Oregon coronavirus patient likely had little contact with students at Lake Oswego school

Oregon’s first presumptive patient with the new coronavirus likely had little close contact with students at the Lake Oswego elementary school where the person works, the district superintendent said.

© Mark Graves | The Oregonian/OregonLive/oregonlive.com/TNS Oregon's first presumptive coronavirus patient works at Forest Hills Elementary School in Lake Oswego. The person usually does not come in close contact with a lot of people, the school district's superintendent said.

Only a few people at Forest Hills Elementary School had contact with the sick employee and they will be asked to stay home for two weeks, monitor themselves for symptoms and report their temperatures every day, Superintendent Lora de la Cruz wrote in an email.

The employee lives in neighboring Washington County and first developed symptoms Feb. 19, state health officials said. They have not released the person’s age, gender or condition but said the patient is at Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro.

Forest Hills will be shut through Wednesday as a precaution and to get a deep cleaning, the school district said Friday after the governor announced the state’s likely first case of coronavirus. The diagnosis still needs to be verified by the federal government, but the state is treating the case with the assumption that it will be confirmed.

It is one of just a handful of cases in the United States that have not been traced to travel or close contact with a person known to have coronavirus. That means that there could be more cases in Oregon and other states that health officials do not yet know about.

The coronavirus epidemic is ramping up by the day, with new cases announced in countries across the globe and yet more cases announced in China, where the virus originated. The first U.S. death was announced Saturday, in Washington state.

Worldwide, there are now around 80,000 cases and around 3,000 deaths. There are at least 62 cases in the United States so far, most of them linked to travel abroad.

In Oregon, the Lake Oswego superintendent said the employee with coronavirus is getting “great” care.

“I know I speak for everyone when I say that our thoughts are with this person and their family,” wrote de la Cruz, who has been superintendent since June 2019.

Forest Hills Elementary was shut down, with barriers placed across the driveway at the entrance and what appeared to be a new “Do Not Enter” sign. The one-story red brick main building was shut tight in the woodsy residential neighborhood.

A few people were letting their dogs romp on the school’s field, but otherwise the place was empty.

In the surrounding neighborhood, people jogged by, walked their dogs and otherwise went about their business on a cloudy morning.

-- Fedor Zarkhin

fzarkhin@oregonian.com

desk: 503-294-7674 5/8 cell: 971-373-2905 5/8@fedorzarkhin

Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.

———

©2020 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.)

Visit The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) at www.oregonian.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.