New Website Shows Current Local Risk of Flu, COVID, and RSV

New Website Shows Current Local Risk of Flu, COVID, and RSV

Nuevo sitio web muestra el riesgo local actual de gripe, COVID y RSV

Date:              September 10, 2025
To:                 All Media
From:             Martha McInnes, Director, NCPHD
Contact: Mikey Goyette, mikeyg@ncphd.org, communications coordinator, NCPHD

North Central Public Health District (NCPHD), in partnership with other local health departments, hospitals, and wastewater treatment plants, has launched a new website that shows the current local risk of viral respiratory illness. The Respiratory Risk Rating website, www.ncphd.org/resp-risk-rating, shows Columbia River Gorge residents the current combined risk for flu, COVID, and RSV. The rating system has four levels: normal, caution, high, and very high, along with a brief summary of the trending direction of each illness. The risk levels are based on anonymous test results from local hospitals and wastewater treatment facilities.  

“Our goal is to clarify the information we have so you can make informed decisions to protect yourself and your family from seasonal illnesses. All the information we use to make the rating is publicly available, but it can be hard to make sense of the individual bits of data,” says Marta Fisher, Regional Epidemiologist for NCPHD and Hood River County Health Department (HRCHD).

The respiratory risk rating is available because of the Columbia Gorge Wellness Partnership, which is made up of wastewater treatment facilities in Hood River and The Dalles, Adventist Health Columbia Gorge Hospital, Providence Memorial Hospital Hood River, NCPHD, HRCHD, and Gilliam County Health Department. Local treatment plants send wastewater samples, collected at the plant, to Oregon State University for testing, local hospitals share summaries of their test results, and local health departments evaluate the data to make the rating.

(For more information, please contact North Central Public Health District at (541) 506-2600, visit us on the web at ncphd.org or find us on Facebook.)