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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 2, 2021
COVID-19: ‘Life is going to be different now’
Continued from Page A1
ical Center in Hermiston as
health care workers were
injected with the Moderna
vaccine. Morrow County
followed suit on Wednes-
day, Dec. 30, administering
some of their doses to police
and public safety staff. Spir-
its were high at the hospitals
as people began to anticipate
the end of the pandemic.
According to the Ore-
gon Health Authority, only
277 people have been vacci-
nated. With vaccine supplies
still modest, when the gen-
eral public will begin gain-
ing access to the vaccine is
still an open question.
3. COVID-19 surges in
Umatilla County
State and local officials
were alarmed by COVID-19
trends in Umatilla County
over the summer, as the
county outpaced the rest of
the state in new cases. The
surge started at the end of
May and peaked around
the end of July before drop-
ping sharply after Umatilla
County was sent back to
baseline restrictions on Aug.
1.
Hermiston, in particular,
had so many cases over the
summer that, despite cases
later spiking elsewhere in
the state, as of Dec. 23 Ore-
gon Health Authority’s data
showed the Hermiston ZIP
code still has still reported
more cases since the start of
the pandemic than any other
ZIP code in the state.
Umatilla County Pub-
lic Health officials said the
summer surge in Umatilla
County was largely driven
by people coming to work
sick, and many of the Herm-
iston area’s largest employ-
ers saw outbreaks. Lamb
Weston’s plant in Hermiston
closed down for deep clean-
ing on June 15 after an out-
break that would eventually
affect nearly 200 people.
The summer also saw a
surge in deaths after the virus
got into Regency Hermiston
Nursing and Rehabilitation
Center in an outbreak first
reported on July 13, which,
according to OHA, included
97 cases and 15 deaths linked
to the facility.
4. Pandemic forces
cancelation of 2020
Pendleton Round-Up
The board resisted as long
as it could, but eventually
COVID-19 forced it to can-
cel the 2020 Round-Up. For
the first time since World
War II, Pendleton did not
host a rodeo or any of the
other accompanying events.
In the initial months of
the pandemic, the Round-Up
Association maintained the
rodeo would go on as usual
during the second full week
of September. Even as Gov.
Kate Brown announced in
May that all of the sum-
mer’s large events needed to
be canceled or significantly
altered, the association kept
its cards close to its vest.
In June, the rodeo’s board
of directors relented and
announced that the 2020
Round-Up was canceled.
It immediately pivoted to
announcing a new initiative
called Let’er Buck Cares, a
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian File
Barbara Dickerson protests in support of stronger COVID-19 precautions in prisons outside of Eastern Oregon Correctional
Institution in Pendleton on July 10, 2020. Dickerson’s husband is an inmate at EOCI who tested positive for COVID-19, and she
alleges the prison is not doing enough to protect its inmates.
charity campaign to raise
money for organizations
economically affected by the
cancelation of the rodeo.
Behind the scenes, the
Round-Up and its allies had
been negotiating directly
with the governor’s office to
figure out a way to hold the
rodeo, going as far as to draft
and present a document that
showed how the Round-Up
would operate with health
precautions.
But the Round-Up pulled
the plug itself once officials
realized hosting a full-sized
audience wasn’t an option.
5. Wildhorse clears out
guests after employee
tests positive for
coronavirus
Wildhorse Resort &
Casino on the Confederated
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation closed all of its
facilities when an employee
tested positive for the coro-
navirus in early March.
Guests were quickly ush-
ered off the premises as offi-
cials scrambled to address
the impending issue and
calm the rising panic.
“In an abundance of cau-
tion, Wildhorse Resort &
Casino has closed to com-
plete a thorough and deep
cleaning as a response to
reports of a presumptive pos-
itive case of COVID-19,”
said spokeswoman Mary
Liberty-Traugher that day.
Quickly, the casino’s sur-
rounding areas resembled “a
ghost town.” The employee
was attending a basket-
ball game at Weston Middle
School when they fell seri-
ously ill and required med-
ical attention. They were
transported to Providence
St. Mary Medical Center in
Walla Walla, Washington,
where they tested positive.
The case came at the
start of what has now been a
nearly 10-month pandemic,
with no clear end in sight.
