Portland-area health officials watching for potential COVID-19 case spike after July 4 weekend - KPTV.com

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - Health officials in the Portland area are keeping a close eye on how COVID-19 cases are evolving.

It may be weeks before health officials know whether there will be a spike in cases.

On Tuesday, the Oregon Health Authority reported 218 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases and five new deaths.

Kate Brown pleaded for people to stay home for the July 4 weekend, saying it was a critical point for Oregon in this pandemic.

Baumann says they’ve been preparing for an increase in cases for some time.

More people have been hired to work on investigations and outbreaks, and at the county level, she says they’ve been increasing the number of nurses, data analysts, and epidemiologists.

There’s a lot of work that goes into technical assistance to sectors such as businesses or schools that are trying to make plans, in addition to the support services that we try to connect people to when they are in a quarantine or in an isolation period and unable to go out.”.

"We certainly won’t know if we’ve done too much, but we will know if we’ve done too little, and we all need to do our part in controlling the virus here in Oregon so we don’t end up seeing things here that we’re seeing elsewhere.”.

Baumann says she knows they’re asking people to make a lot of sacrifices still.

Baumann says all of those individual precautions really make a difference in the long run.

IF people were compliant regarding masks, there shouldn't be a spike.

Brown needs to observe what people are dong - not what she thinks is happening.

The governor pleaded with people to stay home but is ok with thousands of people gathering in the streets statewide to protest.....