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East Oregonian
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Approaches: ‘We have a simple message for all countries — test, test, test’
Continued from Page A1
COVID-19 CHRONOLOGY
off-reservation, a radius that
stops before cities like The
Dalles, Baker City and Rich-
land, Washington, if people
were traveling from Mission.
If residents traveled more than
75 miles, especially by air, the
tribes told them to self-quar-
antine for one to two weeks.
Jiselle
Halfmoon,
a
spokeswoman for the tribes’
COVID-19 Incident Com-
mand, said tribal medical
executives had been moni-
toring the virus since late last
year and the Board of Trust-
ees were prepared to act once
the disease reached Eastern
Oregon.
“We almost expected this
to come,” she said. “I believe
that’s why we were ready for
it, and we took preventive and
proactive measures to be able
to put things in place once it
started impacting our com-
munity directly.”
Despite the different
approaches, Halfmoon said
the tribes weren’t infl uenced
by what other local govern-
ments were or weren’t doing.
“It was general prevention
on our part, not a response to
anybody else’s lack of action,”
she said.
Regardless of the local
response, all Oregonians have
experienced an upheaval of
their lives.
On Monday, Gov. Kate
Brown banned gatherings
of more than 25 people and
ordered all bars and restau-
rants to close statewide. On
Tuesday, she extended the
statewide school closure until
April 28.
And then on Friday, the
state announced 26 new cases
of coronavirus, which was
Oregon’s largest single-day
increase so far and brings the
state’s total number of cases to
more than 100.
But for Umatilla County,
there have been no additional
cases of COVID-19 identifi ed
since March 11 and both peo-
ple who tested positive have
recovered.
“It’s hard to wrap your
mind around this because
the steps the governor is tak-
ing is not because of the situ-
ation we’re in, they’re because
of the situation we could be
STATE OF OREGON
FEB. 28
MARCH 2
MARCH 8
MARCH 11
MARCH 12 MARCH 13 MARCH 14 MARCH 16 MARCH 18
The Oregon Health
Authority announces
first case of COVID-19
in Oregon.
OHA announces first
case of COVID-19 in
Umatilla County.
Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown declares state
of emergency.
The World Health
Organization declares
COVID-19 a global
pandemic, Gov. Brown
announces statewide
ban on gatherings
over 250 people.
Gov. Brown orders
all schools to close
beginning March 16 as
Oregon reports 24 total
cases of COVID-19.
President Donald
Trump declares
national emergency.
First Oregonian dies
from COVID-19.
Gov. Brown
announces ban on
gatherings over 25
people, restricts
restaurants to takeout
and delivery.
Two more people
die from COVID-19 as
case total rises to 75.
UMATILLA COUNTY
MARCH 2
MARCH 5
MARCH 5-7 MARCH 11
Umatilla County
Commissioner George
Murdock takes
emergency flight home
from conference in
Washington D.C.
Murdock says three
samples from Umatilla
County residents
tested negative for
COVID-19.
OSAA 2A State
Basketball
Championships
played at Pendleton
Convention Center.
Second “presumptive
positive” COVID-19
case announced in
Umatilla County.
MARCH 12 MARCH 13 MARCH 18
Umatilla County
declares a “state of
alert.”
President Donald
Trump declares
national emergency.
Umatilla County,
Morrow County and
Pendleton declare a
state of emergency,
close or restrict
access to public
buildings.
CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE UMATILLA INDIAN RESERVATION
MARCH 2
MARCH 6
MARCH 12 MARCH 13 MARCH 14 MARCH 16 MARCH 17 MARCH 18
CTUIR declares state
of emergency, closes
Wildhorse, Nixyaawii
Community School,
Head Start, Daycare
and Senior Center for
cleaning until March
4 and cancels all
community events for
the week.
Board of Trustees
Chairwoman Kat
Brigham reports
cases of anti-tribal
discrimination
following first COVID-19
case at a coronavirus
roundtable hosted by
Rep. Greg Walden.
CTUIR establishes
COVID-19 Incident
Command, names
tribal spokesman
Chuck Sams incident
commander.
CTUIR cancels all
community events
except Wildhorse
fireworks show,
recommends
residents don’t travel
more than 75 miles off
reservation.
CTUIR announces
it will temporarily
stop disconnecting
water services for
nonpayment.
Tribes limit access
to Nixyaawii
Governance Center.
CTUIR announces
partial closure of
Wildhorse Casino
& Resort, including
casino floor, from
March 18 to April 8.
CTUIR temporarily
halts evictions in tribal
housing, agrees to pay
nonworking Wildhorse
employees for two
weeks.
East Oregonian Graphic/Andy Nicolais
in,” Fiumara said. “While this
seems like a quick escalation
over nothing, or very little, it’s
actually an escalation based
on the data that’s coming out
that says if we do nothing, it
could be very bad.”
Fiumara acknowledged
the lack of new diagnoses
doesn’t mean there aren’t
other cases out there. And
while he confi rmed “some
testing” has been done in
Umatilla County, he wouldn’t
say exactly how many have
been conducted at this point.
