SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2020
THE OBSERVER — 5A
COHO
Continued from Page 1A
detections of those tagged
fi sh are observed by biol-
ogists and used to monitor
abundance and timing the
fi sh.
The harvest for coho
in the Grande Ronde runs
through Nov. 30. Anglers
can harvest the fi sh in the
northern end of the river in
Wallowa County from the
Oregon-Washington border
to the Grande Ronde
River Road bridge, which
is about 7 miles north of
Troy.
The press release stated
the bag limit is two for
adult coho, those greater
than 20 inches.
Anglers’ limit on jack
coho, which are at or less
than 20 inches, is fi ve fi sh,
with a limit of two days’
worth in possession.
Anglers haven’t been
allowed to take coho since
about 1980.
The salmon was essen-
INMATES
Continued from Page 1A
from Brown and her
administration.
“There is no explana-
tion — other than polit-
ical reasons — why there
wouldn’t be consideration
for people to be released
so they do not die from
the pandemic,” said Tara
Herivel, an attorney repre-
senting prisoners across the
state. “It seems like we’re
waiting for a body count to
do something about it.”
The Oregon Department
of Corrections has reported
a body count of nine deaths
of prisoners who tested
positive for COVID-19
and just under 1,000 total
people have tested posi-
tive while incarcerated as
of Wednesday, Sept. 30.
That includes 297 cases
and three deaths at Eastern
Oregon Correctional Insti-
tution in Pendleton, and 81
cases at Two Rivers Cor-
rectional Institution in
Umatilla.
In August, Brown asked
the Oregon Department
of Corrections to provide
her with a list of up to 400
inmates who were either
vulnerable to the virus
or within two months of
release and met a specifi c
set of criteria.
Oregon Department
of Corrections Director
Colette Peters returned a
letter to Brown on Sept.
21 that identifi ed 69 indi-
viduals who fi t all criteria,
which Brown then trimmed
to 66.
Herivel said, along
with other attorneys she’s
working with, attempted
to provide Brown and her
offi ce with a list of up to
50 individuals who fi t that
very criteria, including the
often challenging require-
ment of establishing a
housing plan post-incarcer-
ation, but those attempts
were dismissed without
consideration.
In Washington and Cal-
ifornia, Democratic Govs.
Jay Inslee and Gavin
Newsom have released
thousands of incarcerated
individuals to mitigate risks
of the pandemic. In Heriv-
el’s eyes, Brown’s reluc-
tance to release more pris-
oners is both dismissive of
the risks for those inside
and ineffective at providing
any meaningful protections
for them.
“While they cer-
tainly impact the individ-
uals, which that’s incred-
ibly important for them
The Observer, File
Above, coho salmon are reintroduced into the Grande
Ronde Basin in 2017. The fruits of that reintroduction ef-
fort are paying off as coho can be harvested in the north-
ern end of the Grande Ronde River through Nov. 30, 2020.
It’s the fi rst time in about four decades anglers can keep
catches of the fi sh, according to the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife. At right, this portion of the Grande
Ronde River in northern Wallowa County is where anglers
can harvest coho salmon.
tially wiped out from
the Grande Ronde Basin
more than a century ago,
according to the press
release, and numerous res-
and their families, it will
do absolutely nothing
for social distancing in
prisons,” Herivel said. “It
will do nothing for people
being exposed to the out-
breaks now.”
During the pandemic,
Herivel and a group of
attorneys have formed “The
Oregon Habeas Taskforce”
that is representing pris-
oners throughout the state
in habeas corpus claims
against the Oregon Depart-
ment of Corrections.
“There’s a claim now
that’s being raised across
that state that the Depart-
ment of Corrections has
failed to protect people
from the pandemic, and
they’re doing that by failing
to implement known mea-
sures, per the CDC, that
will curb contraction of
COVID,” Herivel said.
But when the depart-
ment has implemented
measures, those measures
have directly inhibited the
ability for prisoners to fi le
these claims.
