Multnomah County has its first presumptive case of the new coronavirus, bringing the state’s tally to 15, health officials announced Tuesday.

The patient, an older man, got the infection in the community, meaning he didn’t travel to a coronavirus hot spot and didn’t have contact with a known case of COVID-19.

“I can only imagine the concern among the family and friends of this person,” said Dr. Jennifer Vines, health officer for the Portland metro area. “I’m asking you, as my neighbors and as my community, to keep this individual and their loved ones in your thoughts.”

The person is age 55 to 74 and is being treated at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, health officials said.

A Veterans Affairs spokesman declined to provide details about the man’s condition. He is one of six Oregon coronavirus patients to be hospitalized at the time they tested positive for the virus.

The state’s laboratory has tests pending for 67 people who are under investigation for coronavirus.

“At this point we all need to assume that COVID-19 is in our community,” Vines said. The county started tracking down anyone the man may have infected Monday evening, she said.

Of the 15 Oregon cases, one has been confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although all of them are being treated as if they were confirmed. People age 55 to 74 account for eight of the cases, five others are between 35 and 54 and two are under 25.

There are now cases in seven counties: eight in Washington County, two in Jackson County and one each in Umatilla, Multnomah, Marion, Klamath and Douglas counties.

State officials have said there are likely hundreds of coronavirus cases in Oregon, and they continue to test others. The Oregon Health Authority received a new supply of coronavirus test kits Tuesday, a day before the state was set to run out. The new kits allow for testing of up to 4,800 people, according to the state.

It’s unclear if the state will expand who is eligible for testing. State officials didn’t respond to a request for comment. The criteria so far is limited to people who have COVID-19 symptoms and have traveled to countries with an outbreak or had close contact with a known case, as well as people who have a severe respiratory illness such as viral pneumonia but no other known diagnosis and require hospitalization.

Vines appeared to acknowledge the growing outbreak and that current methods -- catching contacts of infected patients and telling them to stay home - won’t be enough of a response.

“We are not going to isolate and quarantine our way out of this pandemic,” Vines said in a statement. “We are working with our partners on mass gathering guidance, at schools, places where people gather and mix, to spread people out.

“We are not talking anymore about stopping the spread of this virus,” she said. “Without a vaccine and without medicine, our best bet as a community is to slow the spread so those who do get seriously ill can get the care they need from our health system.”

In addition to investigating who may have contacted the sick man, Multnomah County health workers must monitor those they find could have been exposed and also continue to monitor previously identified people who are at risk.

There’s a limit to how many potential cases health workers can keep tabs on, but Multnomah County is not coming up to that limit yet, said Lisa Ferguson, the county’s communicable disease manager.

As the county discovers more cases, Ferguson said it could switch gears from monitoring specific individuals to trying to keep the disease from spreading within high-risk places, like prisons or nursing homes.

The county is actively trying to figure out what to advise people to do to avoid getting the disease. Social distancing measures, such as telling people to stay at home, are a core component of limiting a disease’s spread. In China, extreme versions of such measures have been credited with slowing the spread of COVID-19 abroad.

But dramatic steps like having people not go to work or keeping their kids home from school can create serious disruptions in people’s lives, so the county is trying to be careful in developing its guidance for what people should do, Vines said.

So far, the state has said older adults and those suffering from a chronic condition like diabetes or heart disease should not travel and should avoid crowds. They also should stock up on supplies, food and medicine.

The state also issued new guidelines Tuesday directing nursing, assisted living and residential care facilities to limit community outings and restrict visitors to essential people only. Health officials said visits by essential people should be limited to two per resident at a time and the visitors must be screened for respiratory or other symptoms tied to COVID-19 and for recent travel to coronavirus hot spots.

Oregon’s first case was identified Feb. 28 – a male employee at Forest Hills Elementary School who lives in Hillsboro. A family member of his was subsequently diagnosed. The state’s third case is a casino worker from Umatilla County.

One of the cases Oregon announced over the weekend is a student at South Meadows Middle School in Hillsboro. The day after officials announced the case, almost half of the school’s students stayed home.

The state is now monitoring 232 people for possible symptoms of COVID-19, and 302 people have gone through 14-day monitoring without developing symptoms. County health departments monitor people by checking in by phone and asking that they watch themselves for symptoms of the virus, which include a cough and fever.

Gov. Kate Brown has ordered a state of emergency, which allows health officials to create more COVID-19 testing sites, bring in emergency health care professionals and expand health care via the internet.

COVID-19 cases nationwide increased, as well, with nearly 1,000 total cases in 37 states and Washington, D.C., according to a New York Times tally. Internationally, more than 116,000 have fallen ill with the disease.

The world continues to react to the spread of the new coronavirus. On Monday, Italy announced across-the-board measures to contain the virus, including travel restrictions on all citizens and a ban public events. The Dow fell 2,000 points, the steepest drop since the financial crisis of 2008, but rebounded Tuesday.

-- Fedor Zarkhin

fzarkhin@oregonian.com

desk: 503-294-7674|cell: 971-373-2905|@fedorzarkhin

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