6. ‘I wouldn’t put
much money on that’;
county health director
says most schools
unlikely to reopen in
2020
When schools initially
closed their doors to stu-
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Millie West gives a haircut at the Wagon Wheel Barber Shop
in Pendleton on May 15, 2020. The barbershop, which has
newly reopened, is making use of trash bags as disposable
capes until they can find an alternative.
dents in March, teachers
and administrators initially
anticipated that the break
would only be temporary, a
short period supplemented
by packets and online
learning.
But with a few excep-
tions, most local students
never returned to a tradi-
tional classroom in 2020 as
Umatilla County struggled
to keep its COVID-19 case
numbers down.
As schools were getting
ready to embark on the 2020-
21 school year in August, Joe
Fiumara, Umatilla County
Public Health director, put a
damper on schools reopen-
ing before the end of the
year, saying he wouldn’t “put
much money on that.”
The main impediment
to reopening in Umatilla
County was the area’s test-
ing numbers. To reopen, the
county needed to keep its
test positivity rate below 5%
for three successive weeks.
At the time, the county’s rate
stubbornly remained in the
double digits.
Since then, Gov. Brown
has moved the goalposts for-
ward to try to make reopen-
ing a more attainable pros-
pect. But Umatilla County
continued to fall short of the
goals.
The governor recently
announced that meeting
the metrics are no longer
required to reopen in 2021,
but school will likely con-
tinue to look different in the
new year.
7. With COVID
confirmed in Pendleton
prison, loved ones say
not enough is being
done to protect those
inside
Compared to prisons
nationally, which have suf-
fered some of the largest
COVID-19 outbreaks since
the pandemic began, it took
some time before coronavi-
rus reached the Eastern Ore-
gon Correctional Institution.
The prison announced
its first confirmed cases on
July 8, and went into quaran-
tine due to an outbreak five
days later, at which point 16
inmates and three staff had
tested positive, according to
officials.
Family members with
incarcerated loved ones, con-
fined in close quarters with
infection spreading, quickly
spoke to the East Orego-
nian about a variety of con-
cerns regarding the condi-
tions inside the prison and
what they called a failure on
the prison’s behalf to follow
CDC guidelines like wearing
a mask and social distancing.
Prison officials said in
an email that the institution
“followed the guidelines
established by the Agency
Operations Center in con-
junction with the DOC Chief
Medical Officer, Oregon
Health Authority and Cen-
ters for Disease Control and
Prevention.”
Since the pandemic
began, 452 adults in custody
Celebration:
Continued from Page A1
the virus. Less than a week
later, she died, Davis said.
Growing up near his
aunt, Davis said he would
see her nearly every day.
Her blunt, cranky and bold
demeanor is what he’ll miss
the most.
Lately, he’s been reflect-
ing on one of her favorite
quotes.
“She used to always say,
‘Be ready so you don’t have
to get ready,’” he said. “Be
prepared for whatever’s
going to come on, so you
don’t have to worry about
what’s going to come on.
And to this day, it’s kind
of like what we have to do
here. We’re ready,” no mat-
ter what the challenges the
pandemic might bring.
The highlight of Davis’
year came with the newly
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Fireworks explode over the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center in Hermiston on Friday,
Jan. 1, 2021.
completed adoption of his
2-year-old son, Landon, a
foster child. He and his wife
also foster Landon’s sister,
Lily, who turned 7 months
old on New Year’s Day.
For Josh Ruiz-Burleson,
who helped set up the fire-
works at EOTEC, his 2020
at EOCI have tested positive,
and four have died. In total,
73 staff have tested positive,
with 69 returning to work,
according to prison officials.
“These are our husbands,
our sons, our fathers, our
brothers, our uncles, our
loved ones,” said Lydia Jar-
rell, who stood outside the
prison with several other
women on July 10, protesting
the dangerous conditions of
the prison. She spoke about
her husband, who she hadn’t
seen physically in over four
months, and choked back
tears. “This is already a scary
time as it is, and we’re stuck
out here worrying about
them in there — helpless —
with nothing we can do.”
November, and in an attempt
to curb its spread, Gov.
Brown announced the state
would return to the safety
measures that were in place
in March in a “two-week
freeze.”
The freeze shuttered
gyms, limited restaurants
and bars to takeout only and
closed event venues. Gro-
cery and retail stores were
also limited to 75% capac-
ity, and social and religious
gatherings were limited,
with the threat of possi-
ble fines or arrests if peo-
ple blatantly disobeyed the
precautions.
