Oregon, U.S. — The state of Oregon plans to closely monitor those who are at risk of having Ebola with the local health officials taking charge.
The monitoring plan was published last Wednesday designating various categories according to risk–none, low, some and high. It is the local health departments that will take the lead in contacting visitors of the state and health workers going back home from any of the Ebola-ravaged countries namely Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Those individuals who will be put under the state’s monitoring plan will be frequently checked for symptoms for 21 days from the last exposure to Ebola. Visitors and health workers from the urgent care clinics in West Africa who had unguarded contact with someone who tested positive of Ebola will be quarantined for 21 days while their temperatures are checked numerous times a day. There will be local health officials who will be in direct contact with them every day–could be over the phone or a video conference like Skype for instance.
For people categorized under some risk like the health workers who’ve helped provide urgent care to patients but have used protective gears, there quarantining will have to be on a case to case basis. What’s sure is that they will be directly monitored as well by the local health officials–could be in person if not through a video conference.
Travelers who’ve been to Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone but did not have any contact to a person with Ebola will only be required to have their temperatures taken at home or in an urgent care near me and reported to the local health specialists two times every day.
Lastly, those who are under the ‘none risk’ category will not go through the state’s monitoring plan.
There have been 6 people already put under the state’s monitoring plan including a Liberian woman who was checked in an urgent care clinic and released from quarantine on Monday.
No one is under direct monitoring by the local health officials anymore but there are ‘low risk’ individuals required to call in and report their temperatures two times a day.
