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Beaverton Memory Care Facility Sees Outbreak Of 28 COVID-19 Cases

The Oregon Health Authority on Sunday evening said 12 of Murray Highland’s 20 residents were transferred this weekend to other facilities.
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PHOTO BY CRISTIAN NEWMAN ON UNSPLASH
August 17, 2020

An outbreak of 28 COVID-19 cases at Murray Highland Memory Care in Beaverton has led to about half the site’s residents being transferred to other facilities.

Murray Highland has a total of 20 staff and 20 residents, according to the Washington County Public Health Department. County spokesperson Mary Sawyers on Sunday did not immediately have a breakdown of how many of the 28 positive or presumed positive coronavirus cases were among staff and how many were among residents. Sawyers said one resident had been hospitalized.

The Oregon Health Authority on Sunday evening said 12 of Murray Highland’s 20 residents were transferred this weekend to other facilities. Ten were relocated to Pacific Health and Rehabilitation in Tigard, which has a contract with the state to care specifically for COVID-positive patients.

All long-term care facilities in Oregon are required to report suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 to the state Department of Human Service and their local public health authority. On Aug. 7, DHS put in place an executive order requiring Murray Highland to follow more stringent infection control requirements. The facility was required to test all of its staff and residents within 72 hours for the coronavirus, barred from admitting or readmitting residents, told to stop communal dining and visitation, and required to notify families about the outbreak.

The state is in the middle of its efforts to test all residents and workers in Oregon care homes for the coronavirus by a Sept. 30 deadline set by the governor. Nearly half of all staff and residents in Oregon’s nursing, assisted living and memory care homes have been tested at least once for the coronavirus since June 1, the Department of Human Services said last week.

People in care homes are particularly vulnerable to complications and death from the coronavirus, with broad testing helping prevent and curb the spread of disease. Elderly residents in care centers account for about half of the state’s 388 reported fatalities.

-- Fedor Zarkhin contributed to this report.

This story was originally published by The Oregonian/OregonLive and is printed her through a coronavirus-related content-sharing arrangement with more than a dozem media outlets in Oregon.

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