After a second full round of testing following a confirmed case reported in a staff member on Aug. 12, the novel coronavirus appears to have spread to no other employees or residents at the Marquis Hope Village assisted living facility.
“We are pleased to inform you that 100% of the Marquis Hope Village Assisted Living staff and resident test results, from Monday, Aug. 17, are negative for Covid-19 from our weekly testing,” April Diaz, Marquis Companies vice president of clinical services, told the Canby Now Podcast in an email. “Thanks to our team’s dedicated work, we were able to prevent the spread of the virus to residents or staff within our facility.”
All staff and residents will continue to be tested on a weekly basis, she said, until the nursing home goes two weeks with 100% negative results.
The employee who tested positive had not been in the facility since Friday, Aug. 7, when they first showed symptoms. They will not be allowed to return until being cleared by a physician, Marquis said.
In June, Marquis Hope Village was the site of the state’s second largest Covid-19 outbreak at a senior care home, which eventually grew to include 112 confirmed cases and 11 deaths.
Fortunately, that outbreak was contained to the adjacent post-acute rehab center. Testing in early June confirmed that the virus had not spread to the assisted living home, which located in the same building and licensed for up to 84 residents.
That outbreak was considered resolved as of late July, with no remaining active cases of the virus remaining at the facility.
Growth of new cases reported for the Canby ZIP code has been slow, with only 14 cases reported since the week ending Aug. 2, an average of seven new cases a week — well below the June peaks.
Canby has now seen 189 confirmed cases — the second-highest in the county behind neighboring Oregon City’s 210. Canby’s per capita infection rate, though, is much higher because of population differences: 83.3 per 10,000 residents vs. 44.0 for Oregon City.
Canby’s infection rate is also far above that of the state as a whole (55.3 cases per 10,000 Oregonians), though the numbers are drawing closer each week.
Molalla has reported 15 new cases in the past two weeks, and its count remained steady at 79, with an infection rate of 52.3. The Interfor lumber mill in that city has now been linked to nine confirmed cases of the virus.
Wilsonville saw 26 new cases in the past two weeks. Its total rose from 90 to 116, with an infection rate of 55.4 — the second-highest in Clackamas County, behind Canby.
That city has seen two recent workplace-related outbreaks. Nineteen cases have been tied to the Coca-Cola in Wilsonville, and another 15 tied to Classic Manufacturing, which makes wooden flooring, stair components and wood registers.
