A2 THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, APRIL 8, 2021
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LOCAL, STATE & REGION
DESCHUTES COUNTY
Deschutes County cases: 6,535 (32 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 72 (1 new death)
Crook County cases: 824 (1 new case)
Crook County deaths: 19 (zero new deaths)
Jefferson County cases: 2,025 (1 new case)
Jefferson County deaths: 32 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 168,128 (481 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 2,434 (7 new deaths)
130
(Dec. 4)
What is COVID-19? It’s an infection caused by a new coronavirus.
Symptoms (including fever, coughing and shortness of breath)
can be severe. While some cases are mild, the disease can be fatal.
108 new cases
(Jan. 1)
120
7-day
average
90
new
cases
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 cloth face covering or mask.
6. Cover a cough or sneeze with a tissue or cough into your elbow.
7. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.
(Nov. 27)
110
*No data
available on
Jan. 31
due to state
computer
maintenence
90
80
50
new
cases
70
60
47 new cases
50
(Nov. 14)
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
100
(Feb. 17)
COVID-19 patients hospitalized at
St. Charles Bend on Wednesday: 4 (1 in ICU)
ONLINE
BULLETIN
GRAPHIC
129 new cases
COVID-19 data for Wednesday, April 7:
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
www.bendbulletin.com
SOURCES: OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY,
DESCHUTES COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES
New COVID-19 cases per day
10
(March 11)
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Oregon, citing limited resources, won’t
approve virus exposure notification app
NEWSROOM FAX
BY ANDREW THEEN
The Oregonian
541-385-5804
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Suite 200
Bend, OR 97702
Mailing ........... P.O. Box 6020
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B
ADMINISTRATION
Publisher
Heidi Wright ..............................541-383-0341
Editor
Gerry O’Brien .............................541-633-2166
Oregon said Tuesday it won’t approve
widely adopted technology that would
allow smartphone users to be noti-
fied if they are potentially exposed to
COVID-19, saying the health authority
has “all available resources” assigned to
vaccine management.
The announcement ended sus-
pense over a project first announced
six months ago but repeatedly delayed,
with limited explanation. Oregon is one
of just four states along or west of the
Continental Divide that hasn’t adopted
the technology.
The state for months had said it was
studying the program’s efficacy after a
pilot project at Oregon State University,
but officials were initially unable to pro-
duce documentation of their analysis.
In a news release Tuesday, the health
authority said it “decided to pause the
ongoing planning” for the application
to “focus on vaccinations and other pri-
ority efforts to end the COVID-19 pan-
demic.”
Officials wrote that discussions with
public health departments and other
community groups highlighted the
benefits and costs of the notification
app.
But they opted not to move forward,
citing “the intensive efforts state and
local health officials would need to un-
dertake to promote the app and address
likely gaps in its adoption across Ore-
gon’s diverse communities, as well as
the added contact tracing demands full
adoption would place on county public
health staff.”
After announcing it would “pause”
its plans Tuesday, the state did provide a
two-page document to The Oregonian
in response to a public records request.
“The OSU pilot was not able to col-
lect data to either prove or disprove
its effectiveness for Oregon citizens,”
the undated document reads, adding:
“Given current resource constraints and
the focus on the vaccination effort, the
recommendation is to discontinue the
effort at this time.”
Nearly 12,500 students and staff at
Oregon State downloaded or activated
the exposure notification system, which
the state said was a 20% adoption rate
out of 40,000 people.
But it’s unclear if that rate is reflective
of the situation, as the university reported
enrollment of only 23,000 at its Corvallis
campus this fall – and some portion of
those students were learning remotely.
In fact, there were no instances where
a student or staff member received a
notification for potential COVID-19
exposure because there were a “rela-
tively small number of people on cam-
pus,” and “relatively few cases detected
on campus” during the pilot because
“most students were taking classes on-
line,” according to the two-page report.
What’s more, none of the known
cases at Oregon State University in-
volved a person who had enabled the
notification app to alert others.
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Lottery results can now be found on
the second page of Sports.
Tax credit expansion to boost families
in Oregon, where child care is pricey
BY COREY BUCHANAN
Oregon Capital Bureau
Anita Sawaneh, a mother
who runs Sierra Leone Child
Care out of her home in Mil-
waukie, supervised 20 kids a day
before the pandemic. Now, that
number has dwindled to two.
Though she loves her
job, bills and stresses have
mounted.
So, along with helping pay
overdue utility bills, Sawaneh
said the increased child tax
credit passed through the
American Rescue Plan will
provide her and the kids with
small sources of joy — like
occasionally going out for ice
cream or buying a new toy.
“It’s been hard on them this
last year, so I’m just trying to
find a way to celebrate the little
stuff,” she said.
