PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Oregon’s death toll from COVID-19 stands at 53 on Monday, and of those, almost half have occurred among people living or working at senior care facilities.
But so far the state has been reluctant to provide the names of facilities and the number of people there testing positive. Having that information would help people know whether they’ve been exposed.
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The Oregon Health Authority says it’s an issue for the Department of Human Services and a privacy rights issue. Some care facilities released the information themselves. Over the weekend the state finally started releasing a partial report of longterm care centers with cases, but only those with 5 or more cases.
Those include Healthcare at Foster Creek in Portland (35 cases, 9 deaths), Laurelhurst Village in Portland (more than 2 dozen staff and residents sick, 3 deaths) and the Edwards C. Allworth Veterans’ Home in Lebanon (34 cases, 3 deaths.)
But the state admits there are dozens of other care homes where there are virus cases, but claims privacy as the reason to not release more information.
Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran, who is also an emergency room doctor, is well aware privacy issues.
“I don’t see how identifying that there are cases in facilities would be a violation of anyone’s HIPPA rights,” Meieran told KOIN 6 News.
KOIN 6 News reached out to the Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority for answers, but have not yet heard back.