“When you’ve got small
numbers, they become very
easy to identify when people
start grabbing bits of informa-
tion from different sources,”
he said. “As these numbers
get larger, we will start kick-
ing them out.”
According to Fiumara, the
county knows when a test
result is in, but doesn’t know
of every test that’s pending
from Umatilla County.
Dr. James Winde, Yel-
lowhawk Tribal Health Cen-
ter medical director, said the
Umatilla Indian Reservation
health clinic doesn’t have test-
ing capabilities.
Should a tribal member
report coronavirus symp-
toms to Yellowhawk, and
doctors suspect COVID-19
after an examination, Winde
said the clinic would send the
patient to a hospital for further
testing.
If a tribal member tests
positive, Winde said the pro-
cess would follow Oregon
Health Authority reporting
guidelines and begin coordi-
nating with Umatilla County
Public Health.
He said he didn’t know if
the tribes would acquire test-
ing capabilities in the future
given the rapidly changing
landscape, but demand from
individual tribal members
wasn’t high.
“Not that many,” he said.
“Less than I would have
anticipated.”
Other Oregon counties,
such as Lane County, have
released specifi c testing data
about its residents.
But after being cautious
to not stir panic with a pre-
mature emergency declara-
tion, Fiumara said the health
department is now consid-
ering releasing the number
of people tested for the same
reason.
“We’re hoping it can tamp
down some of the fear in the
area that there are some tests
happening and they’re com-
ing back negative,” he said.
Yet, as of Friday, it
remained unclear when test-
ing will be widely available in
Eastern Oregon.
“It’s hard to give a time-
line, but there are activities
happening on multiple fronts
to fi nd ways to expand that,”
Fiumara said. “Yes, there’s
been limited testing happen-
ing, but our sense really is
there’s much more infl uenza,
more common cold and other
respiratory illnesses circulat-
ing. Just because someone has
a cough and a fever in Uma-
tilla County, chances are it’s
not COVID. I can’t say that
it’s not, but chances are that
it’s not.”
The only way for that to
be known would be for more
people to be tested, which
is precisely what the World
Health Organization is saying
should be done.
“We have a simple mes-
sage for all countries — test,
test, test,” Director-General
of the World Health Organi-
zation Dr. Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus said Tuesday.
National COVID-19 test-
ing was ramping up Friday as
the total U.S. cases surpassed
13,000, and Brown said
Thursday that 20,000 testing
kits were headed to Oregon
soon.
But as it stands, Hitzman
said labs around the country
are overwhelmed and esti-
mated it’d take up to 10 days
for a test result to come back
on a sample collected Friday
that goes through a commer-
cial lab.
Hitzman also offered
some optimism, pointing out
that Wuhan, China, where
the virus was fi rst identi-
fi ed in December 2019, has
reopened some factories just
four months later.
“It is conceivable that what
we see happen is that four
months from now this may
be a nightmare we wished we
hadn’t lived through,” he said.
For now, Umatilla County
residents will have to live
through a nightmare they
don’t know the full extent of.
Parents: Although libraries are closed they still offer a plethora of resources
Continued from Page A1
more formal lessons with stu-
dents, the “school day” can be
much shorter.
“When you’re home, a les-
son that might take an hour
at public school might take
20 minutes with your kid
because they have that really
good one-on-one time,” she
said. “You don’t need to
explain things multiple times
for the kids not paying atten-
tion in the back.”
Street said if parents are
just looking for ways to tem-
porarily provide educational
opportunities for their chil-
dren, and not committing to a
homeschooling lifestyle per-
manently, there are plenty
of free resources online they
can use instead of investing
in expensive textbooks and
other materials.
One of those resources,
locally, is the Hermiston
Public Library. While the
library building is currently
closed to visitors, people
can still call to order books
for pickup outside, and the
library offers a long list of
digital resources, found at
https://hermistonlibrary.us/os.
Library director Mark
Rose said it’s not too late for
Hermiston residents to get
a library card to access such
services — just call 541-567-
2882 to provide the necessary
information and be issued
a library card number. For
people who don’t live in the
city, some of the resources
listed on the library’s website
don’t require a library card to
access.
“Because of the state
library and other things of
that nature, we have huge
amounts of resources,” Rose
said.
Those
resources
go
beyond just audiobooks and
e-books and include services,
such as Bookfl ix, which help
young children read a digi-
tal picture book along with
a narrator, and offer ques-
tions afterward to gauge their
understanding.
“We’ve had pretty good
use of it, and I think it will
be a good resource for people
now,” Rose said.
TumbleBook, an online
library that also includes vid-
eos and comic books, is mak-
EO fi le photo
Oregon Connections Academy students work on projects in
2014. Online schools are one option parents are turning to in
order to keep their children busy during the six-week school
closure.
ing its services free to all
Americans during the current
outbreak, along with a col-
lection of math activities on
TumbleMath.
Another resource for fam-
ilies is Beanstack, a reading
challenge service that allows
people to track their reading
hours.
Rose said now is the time
for parents to get creative
about keeping their children
informed and entertained.
He said if people are looking
for a specifi c resource on the
internet to help them do so,
but haven’t been able to fi nd
it, librarians at the Hermiston
library are happy to take their
call and help them out.
