A2 THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2021
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LOCAL, STATE & REGION
DESCHUTES COUNTY
CIRCULATION
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541-385-5800
COVID-19 data for Monday, Jan. 25:
Deschutes County cases: 5,212 (21 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 40 (zero new deaths)
6 a.m.-noon Tuesday-Friday
7 a.m.-noon Saturday-Sunday
and holidays
Jefferson County cases: 1,738 (zero new cases)
Jefferson County deaths: 25 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 138,587 (435 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 1,882 (2 new deaths)
GENERAL
INFORMATION
LOCAL
VACCINATIONS
14,799
Number of people
vaccinated in
Deschutes County
108 new cases
90 new cases
110
(Nov. 27)
100
90
80
70
47 new cases
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
50
(Nov. 14)
7-day
average
28 new cases
(July 16)
40
31 new cases
(Oct. 31)
30
16 new cases
(Sept. 19)
9 new cases
20
(May 20)
1st case
120
(Jan. 1)
60
541-382-1811
ONLINE
130
(Dec. 4)
What is COVID-19? It’s an infection caused by a new
coronavirus. Symptoms include fever, coughing and
shortness of breath. This virus can be fatal.
7 ways to help limit its spread: 1. Wash hands often
with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. 2. Avoid
touching your face. 3. Avoid close contact with sick
people. 4. Stay home. 5. In public, stay 6 feet from others
and wear a mask. 6. Cough into your elbow. 7. Clean and
disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.
COVID-19 patients hospitalized at St. Charles
Bend on Monday: 24 (1 in ICU)
www.bendbulletin.com
BULLETIN
GRAPHIC
129 new cases
Crook County cases: 662 (1 new case)
Crook County deaths: 13 (zero new deaths)
PHONE HOURS
SOURCES: OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY,
DESCHUTES COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES
New COVID-19 cases per day
10
(March 11)
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Shots now available for
area residents 75 and up
Bulletin staff report
R
esidents of Deschutes, Crook and
Jefferson counties age 75 and older
can now make appointments to re-
ceive their COVID-19 vaccinations at the
Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center,
starting Tuesday.
Health officials announced the surprise
availability Monday evening. According
to state vaccine eligibility guidelines, indi-
viduals in this group were expected to be
eligible for vaccines starting Feb. 14.
People in vaccine phases 1A and 1B —
Group 1, can now schedule an appoint-
ment at www.stcharleshealthcare.org or
by calling 541-699-5020. Expect to leave
a message and receive a call back, health
officials said.
“The community vaccination clinic at
the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Cen-
ter is incredibly successful,” said Dr. Jeff
Absalon, St. Charles’ chief physician ex-
ecutive, in a statement Monday night.
“Since Wednesday, St. Charles and De-
Feds reassess Klamath water obligations
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ý
Lottery results can now be found on
the second page of Sports.
schutes County have vaccinated 4,600
individuals in 1A and 1B — Group1
Phases. We’ve been able to move through
these two groups so quickly that we are
able to expand eligibility to residents 75
and older ahead of the state’s vaccination
schedule.”
Between Tuesday and Saturday this
week, St. Charles and Deschutes County
plan to administer about 10,000 more
doses, with the help of the Oregon Na-
tional Guard, according to a release from
St. Charles Health System and county
health departments.
“Our most recent allotment of Pfizer
and Moderna vaccines is going to allow
us to make a significant push to vaccinate
residents who are 75 and older, and thus
at a higher risk for hospitalization and
complications if they acquire COVID-19,
as well as to continue vaccinating Phase
1A and 1B — Group 1,” Dr. George Con-
way, Deschutes County Health Services
director, said in a statement.
BY GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
KLAMATH FALLS — The U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation has no legal right to curtail water
deliveries contracted for irrigators in the Klam-
ath Project to protect endangered fish, according
to an analysis spearheaded by outgoing Interior
Secretary David Bernhardt.
The findings, outlined in a 41-page “reassess-
ment” of Klamath Project operations under the
Endangered Species Act, could prove to be a
game-changer for basin farmers, said Paul Sim-
mons, executive director of the Klamath Water
Users Association.
“When this is carried out on the ground and
incorporated into actual operations, it should
translate into a situation where the bureau is not
imposing the same severe (water) shortages as
it has in the past under the ESA,” Simmons said.
“It is a pretty basic, fundamental and I think im-
portant change in that way.”
2020 was a painful year for the Klamath Proj-
ect, as irrigators saw their water allotment re-
duced to less than half of normal demand.
Bernhardt, the Interior secretary under for-
mer President Donald Trump, visited the basin
in July to discuss long-term water solutions after
more than 2,000 people attended a tractor con-
voy and rally, voicing farmers’ frustrations.
“He understood what the issue was,” Simmons
remembers of the meeting. “I’ll say that we had
been pushing the need for this kind of reevalua-
tion for a while.”
