Lack of Supply, Delayed Response Prior to Marion County Coronavirus Outbreak: Report

Employees of the Woodburn Farmers’ Union were held at Zoom once in a weekly meeting in early April.

The organizers shared the tragic news that Hector, a farm worker known for chatting at Radio Poder Station, was hospitalized and had a serious illness. At COVID-19. He drove a van for another worker.

His son was also ill.

“Everyone was just shocked,” said Reina Lopez, executive director of PCUN. “This is the guy who looked very strong … it was really hard to hear that someone who was very close to our movement was very affected.”

By the time of its April 1 meeting, almost all Woodburn community organizations were aware of the rapid spread of the virus among the most vulnerable inhabitants of the region. They were primarily Latin, often undocumented, did not speak English, and worked in nurseries, food processing plants, grocery stores.

It took several days before the Marion County Department of Health approached the group and sought help to control the rapidly increasing number of people infected.

By then, Marion County had developed into a location in Oregon. COVID-19 Worst concentration of victims This is true today as well. Civil servants say they can’t explain why the problem turned so severe in one of Oregon’s most populous counties.

But Survey by Salem Reporter State and Marion County health officials have found it slow to obtain timely and accurate information about COVID-19 from North County farmers and non-English speaking residents.

Constrained by limited testing capabilities, limited staffing, and sometimes delays in returning results, health officials responded when a new case was reported, but one of the counties’ most vulnerable populations. The family rarely actively guaranteed that the department was armed with themselves and the information to protect them.

As a result, community groups had to create their own rushed plans to address the rising epidemic.

Delays in responding to the evolving health crisis could probably have caused county residents to become infected more than twice as often as the state.

As of Wednesday, 22 of 10,000 inhabitants of Marion County are known to have the virus. In Maltonoma County, there is nearly twice as much damage and a much higher percentage of residents are tested.

Infection rate in Marion County Almost three times the state average 8 out of 10,000.

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Colum Willis, chairman of the Marion County Commission, said only the most sick were tested and county residents had a higher incidence of chronic illness than other Oregon people. He said virus-related hospitalizations for county residents had declined.

“Even Marion County has a relatively manageable infection rate compared to the rest of the country,” he said in an interview last week.

However, the number of cases is still increasing rapidly. Marion County currently has 746 inhabitants known to be COVID-19, of which 153 were added to the county roster in the past week. The county recorded a single largest daily aggregate for the state in 43 cases posted last Saturday.

For postal codes, including Woodburn and Gervais, The infection rate is even worse. One-quarter of the county’s inhabitants have confirmed that the virus lives in the Woodburn ZIP Code, which is home to approximately 8% of the county’s population.

In a recent interview, community leaders say they are still fighting to perform the necessary tests and help the most affected people. They are also fighting the stigma that blames those Latin Americans who are ill because they do not follow health guidelines.

Levi Herrera Lopez, executive director of Mano a Mano, said he saw the Woodburn Latin Americans suggest on social media that they should be locked in to contain the virus.

“People blame the high numbers on the Latin community,” he said.

The truth of what happened in Marion County is the dozens of interviews with state and county health workers, public health researchers, Marion County doctors, Latino and Russian community leaders, and state and county public data. It became clear from the review.

read moreSalem reporter’s e-story, One of more than 12 news agencies across the state, it shares the coverage of this coronavirus outbreak and helps inform the Oregonians about this evolving health problem.