SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A5
LOCAL & STATE
Round-Up source of new COVID-19 spike
By BRYCE DOLE and
GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
Gov. Kate Brown said Tuesday,
Sept. 28 that she was “gravely
concerned” about an alarming spike
in COVID-19 cases across Eastern
Oregon with a common factor — the
Pendleton Round-Up.
During a morning press call,
Brown and state health officials
gave an upbeat update on the state’s
efforts against the highly contagious
delta variant of COVID-19.
Statewide, the COVID-19 surge
of late summer and early fall “ap-
pears to have reached its peak,” said
Deputy State Epidemiologist Dr.
Tom Jeanne.
Brown hailed the state’s efforts in
curbing new infections and hospi-
talizations as the state appeared to
descend from a two-month spike in
cases that set new pandemic records
in Oregon.
It was only during a question
and answer period at the end of the
presentation that the Pendleton
Round-Up spike was addressed as a
sour point in the state’s progress.
The East Oregonian newspaper
was the first to report Monday, Sept.
27 that the spike in COVID-19 cases
in Umatilla County had been tied by
local health officials to the annual
rodeo event held Sept. 15-18.
The East Oregonian reported
Tuesday that at least 68 COVID-19
cases have been traced back to the
event and all its venues, up from
49 Monday. Health officials across
Eastern Oregon reported spikes in
new cases, as did some in eastern
Washington and Idaho.
“That was a very large outdoor
event,” Jeanne said of the Round-
Up. “And there may not have been
great compliance with masking
there. We do expect to see some
impact on cases from that, but it’s
still too early to know the full extent
of that.”
When pressed for her level of
alarm amid the outbreak, Brown
said first and foremost that she did
not attend the Pendleton Round-Up
because she was concerned about
community spread.
Brown said she was well aware
of the regional case spike “as a result
of the Pendleton Round-Up,” but she
still said “it’s a little early,” noting
that the Round-Up only ended a few
weeks ago.
But the state’s own numbers,
along with those from federal and
non-government groups, painted a
darker picture.
There were at least 506 COVID-
related deaths in Oregon during
September, which surpasses the
January 2021 total of 476, making it
the deadliest month of the pandemic
in the state.
Oregon’s Hospital Capacity Web
System (HOSCAP), which tracks
availability of hospital beds in the
state, reported Monday that only 6 of
89 staffed adult Intensive Care Unit
beds located east of the Cascades
were available.
The Pendleton Round-Up was
canceled in 2020 amid COVID-19
concerns, but plans moved forward in
early summer as Brown had dropped
many restrictions on activities when
COVID-19 cases appeared to bottom
out at the end of June.
The event went off as scheduled
despite a steep wave of cases linked
to the highly contagious delta variant
that swept across Oregon and filled
state hospitals to capacity.
It’s still too early to say if cases
foreshadow a new spike statewide
and health officials are watch-
ing closely for that possibility,
Jeanne said.
Brown did not voice any regret in
not overriding local officials’ deci-
sion to go ahead with the event. The
Round-Up brought tens of thousands
of people into an area with high
infection rates and where just 51% of
eligible adults were vaccinated. Many
of the visitors came from areas in
neighboring states where vaccination
rates were also low.
Brown said the state had pressed
officials across Oregon to encourage
safety protocols like mask man-
dates. She pointed to other states
where people are gathering en
masse without a mandate.
“If you watch an Ohio football
game in Ohio, those stadiums filled
with 100,000 people, there is hardly
a mask there,” Brown said. “That is
very different here in Oregon.”
Prior to the mid-September event
in Pendleton, Brown had said it was
up to local officials to ensure the
safety of the crowd. As for those who
attended, she said they should mask
up, follow social distancing guide-
lines, but otherwise “let ‘er buck,” the
Round-Up’s slogan.
But masks were few and far
between throughout the Round-
Up, even though organizers were
offering thousands of them and had
posted signs encouraging masking
and distancing.
