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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 2021)
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $1.50 MONDAY • March 29, 2021 Update: COVID-19’s global impact Where vaccines haven’t reached, PANDEMIC KEEPS SPREADING DEATH People evacuate from fire in Bend Bulletin staff report BY TODD GILLESPIE Bloomberg News I f you’re living in Israel, the United States or the United Kingdom, where vaccination programs are rolling out with remarkable speed, glimpses of a post-pandemic future are starting to appear: Schools have mostly reopened, family gatherings are being planned and Oded Balilty/AP file People wearing face masks wait to receive their shots at a COVID-19 vaccination center in Jerusalem in January. Israel has had among the world’s best vaccination rates. summer vacations may be just over the horizon. Vaccinations in the U.S. » Full page on A10 But move away from this handful of rich countries, and a darker reality emerges: The virus is still rampaging around most of the planet, and uneven vaccine distribution poses a major public risk as variants emerge. Since mid-March, COVID-19 deaths have started trending upward again world- wide even as the numbers im- proved in the U.S. and U.K., according to Johns Hopkins University data. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ad- hanom Ghebreyesus recently said that the unequal supply of vaccines “is not just a moral outrage, it is also economically and epidemiologically self de- feating.” In Oregon STATE OF THE JABS Prevalence of infections: About 3.5% of COVID-19 tests performed came back positive, the state reported Sunday. Vaccines: Oregon reported 28,722 newly administered doses, which includes 16,680 on Saturday and the remainder from previous days. Wash. Mont. Ore. N.H. N.D. Idaho Vt. Minn. Wyo. S.D. Wis. N.Y. Mich. Nev. Neb. Utah Calif. Iowa Pa. Ill. Colo. Kan. Ohio Ind. Mo. Ky. Ariz. Since it began: Oregon has reported almost 164,000 confirmed or presumed infections and 2,375 deaths, among the lowest per capita numbers in the nation. To date, the state has reported over 4.1 million lab reports from tests. See Spread / A3 N.M. Okla. N.C. Tenn. Ark. S.C. Ga. Miss. Ala. Alaska Texas W. Va. Va. La. Hawaii Fla. The three types of vacc now being used in the ines U.S. ... Pfizer- BioNTech Moderna Maine By Charles Apple | THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW Have you had your jab yet? Your Fauci ouchie? Your first or secon d dose of corona- virus vaccine? If not, don’t worry too much: Officials have bought more doses and are getting better at spread ing them around the country. President Joe Biden has set a goal of making every adult in the People in each state count ry eligible for a jab by who have received the first of May and havin at least one dose g enough for every Amer ican by the end of May. Here’ s a look at the three vaccin More 25% Less es than to being used now and a coupl than 30% e 30% 25% more that may be on the way. As of March 26 Mass. R.I. Conn. N.J. Del. Md. D.C. Johnson & Johnson ... and the two that are still under considera tion Astra- Zeneca Novavax Daily virus chart on A2 Source: The Oregonian Official name BNT162b2 mRNA-1273 The Oregon county at ‘extreme’ longer than any other BY ZACK DEMARS The World (Coos Bay) I ndoor dining and recreation in Coos County will remain closed for two more weeks as the community enters its 10th week in the extreme-risk cate- gory. With nearby Douglas County moving out of the extreme-risk category in the past week, Coos County has now been in the state’s highest tier of pandemic restrictions longer than any other county in the state. The state’s latest slate of re- striction categories were an- nounced by Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday, and they show a marked difference between the southern Oregon Coast and ev- ery other corner of the state. Most of the state’s higher-pop- ulation counties are in less-re- strictive categories due to their lower rates of virus spread in the community, such as Eugene’s Fires driven by extreme winds Sunday afternoon forced evacuations in the De- schutes River Woods neighborhood in southwest Bend and in a rural area just west of Bend, near Shevlin Park. Level 3 (go now) evacuations were in place for all addresses west of Johnson Road from Bull Springs Road to Kuhlman Road, according to Bend Fire & Rescue. All homes on on the east side of Johnson Road were on Level 1 (be ready) evacuation no- tice. Traffic was being diverted, and Tyler Road was being shut down, according to the fire agency. Around 3:42 p.m. Sunday, Bend Fire & Rescue crews were dispatched to a brush fire in the 60000 block of Cinder Butte Road in Deschutes River Woods. The fire had rekindled from a burn pile that was lit Saturday and spread quickly, driven by high winds. Structures on Cinder Butte and Apache Road were threatened and fire burned across four lots, burning de- bris, vehicles and out buildings but no homes. Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies evacuated homes on Cinder Butte Road and Apache Road, according to Bend Fire & Rescue. The Bulletin file Downtown Coos Bay several years ago. Among the largest population centers on the Oregon Coast, Coos Bay is a destination for tourists, which poses a challenge for county health officials. Lane County in the lower-risk category and the Portland metro area’s Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties in the moderate-risk category. Joining Coos County in the extreme-risk category this week is Curry County, which will have to shutter indoor dining and some other businesses start- ing Friday after two months in less-restrictive categories. That county’s seen its case rates inch up over the past sev- eral weeks, and is now reporting the second-highest test positiv- ity rate in the state. It’s second only to Coos County, which has maintained high case rates but is now beginning to see some dis- tant signs of a decline. “I’m cautiously optimistic that the county is moving in the right direction,” said Coos Health & Wellness Assistant Di- rector Dr. Eric Gleason. “Will we be in a place where we’re open in three weeks? I can’t say. Because we still have quite a ways to go from there.” Coos County’s two-week case rate Tuesday was at its lowest point this month — 316 cases per 100,000 in population be- tween March 7 and 20 — but remained well over the thresh- old for the extreme-risk desig- nation, and remained the state’s second-highest rate. The county’s test positiv- ity rate, at 10%, has remained steady through the month. See Coos / A3 Census delay scrambles redistricting, from Oregon to Texas BY DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press Stymied by delayed census data needed for redistricting, some states are consid- ering postponing their 2022 primaries or turning to other population estimates to start the once-a-decade task of redrawing voting districts used for U.S. House and state legislative elections. The U.S. Census Bureau was supposed to provide redistricting data to the states by March 31, but after setbacks from the pandemic, it won’t be ready until mid- to late August and might not be available in an easy-to-use format until Sept. 30. That’s later than the legal deadlines to complete redistricting in some states and could mean less time for court challenges, candidate fil- ing and ballot creation. The delay has sent states scrambling to adapt. Some face the decision to sidestep their constitutional deadlines or draw stop- gap maps that might not fully reflect popu- lation shifts in the past decade. “States that have done the exact same thing for decades in a row now have to look for alternatives,” said Wendy Under- hill, director of elections and redistricting at the National Conference of State Legis- latures. In many states, redistricting is done by lawmakers subject to a gubernatorial veto. A growing number will use independent or bipartisan commissions, but Republi- cans will have ultimate control over redis- tricting in more than twice as many states as Democrats. Political control allows of- ficials to draw districts that make it easier for their candidates to win future elec- tions — something Republicans did more effectively than Democrats after the 2010 census. TODAY’S WEATHER Cooler, some sun High 44, Low 24 Page A4 INDEX Comics Dear Abby Horoscope A7-8 A4 A4 Kid Scoop Local/State Nation A9 A2 A10 Puzzles Sports Weather A8 A5-6 A4 The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper We use recycled newsprint Monday E-Edition, 10 pages, 1 section DAILY See Redistricting / A3 U|xaIICGHy02329lz[
