Oregon’s child care facility has at least 20 COVID-19 cases, eight of them children

A child care center in Lake Oswego, Oregon is the first child care center in Oregon to experience a publicly reported outbreak of the COVID-19 virus, with eight children and 12 teachers testing positive.

KinderCare in the Lake Grove neighborhood of Lake Oswego told parents in an email of the outbreak on June 25. It appears to be among the first such groups in the nation.

Clackamas County Public Health said WW On June 30, there are also cases involving family members, but they declined to say how big the outbreak is.

Schools across the country have been largely closed, so child care facilities are considered an indicator of whether schools can open safely. Few facilities have reported case groups, leading to some optimism.

KinderCare Education LLC, a Portland-based for-profit company, operates in 41 states and has more than 1,200 child care facilities. The company declined to confirm the number of cases at the Lake Oswego facility or whether the students were involved, but said it closed the center for two weeks to address concerns there. The company also declined to say whether other locations had outbreaks.

Oregon Health Authority spokesman Jonathan Modie says authorities are meeting today on the issue of child care facilities and what information may be disclosed, but had no further details or comments. He had no information on whether other daycares had seen outbreaks.

Clackamas County Assistant Director of Public Health Julie Aalbers said it was up to the facility to report details. “That would depend on KinderCare sharing or not sharing,” she said.

KinderCare chose not to share.

“The health and safety of our children, families and staff is always our top priority,” says Emily Snyder, the company’s Associate Communications Manager. KinderCare Education LLC. “In response to the COVID-19 crisis, we have developed better health and safety measures in partnership with CDC and a panel of medical experts to ensure that our centers remain as clean and safe as possible.”

“As soon as we found out about the positive diagnoses in Lake Grove, we partnered with the Clackamas County Health Department and closed the center for 14 days to allow professional deep cleaning, retrain our protocols, and re-evaluate our staff before us. reopen. We are also taking the additional step of retraining all of our downtown Oregon staff to make sure we meet the highest possible standards. We look forward to welcoming families to our center soon. “

This story has been updated.