The move quickly incited
deep concern among busi-
ness owners, who said they
would not survive another
shutdown.
In Umatilla County,
health officials said most
cases were being traced
back to large social gather-
ings — mostly parties —
that at times exceeded 50
or more people. The major-
ity of the cases were among
young people, Joe Fiumara,
the county’s public health
director, said.
Since then, almost all
Oregon counties remain in a
form of shutdown similar to
that of the freeze, as reported
cases, death and hospital-
ized continued to spike to
heights that to some were
once unimaginable. Only
now are cases slowly begin-
ning to decline on average,
but they remain significantly
higher than what was being
reported in late summer.
10. After weeks
of closures due to
COVID-19, local
businesses began
reopening their doors
The pandemic was surg-
ing across Oregon to new
record-high case counts in
In May, with coronavirus
cases seemingly under con-
trol in Umatilla County, local
businesses began to reopen
when Gov. Brown approved
the county’s approval for
entering Phase I reopening.
Businesses were slow
to reopen due to require-
ments for personal pro-
tective equipment, limited
capacity inside businesses, a
short turnaround to prepare
for reopening, and a general
feeling of uncertainty and
anxiety over how the com-
munity would react to bring-
ing things back to a relative
normal.
The first phase allowed
restaurants, bars, personal
service providers and retail-
ers to reopen with modified
accommodations specific to
each business sector.
One of the earliest local
businesses to see large gath-
erings of customers was
Wagon Wheel Barber Shop
on Southeast First Street in
Pendleton, as many residents
hadn’t had their hair cut in
months. Staff wore masks
and gloves, and helped cus-
tomers maintain social dis-
tancing. Overall, custom-
ers said they were relatively
unbothered by the restric-
tions, as they wore masks
and were asked COVID-19
screening questions.
“Life is going to be dif-
ferent now,” one man who
received a haircut that day
said. “It’s just going to be
a part of life. It’s a new
reality.”
highlight has been spend-
ing more time with his four
kids, playing board games
and sharing meals. Helping
them through online school
has been challenging, but
their neighbor, a retired
school teacher, offered to
help out, he said.
“My kids need to be in
school,” he said. “They’re
like me. They learn hands
on. I have a special-needs
child who needs more
hands-on (learning) and
one-on-one. Unfortunately,
we’re not able to get that.
And I think a lot of parents
are struggling with the same
thing.”
A mechanic for Mid
Columbia Bus Company,
Ruiz-Burleson said he
worked alongside bus driv-
ers in 2020, bringing hun-
dreds of meals to children
who typically get break-
fast and lunch at schools
in
Stanfield,
Umatilla
and Hermiston.
“We have a lot of driv-
ers who will do whatever
they need to do to get that
job done, which is awe-
some,” he said. “And being
a father of four, we do have
our struggles, but you know,
we do what we have to do to
keep them going.”
Ramsey, who helped set
up the fireworks on New
Year’s for free because he
wanted to bring a sense of
joy to his community, said
he is looking forward to
the simple things in normal
life — restaurants, bowling
alleys, working as a leader
with the Royal Rangers, a
group similar to the Boy
Scouts, he said.
“There’s hope in 2021,”
he said. “It seemed like
after February, there was no
hope. And then it seemed
like, OK, it’s a new year,
maybe let’s get some hope
and get some things open.
And we’ll see everything as
it goes.”
8. OSU study estimates
17% of Hermiston
residents were positive
for COVID-19 on July
25-26
As Hermiston’s COVID-
19 cases far outpaced the
rest of the state, Oregon State
University researchers con-
ducted door-to-door testing
for COVID-19 on July 25-26.
Based on data from 471
samples collected from 249
randomly selected house-
holds, in addition to tests on
COVID-19 levels in Herm-
iston’s wastewater, scientists
calculated that 17% of Herm-
iston residents were positive
for COVID-19 that weekend.
They also stated the
fact that the positive sam-
ples were from neighbor-
hoods across the commu-
nity showed the virus was
widespread throughout the
community.
Researchers conducting
the tests were met with more
suspicion in Hermiston than
in previous communities
where the TRACE COVID-
19 program had been con-
ducted, with a reported 66%
of residents who were con-
tacted declining to partici-
pate in the free, voluntary
tests.
9. Oregon put in
‘two-week freeze’ to
slow rapid spread of
COVID-19