Oregon Coronavirus Journal – 3-21-2020

What a difference a week makes. On March 12, Governor Kate Brown announced closure of K-12 schools in Oregon through March 31st. On March 17th, this was extended through April 28th. Governor Brown also issued restrictions on restaurants to only serve food by takeout, and that gatherings over 25 people were not allowed, resulting in multiple churches suspending worship services. Grocery stores were already being hit hard by anxious shoppers (toilet paper is still in short supply, but other food items are available).

Last weekend, I drove around my town (Woodburn, Oregon) to do some errands, and it seemed like everything was normal. By the end of the weekend, my wife and I decided to work from home. It has been a quiet week at home, but the progress of the coronavirus across the state and the world is continuing.

When I walk my dog, I see other people out doing the same. In the morning, I see construction trucks go by, see landscape trucks in my neighborhood, see cars driving on the street. Still, I haven’t gone shopping in a weekend. Other neighbors are pretty much doing the same. It’s a “wait and see” game here, even though in Washington state and New York, it’s “ground zero”. We are keeping an eye on it…

I did a little looking around to find a chart with Oregon’s coronavirus case counts, but couldn’t find one, so I created my own (Google sheet link) from press releases from the Oregon Health Authority. Here are two charts (daily cases reported and total cases):