In an email from prison
offi cials to the East Orego-
nian, the Oregon Depart-
ment of Corrections con-
fi rmed it limited access to
the law library in EOCI for
nearly four months of the
pandemic.
According to the email,
the law library was closed
from July 7-15 as an emer-
gency protocol when
COVID-19 was fi rst iden-
tifi ed in the facility, and
then reopened with restric-
tions in place. From July
15 to Sept. 7, the email
stated, inmates were only
allowed access to the law
library if they had a “dead-
line with the court system
within 60 days of their
request.”
“Limiting the number
of (adults in custody) that
could access the legal
library was the only way to
ensure social distancing,”
the email stated. “A sec-
ondary consideration was
the lack of available and
trained (adults in cus-
tody) legal clerks that were
quarantined.”
Without access to the
law library unless they
had an active court dead-
line, inmates were barred
from fi ling new lawsuits
like those represented by
Herivel, who took notice
of this potential obstruc-
tion when only a handful
of cases were fi led from
the Eastern Oregon
prison despite the facility
reporting one of the largest
workplace outbreaks in the
entire state.
FAMILY
OWNED
toration attempts between
1912 and the early 1970s
were unsuccessful.
Habitat improvement,
strong relationships among
CASES
Continued from Page 1A
The total case count
in Oregon since the start
of the pandemic, through
September, was at 33,862
and the number of deaths
was 560. The mortality rate
of known cases in Oregon
is 1.653%, putting the sur-
vival rate of known cases
at 98.346%.
The number of reported
deaths was more than 30%
lower, as the state had
an increase of 95 deaths
during September. Of
those, 17 were fatalities
that occurred prior to Sep-
tember, and while most
were in August, the state
included a late report of
a fatality from July and
one from May. A time of
death was not reported in
a third case. The state also
pulled four deaths from
the count during the month
— two of individuals who
were double-reported, one
that was not determined
to be a COVID-19 death,
and a fourth for an out-of-
state death reported as an
Oregon case.
There also were six
deaths that give no indi-
cation of if the person
tested positive for COVID-
19. Five of those had
SARS-CoV-2 listed as a
SALE
Continued from Page 1A
one from Baker County,
one from Washing-
ton’s Tri-Cities area and
three from Goldendale,
Washington.
The sale will be at the
Fraternal Order of Eagles
Lodge, 350 S. Second St.,
Walla Walla, and start at
9 a.m. each day. It will run
each day until people stop
coming.
Sale organizers have the
use of the lodge for free
from Sunday, Oct. 4, to
Saturday, Oct. 10. O’Dai
said normally such orga-
Screenshot of Google Maps
fi shery co-managers and an
improved fi sh culture and
monitoring are among the
items credited in the press
release for the recent suc-
cessful restoration attempt.
Coho aren’t the only
salmon that could have a
stronger showing this fall,
as Bratcher said Chinook
numbers also should be
solid. However, Chinook
salmon must be released
if they are reeled in, the
release said.
cause or signifi cant con-
tributing factor, and a sixth
was listed as symptomatic.
The percentage of cases
in each age range charted
by OHA changed less than
0.25 percentage points
per group in September.
There was an increase in
cases among those ages
0-9, 10-19, 30-39, 70-79
and 80-plus, and a decrease
among those 20-29, 40-49,
50-59 and 60-69. The big-
gest increase was among
those 10-19 and 30-39,
while the biggest drop was
among those 40-49.
The state reported 451
more hospitalizations over
the month, with the total
number of people hospital-
ized for COVID-19 during
the pandemic increasing to
2,613. Of those who tested
positive, 7.72% are known
to have been hospitalized
in Oregon due to the pan-
demic, though an addi-
tional 10.1% of the cases
have not been reported.
The positive test rate in
Oregon ticked up to 4.66%.
It sat at 4.57% at the end of
August. There have been
32,201 positive tests, and
almost 660,000 negative
tests.
