After nearly two years dealing with the pandemic, Deschutes County health officials will shift their focus from identifying and recording the source of new COVID-19 cases to reducing the severity of illness and hospital admissions.

The new focus is part of a statewide shift as more people test positive for COVID-19 because of the highly transmissible omicron variant, said Nahad Sadr-Azodi, Deschutes County Health Services Public Health director.

“The sustained and increasing number of cases has outgrown our containment capacity,” Sadr-Azodi said. “I’m referring to case investigation and contact tracing. Our goal is to shift from preventing transmission to really focusing on reducing the severity of the disease and hospital admissions.”

The current surge is attributed to more people testing themselves for COVID-19, holiday gatherings where it was easier for the virus to spread and the attractiveness of the region to visitors who could bring the virus to Central Oregon, Sadr-Azodi said.

For the first eight days of January, Central Oregon’s known COVID-19 cases logged in at 4,201, compared to the seven-day period from Dec. 19 to Dec. 25 when the number of known cases was 1,583. Both weeks were the highest ever recorded weekly case counts since the start of the pandemic, according to the county’s data.

“We are seeing rising cases of COVID-19 in our patients with the omicron surge,” said Dr. Jessica LeBlanc, Mosaic Medical chief health officer. “The most important thing for members of our community to do is to wear a quality mask when in public, and avoid crowds when possible.”

The top priority of public health should be preventing and reducing the severe symptoms and deaths from COVID-19, said Chunhuei Chi, Oregon State University director of the Center for Global Health.

Only after the county has enough resources should it shift its focus back to contact tracing by focusing on major outbreaks, Chi said.

“When we reached the point of transitioning into endemic, yes, that is when we no longer report positive cases just like we don’t report flu cases,” Chi said.

The shift away from case identification to disease prevention comes at the same time as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci, told Congress that just about everyone will get COVID-19, even those who are vaccinated. The difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated, Fauci said, is the severity of illness.

Meanwhile, 1,200 Oregon National Guard members will report for duty Friday morning to be deployed Jan. 18 to 40 hospitals statewide to help understaffed facilities, including St. Charles Bend. The guard members will serve in nonclinical roles, stocking, cleaning, cooking and helping with COVID-19 testing.

The shift in focus for county health officials means that those who test positive should not expect a phone call from contact tracers. Instead, they should go online to www.oregon.gov/positivecovidtest. Or for additional resources in Deschutes County go to www.deschutes.org/covidinfo.

“These changes will allow our public health staff to focus on controlling and preventing outbreaks in consequential congregant living settings while also assuring that residents who test positive have access to information they need, namely wrap-around services,” Sadr-Azodi said.

“The high vaccination rate is not enough to interrupt the transmission.”

The county is also urging people with mild symptoms or those who do not require medical care, to not test for COVID-19, but rather quarantine for at least five days before venturing out with a mask on, Sadr-Azodi said.

“Given the high demand and limited supplies, those with moderate or mild symptoms may isolate for five days,” he said. “Everyone else should be tested.”