OHA release – If you test positive for COVID-19, symptom-based isolation guidelines in Oregon are as follows: Stay home until fever-free for 24 hours without using fever-reducing medication, and other COVID-19 symptoms are improving. Avoid contact with people at high risk of severe illness (including older adults and those with underlying medical conditions) for 10 days after testing positive or developing symptoms, whichever happens first. Consider masking for 10 days. A five-day isolation period is no longer recommended for the general population, including those in K-12 education settings. For health care workers, Oregon remains aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The symptom-based isolation recommendations have been in place since May 2023, when the federal COVID-19 public health emergency ended, and there is no plan to change them at this time. “Because COVID-19 is exceptionally transmissible and a large proportion of cases do not develop symptoms or develop only mild symptoms, the previous five-day isolation policy was not slowing transmission,” said Melissa Sutton, M.D., M.P.H., medical director, respiratory viral pathogens at OHA. “Families and communities are used to following symptom-based recommendations for other respiratory viruses, and doing so for COVID-19 will allow otherwise well individuals to attend school and work while asking that they mask and avoid individuals at increased risk for disease. Oregon has not experienced any notable increase in COVID-19 transmission, hospitalizations or deaths following our shift in isolation policy last spring.” Status of respiratory viruses in Oregon: COVID-19 – This week we reported an 8.9% test positivity rate for COVID-19, which indicates ongoing moderate community transmission in Oregon, based on data reported to health officials during the week ending Feb. 17. “COVID-19 continues to circulate freely in our communities,” Sutton said. “To protect themselves and their loved ones, we encourage all people in Oregon to get vaccinated with the 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine.” Over time, test percent positivity has proven to be an extremely accurate measure of COVID-19 community transmission, correlating with wastewater surveillance data that Oregon collects and reports weekly. Both tools can be found on our Respiratory Virus Data homepage. Test percent positivity chart for COVID-19 in Oregon throughout the pandemic. Click image for more. Meanwhile, the COVID-19-associated hospitalization rate in Oregon has decreased, with the CDC predicting a leveling off in COVID-19-associated hospitalizations into mid-March. Influenza and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus): Based on data reported during the week ending Feb. 17: Influenza community transmission in Oregon continues to drop, with a percent positivity of 7.4%, which is slightly up from the week prior but down overall since late December. A second influenza wave remains a possibility, and it’s never too late to get vaccinated against influenza. Keep up on flu activity in Oregon by subscribing to OHA’s weekly FluBites data report. RSV community transmission in Oregon has declined for eight weeks in a row, with a percent positivity of 5.7%. Safety measures that protect us from COVID-19 will also protect us from the flu and RSV. Getting immunized against COVID-19, the flu and RSV (for young infants and older Oregonians). Stay home if you are sick – until you are feeling better. Stay home if you are sick – until you are feeling better. Cover your coughs and wash your hands often. For those at increased risk of severe disease or who live with someone who is at higher risk for severe disease, OHA recommends considering masking indoors when respiratory virus transmission is significant, as it is now. Plan ahead. Anyone at high risk for complications from respiratory illnesses should plan ahead to get tested, should they develop symptoms for COVID-19 or the flu (which present similarly). If they test positive, OHA recommends asking their health care provider about getting antiviral treatments for either of those respiratory illnesses. Although it is not necessary to test positive for COVID-19 or the flu to qualify for antiviral medication, we recommend people speak with their health care provider in advance to understand how they would proceed should symptoms develop. The CDC offers this checklist for making a COVID-19 plan.