Framed by The New York
Times as having “the makings
of a policy revolution,” the new
child tax credit will increase the
amount of money families with
children under the age of 6 re-
ceive from $2,000 to $3,600 per
child and to $3,000 per child
above age 6. It also expands
the reach of the credit to those
who earn little-to-no income by
making the credit fully refund-
able. The provisions are set to
expire at the end of 2025, but
advocates are hoping for them
to become permanent.
For now, according to the
Oregon Center for Public
Policy, the new credit will lift
about 40,000 people above the
poverty line in the state while
92,000 people will move closer
to the poverty line. Previously,
low income families with low-
to-no tax burden could not
receive the credit, and the pub-
lic policy center indicates that
292,000 Oregonians will bene-
fit from this provision.
“I certainly think the most
groundbreaking aspect of this
change is the elimination of the
income requirement to have ac-
cess to the credit. By doing that
is to say that all children regard-
less of their income, we are in-
vesting in as a community and
not picking and choosing who is
worthy of it and who is not de-
serving,” said Janet Bauer, a pol-
icy analyst for the Oregon Cen-
ter for Public Policy. “I think the
exclusion of the lowest income
households, or partial exclusion,
was probably the most regres-
sive and problematic aspect of
the child tax credit.”
40,000
Number of people in
Oregon who will be lifted
above the poverty line
because of changes to the
federal child tax credit,
according to the Oregon
Center for Public Policy,
based in Portland.
123RF
Bauer also liked that the pol-
icy provides a monthly pay-
ment to families rather than a
lump sum.
“That can better help support
the day-to-day budget of house-
holds,” she said. “I think that in-
novation is really important.”
Andrea Paluso, the execu-
tive director of Family Forward
Oregon, believes the tax credit
changes are a good start but
still insufficient — particularly
compared with the generous
direct payments some other af-
fluent countries provide.
“The U.S. is really behind
other rich nations in the way it
has prioritized and invested in
real family support structures,”
she said.
Paluso noted that child care
costs exceed what most fami-
lies can afford and that every
county in the state is consid-
ered to be a child care desert
for young children.
“Oregon has historically
been rated one of the least af-
fordable states for child care,”
Paluso said.
She added that women are
often forced to quit their jobs
due to child care responsibili-
ties and they have also dispro-
portionately borne the brunt
of pandemic job losses. Paluso
also pointed out that families
merely inching above the pov-
erty line doesn’t mean they can
afford things like housing and
transportation in the Portland
metro area, let alone child care.
She surmised that instead, most
families will use the money to
pay for basic necessities.
“For an infant and toddler,
you’re talking about maybe on
average $12,000 a year (for child
care). Is a $3,600 credit going to
cover the cost of that? No, but it
may help,” Paluso said.
She added: “Families need
more income. People with kids
need more money to afford
many things: housing, food, dia-
pers. And we also need to build
a child care system that’s more
universal and publicly funded.”
James Hieb, the director at
Building Blocks Early Learning
Center in Wilsonville, noted
that many low income parents
qualify for child care subsidies
from the Department of Hu-
man Services. Families with
incomes below 185% of the
federal poverty level can qual-
ify, and the caretaker must be
employed and need child care
to remain employed.
“As far as child tax credit,
it’s not going to really impact
low-income families (in terms
of child care) because they are
already receiving state-spon-
sored child care,” he said.
LOCAL BRIEFING
Former Hydro Flask CEO delivering this year’s
virtual commencement address for OSU-Cascades
The former CEO of famed Bend company Hydro Flask, Scott
Allan, will give the commencement address at Oregon State
University-Cascades’ virtual graduation cere-
mony this year.
Allan, a Bend resident, planned to give the
address at last year’s OSU-Cascades com-
mencement before its cancellation due to
COVID-19, according to a university press
release. This year’s virtual ceremony will be
held at 9 a.m. on June 13.
During Allan’s tenure, Hydro Flask do-
Allan
nated $250,000 to OSU-Cascades in 2016,
which helped the university create its outdoor products bache-
lor’s degree program, the release stated.
Prescribed burns planned in Deschutes forest
U.S. Forest Service staff plan to start two prescribed burns
Thursday in the Deschutes National Forest.
The prescribed burns will take place about 6 miles west of
Pine Mountain and 17 miles southeast of Bend near the junc-
tion of Forest roads 18 and 1825.
The burns will cover about 400 acres, according to the For-
est Service. Ignitions of the fires are expected to occur from
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, but could continue through Friday.
Smoke and residual burning will be visible in the area for
up to a week. Residents near the Pine Mountain area may see
smoke in the morning.
Off-highway vehicle trails 12 and 28 will be temporarily
closed during the burns.
— Bulletin staff reports
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