COVID-19 Updates

Updated 4/16/2021

This webpage will give you the latest guidelines for seeking medical care from Columbia Memorial Hospital and the CMH Medical Group. You can also get up-to-date news from CMH on Facebook and Twitter.

Staying Healthy

Viruses are microscopic organisms that vary from simple to highly complex. Each has unique traits, including how it moves from one person to another, how it infects people, and who it infects.

Viruses cannot be treated with antibiotics. They can only be prevented through vaccines and healthy habits. The best way to prevent getting and spreading viruses is by building these healthy habits into your everyday life:

• Clean your hands often. See the sidebar for the best way to clean your hands.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Clean all “high-touch” surfaces everyday with a bleach-based cleanser. High touch surfaces include counters, tabletops, doorknobs, bathroom fixtures, toilets, phones, keyboards, tablets, and bedside tables. Also, clean any surfaces that may have blood, stool, or body fluids on them.
• Take care of your immune system by getting proper nutrition, hydration, sleep and exercise.

COVID-19 Vaccines

Cleaning Your Hands, Tips from the CDC

Washing your hands often with soap and water is the best way to get rid of germs. Here’s how:

1. Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.
2. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
4. Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
5. Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.

When you can’t use soap and water to wash your hands, clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains 60- to 95-percent alcohol. Cover all surfaces of your hands and rub them together until they feel dry.

Wear a Mask

Masks or cloth face coverings are required statewide when:

• Visiting any business
• When visiting any indoor space open to the public
• When outdoors in a place where you can’t maintain 6-feet of distance between yourself and others not in your household

Wearing a mask prevents you from unknowingly spreading the novel coronavirus to others. We mask to protect each other.

Pandemic Guidelines for Patients and Visitors

If You Are Sick

When you are sick, it’s important that you prevent spreading the virus to others. With any infection, you should:

• Stay home when you are sick, unless you need medical care. Avoid public places, including work, school, stores, etc.
• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw used tissues in a lined trash can; immediately clean your hands.
• Clean your hands often.
• Limit contact with other people in your household to prevent spreading the virus to them.
• Avoid sharing items, including glasses, cups, utensils, towels.

It’s everyone’s responsibility to practice good hygiene. Together, we can slow or stop the spread of virus, including COVID-19, the flu and the common cold.

Clatsop County now offers drive-through COVID-19 testing by appointment.

Telehealth Appointments Now Available

Columbia Memorial Hospital and the CMH Medical Group now offer telehealth, or virtual medical visits, for some of our services.

A telehealth visit is similar to an in-person wellness appointment with your own doctor. During the visit, you’ll talk about your current health concerns and learn what to do. Look for the green telehealth banner Telehealth Enabled to find clinics, services and providers who are offering telehealth visits for established patients.

Learn more about telehealth appointments.

Volunteer and Donation Opportunities

Clatsop County

Due to the nationwide shortage in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supplies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Clatsop County Emergency Management is coordinating PPE donations for local clinics, long-term care facilities and first responders, and asks that local and regional businesses and non-health care industries consider donating PPE not currently in use. 

Items accepted include any of the following items that are disposable and reusable, unopened and opened, expired and not expired:

• Masks (N95, surgical, and procedural)
• Gowns (disposable)
• Gloves (exam type)
• Eye Protection (goggles and eye shields)

All donated supplies will be redistributed to vulnerable healthcare partners who are on the front lines responding to the COVID-19 crisis.  Donators will receive a donation letter that can be used for a tax deduction.  If you require PPE for your own personal healthcare, please save those supplies for your use.

Starting Friday, March 27, donations will be accepted at the Emergency Management Office at Camp Rilea. These supplies will be coordinated by the Clatsop County Emergency Management and redistributed to local healthcare partners based on priority need.  For questions and information:  donate@clatsopeoc.com or 503-325-8645.

Oregon State 

Several communities have been providing donations to hospitals to help with COVID-19 response.  The state has also been receiving a lot of requests for homemade PPE, RVs for COVID recovery, and land for tent hospitals.  To help with this, the state has setup a website you can refer community members to for donations: https://oregon-coronavirus-geo.hub.arcgis.com

Recent News

Clatsop County Public Health Updates

• April 15, 2021: One COVID-19 case
• April 14, 2021: County will proceed with upcoming clinics with Moderna vaccine
• April 14, 2021: Four COVID-19 cases
• April 13, 2021: County pauses Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Oregon Health Authority Updates

• April 15, 2021: OHA en Español
• April 14, 2021: Volunteers make vaccination clinics run smoothly
• April 13, 2021: Oregon pauses the use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine
• April 12, 2021: Vaccine Voices

COVID-19 Resources

Online:

• U.S. Centers for Disease Control
• Oregon Health Authority
• Washington State Department of Health
• Clatsop County Public Health

By phone:

• 211 Info for Oregon and SW Washington residents: 211 from a mobile phone or 503-222-5555 from a landline
  Topics: Daycare, homelessness, resources and case workers are available for aid with utilities/food. This line is NOT staffed by medically trained individuals.
• Clatsop County Health Department: 503-325-8500
  For questions about exposure, employers or employees asking about going back to work. You will be encouraged to call your primary care provider for a medical assessment, which may include testing. If you don’t have a provider and need an assessment of symptoms, they will refer you to the CMH COVID-19 Hotline.
• Washington State Department of Health: 1-800-525-0127
  Current information about Washington State cases and risk to the public. They will encourage you to call your health care provider, if you have concerns about risk/exposure.