There were 12 days
during the month with
fewer than 200 new posi-
tive cases reported, 14 days
with between 200 and 300
cases, and four days with
more than 300 cases. The
lowest case count was 125
on Sept. 9, and the highest
was 457 — the highest
during the pandemic —
on Sept. 25. Those four
highest totals all came
during the fi nal 10 days of
the month.
Females remain slightly
more likely to account
for a case, as they make
up 51.7% of all cases in
Oregon.
Males, though, are much
more susceptible to death,
as they make up 57.3% of
the state’s fatalities and
have a mortality rate of
1.98%. The mortality rate
nizations charge about
$200 a day for use of their
facilities.
You still can donate
items for the yard sale. In
La Grande, the drop-off
site is Le Bebe Cakes,
1101 Washington Ave. All
items will be accepted
through Sunday. To
arrange to make a dona-
tion, call O’Dai at 541-663-
6050 or Le Bebe Cakes at
541-963-2253.
O’Dai said she never
ceases to be amazed at how
generous people are when
stepping up to help others
in need.
“It astounds me every
time,” she said.
These are some of the items locals donated to assist fi re
victims in Western Oregon but that are no help to them.
Instead, they will be sold at a yard sale to to raise money
to buy the victims things they really need.
PERCENTAGE OF
CASES BY AGE
Through Wednesday,
Sept. 30, Oregon has a
reported 33,862 cases of
COVID-19, an increase of
6,916 during the month.
Below is a percentage
of how those cases are
broken down by age, and
how that data compares to
the end of August.
Age
Aug. 31 Sept. 30
0-9
4.67%
4.68%
10-19 10.29% 10.44%
20-29 21.71% 21.69%
30-39 17.58% 17.73%
40-49 16.45% 16.20%
50-59 12.74% 12.69%
60-69 8.12%
7.98%
70-79 4.83%
4.87%
80-plus 3.54%
3.66%
for women is 1.37%.
Oregonians 70 and
older have accounted for
73.8% of the deaths despite
making up just 8.53% of
the cases, and are 35.2%
of the demographic that is
hospitalized. Those 80 and
older have a known sur-
vival rate of 78.3%, the
only group below 90%.
Nobody in Oregon younger
than 20 has died from
COVID-19. There have
been six deaths total from
individuals younger than
40, 20 younger than 50
and 58 younger than 60.
The survival rate for those
younger than 70 is 99.5%.
Union County reported
27 new cases during Sep-
tember, down from 31
new cases the county had
in August. The county
has now conducted nearly
5,000 tests — the surge
due in large part to Eastern
Oregon University’s mass
testing Sept. 21 — and as
a result has seen its posi-
tive test rate drop to 8.61%.
That is down nearly 3 per-
centage points in the last
month. The case total in
Union County through
September was reported at
446, but Friday morning
a case was relocated to a
different county, putting
the total at 445, according
to the Center for Human
Development.
Dick Mason/The Observer
Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics proudly welcomes:
Leslie Jackson, MD, FACP, FACR
To the GRH Specialty Clinic team as a Rheumatologist
Dr. Leslie Jackson joins the GRH team from Baker City as a board-certified Rheumatologist in
practice since 1996. She believes caring for patients requires innovative, personalized care tailored
to her patient’s lives. Working together, she addresses her patient’s concerns to achieve excellence
in their health care, which directly translates into improved quality of life. She particularly enjoys
collaboration between providers and with her patients. Dr. Jackson is a
long
long-time resident of the eastern Oregon region, spending much of her free
time ranching out of the Richland/Halfway area with her family. She is a
veteran officer of the U.S. Army with 21 years of service, as a physician,
medical instructor and preceptor, and a variety of other professional
positions while in the military. Call for an appointment today!
GRH Specialty Clinic
Rheumatology Services
710 Sunset Drive, Suite E, La Grande • 541.663.3000 • grh.org/rheumatology
Leslie Jackson, MD, FACP, FACR
215 Elm Street La Grande (541) 963-5440
northwestfurnitureandmattress.com
Rheumatology services are provided within the first floor of the Regional Medical Plaza.