit that they can use themselves inside their home. Field staff will wait outside, and will not enter anyone’s home. Tests are then left outside their front door, while staff maintain social distancing standards.
Tests will be sent out to the Willamette Valley Toxicology lab, and results are expected to be available in seven to 10 days.
The study’s first phase of testing was scheduled for Sunday.
Oregon deaths climb to 74
Oregon state and local health officials reported 66 new coronavirus diagnoses Sunday afternoon. That brings Oregon’s confirmed cases to 1,910.
Oregon officials also reported two new coronavirus-related deaths Sunday.
74 people in Oregon are known to have died of COVID-19.
The Oregon Health Authority detailed the two new deaths as:
- A 64-year-old man in Benton County, who tested positive on March 26 and died on April 18 at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. He had underlying medical conditions.
- A 68-year-old man in Washington County, who tested positive on March 23 and died on April 11 at OHSU. He had underlying medical conditions.
Washington passes 600 deaths
Clark County Public Health reported 12 new confirmed cases of coronavirus in Southwest Washington on Friday. There are now 277 confirmed cases there.
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Washington recalls 12,000 COVID-19 test kits due to possible contamination
Washington health officials recalled approximately 12,000 COVID-19 test kits Saturday after an alert from UW Medicine said a batch of test kits had a quality control issue.
The Washington State Department of Health recalled kits that were initially sent to “local health jurisdictions, tribal nations, and state agency partners” across the state.
“Though the quality control issue has only been observed in a small number of tubes of viral transport media, we adhere to the highest quality standards for COVID-19 testing in Washington state,” said Secretary of Health John Wiesman in a statement.. “We are working with our partners to have them discard the product and will work to replace them as quickly as we can.”
According to UW Medicine, some vials of viral transport media — the fluid that preserves collected specimens — exhibited an unusual color, which prompted them to reach out to state health officials to investigate potential contamination. Washington health officials believe there is no health risk to patients, as the fluid does not come in contact with patients during a COVID-19 test.
According to UW Medicine, the quality issues observed in a small number of samples did not affect test results.
The state is working closely with UW Medicine and local health partners to replace the recalled specimen collection kits “as quickly as possible.”