“Finding things online is
supposed to be easy, but it’s
not always, and our staff have
experience in that,” he said.
As families wait to hear
whether Oregon students will
actually return to the class-
room on April 29 as planned,
some parents have written in
community forums on Face-
book that they plan to with-
draw their child’s enrollment
from their local school com-
pletely and switch to a vir-
tual charter school, such as
Connections Academy. It is
unclear yet how the Oregon
Department of Education will
handle that phenomenon, as
schools usually get funding
from the state on a per-stu-
dent basis, meaning drops
in enrollment hurt districts
fi nancially.
Hermiston School Dis-
trict has put together a list of
some educational resources
parents can use on their web-
site, at bit.ly/2UaOaXn. Dis-
trict communications offi -
cer Maria Duron stated in
an email that the list was not
the answer to questions about
what learning will look like
for students throughout the
outbreak, but is meant to be a
resource for caregivers look-
ing for ideas.
For parents who are just
looking for ways to keep their
child entertained in an edu-
cational way over the break
from school, many compa-
nies and nonprofi ts are step-
ping up.
Scholastic, for example,
has launched a free Learn at
Home program that offers
“20 days’ worth of active
learning journeys designed to
reinforce and sustain educa-
tional opportunities for those
students who are unable to
attend school,” according to
their website.
Students can take a virtual
tour of now-closed museums
and zoos around the world by
visiting artsandculture.goo-
gle.com, which uses the same
technology as Google Street
View to allow users to “walk”
the halls of everything from
the New York Metropoli-
tan Museum of Art to the
Australian National Surfi ng
Museum. Or they can use
street level mapping technol-
ogy through www.geoguessr.
com to race to guess where
in the world they have been
“dropped.”
The American Dairy
Association North East is
offering virtual tours of
farms, catered to different
age levels.
Testing: ‘The national media must take culpability for whipping up the public’
Continued from Page A1
care personnel with symp-
toms who had close contact
with a laboratory-confi rmed
COVID-19 patient.
Even with the strict cri-
teria, “the state lab received
167 specimens on Wednes-
day,” Hitzman said. “There
is clearly a backlog. They just
don’t have the capacity.”
Most other samples go to
one of three large commer-
cial labs: LabCorp, Univer-
sity of Washington Virology
and Quest Diagnostics.
As the World Health Orga-
nization urges nations to test
every suspected case, the U.S.
is nowhere close to that point.
Things are changing
almost hourly though, the
physicians said. Testing will
soon become more available.
In a press conference on Tues-
day, Gov. Kate Brown said
she expects federal authori-
ties to release a million new
tests next week and millions
more in the weeks to come.
“You should see our test-
ing capacity ramp up,” Brown
said. “I won’t say exponen-
tially, but substantially this
week as we expand testing
capacity through a private
provider.”
Another issue is a short-
age of RNA extraction kits
needed by labs to diagnose
the novel coronavirus. Qia-
gen, the Netherlands com-
pany that produces the bulk
of the kits, is ramping up pro-
duction in the face of over-
whelming global demand.
Interpath
Laboratory,
headquartered in Pendleton,
knows the complexities of
COVID-19 testing. Market-
ing Director Judy Kennedy
explained how headache-in-
ducing it can be. Interpath
does about 97 percent of its
own testing, but is not yet set
up to test for COVID-19. So
Interpath has been sending
nasal samples to ARUP Lab-
oratory in Utah. When ARUP
met capacity, Kennedy said,
ARUP made arrangements
with LabCorp, which also
met capacity.
“What we have here is a
fl ow from lab to lab,” she said.
“There’s such a demand that
no one can keep up.”
About 30 one-to-two-day-
old specimens (collected from
around the United States) are
sitting in Interpath frozen
storage ready to go some-
where. Kennedy said they
just worked out an agreement
with a lab in Tennessee.
The pandemic, she said,
has tested the ingenuity of
laboratories.
“It was a brand-new virus,
so nobody had the testing,”
Kennedy said.
As testing becomes more
prevalent, the pandemic will
continue to come into focus.
“With more and faster
testing,” Townsley said,
“we’re going to fi nd out how
pervasive it is. This commu-
nity likely has COVID-19 in
it.”
Hitzman agreed with that
but also chided the media for
overreacting.
“The national media must
take culpability for whipping
up the public,” he said. “It’s
probably important to con-
sider that over 30,000 people
in the U.S. die every year from
infl uenza and we don’t see the
same level of hysteria.”
Despite that sentiment,
Hitzman urges people to
wash their hands, use hand
sanitizer and socially isolate.
“Kate Brown has done
a remarkable job in closing
schools and closing restau-
rants,” he said. “We’re not
going to know the answer for
two weeks.”
The doctors urged people
who start experiencing symp-
toms to stay at home. Instead,
they should call their health
care provider and arrange
for a consultation by phone,
email or video.
“A lot of providers, includ-
ing myself and other clinics,
can do telemedicine visits
so people don’t have to leave
their houses,” Harrison said.
“That way, they aren’t spread-
ing the risk.”