Clatsop County public health leaders are urging people to stop seeking coronavirus tests at local hospitals and urgent cares unless they are experiencing severe symptoms of the virus.

The plea comes as Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria is preserving testing supplies and bed space for patients who are seriously ill as virus cases continue to surge across the county and state. Last week, the hospital announced it was canceling elective surgeries in anticipation of more patients linked to the virus.

Starting Thursday, Columbia Memorial will end walk-in testing and refer people to the county Public Health Department. County staff will address the severity of the situation and point patients toward specific plans of action.

The county is also reporting a supply chain shortage that is forcing a halt to polymerase chain reaction testing after Monday. The PCR test is considered the most reliable to detect the virus.

“Testing is no longer used as a screening strategy,” Margo Lalich, the county’s interim public health director, said at a news conference Wednesday. “We simply do not have the supplies and it’s not the highest priority at this point in time.

“People are better off getting vaccinated and having more protection than using routine screening to determine whether or not they’re positive,” she said.

Vaccinations recommended

Both the county and Columbia Memorial attribute the testing shortage to some people getting tested repeatedly as an alternative to vaccination, or just to stay ahead of a possible infection.

In a statement Wednesday, Tom Bennett, a county spokesman, said the county is aware of reports of workers staying on the job after contact with known virus cases — or after showing symptoms — sometimes at the direction of their employers. He also said some employers are using take-home virus tests to check workers who are close contacts of virus cases and keeping workers on the job if they are negative.

The county urged people who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated and have had contact with a virus case to isolate at home for a minimum of 10 days. For people who are fully vaccinated, they should only quarantine if they are experiencing symptoms after a known positive contact.

“Public health will not schedule routine testing appointments for employers monitoring unvaccinated employees,” Bennett said. “People who report to work with confirmed or potential COVID-19 infections risk spreading the illness to fellow workers and customers.”

Going forward, Columbia Memorial will only test people via appointment or if they are experiencing severe symptoms.

Hospitals across the state are expecting a wave of virus patients in the coming weeks.

“Emergency rooms and urgent cares should not be considered a primary source for patients requiring testing and should only be used in an emergency,” said Jason Plamondon, the chief nursing officer at Providence Seaside Hospital.

Columbia Memorial has turned a same-day surgery unit into a coronavirus-specific facility to house additional patients.

“Our emergency department is seeing record numbers of patients. We’re at much higher capacity than we’ve ever been historically,” said Judy Geiger, Columbia Memorial’s vice president of patient care services. “The vast majority of patients we’re hospitalizing are unvaccinated.”

When Caitlin Seyfried learned of a positive test in her workplace last week, she and her co-workers at the North Coast Food Web — all of whom were vaccinated — rushed to schedule tests for themselves.

“I called the county hotline and they were helpful and nice, but every time I called it seemed like I got different information because the guidelines were changing at the same time,” Seyfried said.

She said she was then referred to Columbia Memorial and told she couldn’t be tested because she hadn’t experienced symptoms and was vaccinated.

Seyfried was able to get a test the next day at Walgreens, which offered test results within 72 hours. Though thankful that her employers were understanding and worked to prioritize health and safety, she expressed concern with the number of obstacles she faced in finding a test even after following the recommended guidelines. For those without a smartphone or internet access, she feels it could be even harder.

“It’s just frustrating that we’re at this point in the pandemic and the average person who has access to the internet and is fairly savvy at getting information can still find it difficult,” Seyfried said.

Seyfried understands how this isn’t necessarily a county issue, however, and acknowledges how limited resources are a problem that extends beyond the North Coast.

Record virus hospitalizations

Oregon has broken pandemic records for COVID-19 hospitalizations over the past several days. As of Wednesday, the state had 850 patients hospitalized with the virus, with 224 in intensive care beds.

Clatsop County reported 14 hospitalizations from Aug. 7 to Friday — 13 who were unvaccinated and one who was partially vaccinated.

The Oregon Health Authority reported 22 new virus cases for the county on Wednesday and 36 new cases on Tuesday after disclosing 73 new cases over the weekend.

Since the pandemic began, the county has recorded 1,605 virus cases and 11 deaths.

As of Friday, 22,769 people in the county — 57.7% — were fully vaccinated against the virus. The county has set a goal of having 27,533 people — 70% — vaccinated to try to achieve herd immunity.

With hospital beds filling up across the state, the ability for local hospitals to transfer patients who need additional care in the Portland metro area is limited.

“That’s not just COVID patients,” Geiger said. “That’s patients who have significant trauma. It’s patients who have had a stroke or heart attack who need a higher level of care. We’re having extreme difficulty transferring those patients.”