Umatilla County Public Health
Director Joe Fiumara has said the
number of COVID-19 cases tied to
the Round-Up is an undercount,
as many people who have tested
positive, and are aware of others
who have, are not cooperating with
health officials. The reported cases
include people who had COVID-19
symptoms prior to the event and
yet still chose to come, officials
have said.
“When so many people come
together in one location, it is
inevitable,” Umatilla County Com-
missioner George Murdock said
in an email. “The same thing has
happened each time restrictions in
Oregon have been lifted.”
No county or state officials
voiced any interest publicly in
stopping the Pendleton Round-Up
from happening.
Until this past week, COVID-19
cases had declined statewide for three
consecutive weeks.
But state officials acknowledged
in the press conference that cases
had flat-lined over the previous week.
They cited the Pendleton Round-Up
outbreak specifically as one of several
factors contributing to this trend.
Last week, Umatilla County re-
ported 505 new COVID-19 cases, the
county’s second-highest total since
the pandemic started.
On Tuesday, the county’s average
daily cases reached a new pandemic
high, topping its previous record
set in August, a month when more
county residents died with COVID-19
than any other month — 22.
But public health directors in
Umatilla County and the Umatilla
Indian Reservation have voiced
alarm in recent days about the
speed with which the outbreak has
unfolded.
Umatilla County officials have
said they are preparing for the
surge to continue for several weeks.
In response, tribal officials quickly
reinstated pandemic restrictions that
hearken back to those from the pan-
demic’s early stages, including limited
social gatherings.
Brown said she was “very, very
concerned,” adding that rural com-
munities generally have less access to
health care than counties in Western
Oregon.
“Honestly, I’m very concerned
about the capacity of health care
workers themselves,” Brown said.
“They have been working day in and
day out for the last several weeks
providing incredibly valuable patient
care, life-saving care. And to have an
additional surge on top of it is incred-
ibly frustrating, I’m sure, for them
after they have worked so hard.”
In August, Brown announced
a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for
teachers and health care workers
with an Oct. 18 deadline, citing the
alarming rise in cases driven by the
delta variant.
Besides Wheeler County, more
than a quarter of health care workers
in every Eastern Oregon county are
unvaccinated, according to state data.
All would be fired or forced to resign
under Brown’s current mandate.
Last week, Umatilla County’s
public health officer, Dr. Jon Hitzman,
said if a COVID-19 surge were to
follow the Pendleton Round-Up, its
peak would occur right around the
mandate’s deadline, placing a greater
strain on hospitals that are already
short-staffed.
In the press conference, Brown
said she was “pushing forward on our
vaccine requirement for health care
workers because we have a really
stark choice right now: a vaccinated
workforce that can continue to work
through our COVID surges like the
one we’re likely to see again from the
Pendleton Round-Up, or an unvac-
cinated workforce that’s depleted by
quarantines and illness.”
Much of the briefing was taken up
with mostly upbeat news of overall
drop of statewide cases, approval of
booster shots for some Pfizer vaccine
recipients, and the usual requests for
continued voluntary masking and
social distancing.
The rising numbers in Umatilla
County led the independent pandem-
ic monitoring group COVID Act Now
to raise the county’s risk rating to its
highest level: Extreme.
Since first appearing in Wuhan,
China at the very end of 2019,
COVID-19 has infected 232.6 million
people worldwide and killed 4.76 mil-
lion, according to the Johns Hopkins
Coronavirus Resource Center. In the
United States, 43.2 million cases have
been reported and 692,058 have died.
Bryce Dole is a reporter with the
East Oregonian. Gary A. Warner is
a statehouse reporter for the Oregon
Capital Bureau.
SCIENCE
students could “paint a happy little tree.”
(She even played soft music and wore a
wig to emulate Bob Ross, painter and host of
Continued from A1
“The Joy of Painting” that aired on PBS.)
