The TRACE team and their host of volunteers staged out of Hatfield on their way to do random door-to-door COVID-19 testing of the Newport Community. The huge fleet of white vans were an interesting novelty throughout town. “The results from the TRACE team’s community sampling will give the community current prevalence data and inform a better picture of how COVID-19 moves through rural communities,” said Bob Cowen, director of the Hatfield Marine Science Center. “It’s impressive that OSU is able to provide the TRACE team within Newport this quickly. I am pleased that HMSC will serve as the TRACE team’s base of operations this next weekend.”
The TRACE study is a collaboration of the OSU colleges of Science, Agricultural Sciences, Engineering, Public Health and Human Sciences, and the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine – in partnership with county health officials. In Newport, university researchers will collaborate with Lincoln County Health & Human Services. The study was initially funded by OSU and a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and has been aided by work from the OSU Foundation and the OSU Alumni Association. Funding from PacificSource Health plans has allowed for the expansion to Bend and Newport, and additional sampling in Corvallis.
The tests used in TRACE-COVID-19 collect material from the entrance of the nose and are more comfortable and less invasive than the tests that collect secretions from the throat and the back of the nose. The field workers leave participants with information about the project and how they will receive their results – available in seven to 10 days – as well as health guidance from Lincoln County and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Participants in the study are sent their results and those of their minor children by secure e-mail with receipt by standard mail delivery as a backup. Everyone’s personal information is safeguarded.
For more information on the project visit: https://trace.oregonstate.edu Information and photo provided by OSU