The bureau operates the Klamath Project,
which provides water for more than 200,000
acres of irrigated farmland in Southern Oregon
and Northern California — powering a $1.3 bil-
lion agricultural economy in Klamath, Siskiyou
and Modoc counties.
The ESA requires the bureau to consult with the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Ma-
rine Fisheries Service to ensure operations do not
harm endangered fish, namely shortnose and Lost
River suckers in Upper Klamath Lake and coho
salmon in the lower Klamath River.
The bureau’s allocation is still subject to state
and federal water law, including senior rights of
tribes in the Klamath Basin.
Nor does the guidance exempt the Klamath
Project from the ESA entirely. “Reclamation has
found that it still has duties for species protec-
tion, but those duties do not include imposing
harmful shortages on irrigation as we have seen
in the past,” Simmons said.
Simmons said he anticipates there could be
political blowback with the transition to Presi-
dent Joe Biden and his administration.
A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Reclama-
tion office in Sacramento, California, said the
agency was not prepared to comment.
Progressive groups, unions
call for Nearman’s expulsion
vestigation by the Oregon State
Police for the incident. Surveil-
Leaders and representatives
lance video showed that after
of various Oregon progressive
Nearman opened a side door
groups, the Eugene/Springfield to demonstrators, state troop-
NAACP and public employee
ers and Salem police were able
unions on Monday publicly
to push people back outside
called for the state
until one of the dem-
Legislature to expel a
onstrators deployed
Republican represen-
some type of spray
tative who let violent
against police.
far-right extremists
It’s unlikely the pri-
into the state Capitol
vate groups calling for
during a Dec. 21 spe-
lawmakers to expel
cial session.
Nearman will have
Nearman
Rep. Mike Near-
much success. Even if
man, a Republican
all House Democrats
from outside Independence,
voted to expel him, they would
opened a door to armed dem-
still need three Republicans to
onstrators who entered a Cap-
join them. The Oregon Consti-
itol vestibule and clashed with
tution allows lawmakers to ex-
police. A handful of Demo-
pel a colleague only with a two-
cratic lawmakers, including
thirds vote, which means 40
House Speaker Tina Kotek, of
votes in the 60-member House.
Portland, have already called
Democrats hold 37 seats, after
on Nearman to resign. He is
they lost a net of one House
among the subjects under in-
seat in the November election.
BY HILLARY BORRUD
The Oregonian
COVID-19 testing
OSU’s community
sampling program
comes to Redmond
Bulletin staff report
An Oregon State University
project to determine the prev-
alence of COVID-19 through
testing will come to Redmond
for three days this week.
Between Friday and Sun-
day , the university will
do TRACE community
COVID-19 sampling in Red-
mond by sending out two- or
three-person field teams to
30 neighborhoods to invite
up to 600 residents to take a
nasal swab test.
A similar testing project
happened in Bend in the
spring.
Deschutes County has so
far reported 40 COVID-19
deaths and 5,212 cases , in-
cluding more than 2,200 peo-
ple who have recovered.
Currently there are 2,849
active cases in the county, or
one per every 69 residents,
according to the university.
Redmond public works staff
will also gather multiple sew-
age samples, which researchers
will analyze for genetic mate-
rial from SARS-CoV-2, the vi-
rus that causes COVID-19.
Infected people pass de-
tectable genetic components
of the virus into the sewer
system, which gives an in-
dication as to how extensive
COVID-19 is in a community,
according to the university.
“This combined approach of
increased testing of asymptom-
atic individuals and wastewater
surveillance for COVID-19
continues to provide very help-
ful insights for our local man-
agement of this epidemic,” Dr.
George Conway, the Deschutes
County health director, said in
a statement.
Since the project began
in April, TRACE Commu-
nity sampling has happened
in Corvallis five times, in
Newport twice, and in Bend,
Hermiston and Eugene once
each.
For more information
about TRACE, visit trace.
oregonstate.edu.
LOCAL & STATE BRIEFING
Deschutes sheriff’s office seeks person who shot truck
The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s
help identifying the person who shot at a vehicle at a campsite
outside Sisters earlier this month.
The unoccupied green mid-1990s Chevrolet Tahoe was hit
multiple times while parked at a long-term camp off Forest
Road 1510 about five 5 miles west of Sisters. A person reported
the incident to the sheriff’s office around 3:40 p.m. Jan. 17.
Anyone with information is asked to call 541-693-6911.
State gives grants to protect livestock from wolves
Two Oregon ranching operations received more than $17,000
total for nonlethal means to protect their livestock from wolves.
Krebs Livestock, a company in Morrow County that uses
Union County to raise some of its sheep, will use its money to pay
for secure night pens, four fox lights, Bluetooth speakers, spot-
lights, additional herders and the removal of dead livestock. And
Eric Harlow, a Union County rancher, will pay for two additional
herders. The Oregon Department of Agriculture provides the
funds for the grants, and county commissioners award them.
— Bulletin staff and wire reports