A station with horseshoes and corn-
Then the students took up nets to catch
some specimens in the nearby meadow
hole games spurred laughter that echoed
(and warm up in the sunshine).
through the forest, and Smith lead groups
Bob Hassmiller from the Forest Service on a “Neature Walk” — “Because nature is
neat,” Sullivan said with a grin — as they
presented on Tuesday for the science
gathered photos of trees, insects and animal
field trips. He talked about the water-
shed, streams, snow load, and impacts on prints for the scavenger hunt.
And Sullivan threw in an extra challenge
the ecosystem.
At other stops, Christy Johnson from the to that task.
“Try to get a photobomb with Mr. Smith,”
Forest Service talked about forest health,
and Kati Stuchlik supplied watercolor paints she whispered to the kids before they set off
at the “Bob Ross Watercolor Station” so the on their mission.
DAY CARE
Continued from A1
“We’ve had a lot of interest
with infants and toddlers, so
that’s the age classroom that
we’ll fill up first,” Shukle said.
“The buildings are in, they’re
beautiful, we have equipment,
we’re getting our playground
worked on as we speak and
we are just charging away.”
About 16 people will
be working at the center,
Shukle said.
The center is a coopera-
tive venture involving the
Baker 5J School District,
which operates the Baker
Early Learning Center, and
the YMCA.
Other partners and
contributors include Saint
Alphonsus Medical Center-
Baker, St. Luke’s, and Wilson
Cattle Company, Shukle said.
The project has also received
many other financial contri-
butions, she said.
Fred Warner Jr., interim
director for the YMCA, wrote
in a report that Baker County
is considered a child care
“desert,” meaning there are
more than three children for
every certified child care slot.
The most acute need, he said,
is for infants and children up
to 30 months old.
“The lack of child care in
our community has led to
working mothers and fathers
leaving the work force or not
able to look for work because
of lack of reliable, safe and
affordable child care,” Warner
wrote. “Businesses in our
county are unable to attract
new workers and retain
current employees because of
family child care issues. Chil-
dren will benefit from quality
programs that will prepare
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Evan Rexroad, left, and Makea Robb check their net to see if they caught any bugs
during a science field trip to Phillips Park on Wednesday, Sept. 29.
SWAT
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald
The new center is located
in two modular buildings.
them to learn and the schools
will benefit from students
that are ready to learn.”
The center’s tentative
operating hours will be from
7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Warner
wrote. He said the YMCA
will work with the Oregon
Employment Related Day
Care program to make the
cost affordable to parents.
Parents who are interest-
ed in the new center can learn
more by visiting the YMCA at
3715 Pocahontas Road, or by
calling 541-523-9622.
away from his home, a couple
hundred yards away, Ash said.
Rex also told police about
Continued from A1
the missing gun, which Ash
said prompted the call to the
Ash said Rex noticed the
Northeast Oregon Regional
pickup parked in his drive-
way. When he went inside his SWAT team, which has mem-
home he saw that items had bers from the Baker County
been moved. Rex also went
Sheriff’s Office, Baker City
outside and noticed items,
Police Department, Union
including acetylene tanks, had County Sheriff’s Office and La
also been moved.
Grande Police Department.
He also realized that a gun
The SWAT team was acti-
was missing from inside the
vated at about 4:30 p.m.
house.
The team searched the
Ash said Rex, who was
area between Atwood Road
armed with a gun, called
and Interstate 84. A tracking
police to report the burglary.
dog followed a scent trail to
While Rex was on the phone, the freeway, according to the
he told the dispatcher that
Baker County Sheriff’s Office.
he saw a person running
Ash said officers from
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his office, Baker City Police,
Oregon State Police and the
U.S. Forest Service set up a
perimeter while the SWAT
teamed searched an area
that includes multiple ponds,
ditches, dense brush and scat-
tered vehicles.
The Baker County Road
Department and Baker Air-
craft also assisted.
Ash said that during the
investigation, police found, in
the pickup truck parked in
Rex’s driveway, the gun that
Rex said was missing.
Sheriff’s deputies con-
tinued to patrol the area
through the night, after the
SWAT team ended its search,
Ash said.