A2 THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 2021
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GENERAL
INFORMATION
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
DESCHUTES COUNTY
COVID-19 data for Tuesday, April 27:
Deschutes County cases: 7,756 (80 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 73 (zero new deaths)
Crook County cases: 957 (9 new cases)
Crook County deaths: 19 (zero new deaths)
Jefferson County cases: 2,100 (3 new cases)
Jefferson County deaths: 32 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 182,040 (740 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 2,488 (2 new deaths)
COVID-19 patients hospitalized
at St. Charles Bend on Tuesday: 28 (6 in ICU)
130
(Dec. 4)
108 new cases
(Jan. 1)
90
new
cases
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
6 feet from others and wear a face covering or mask.
5. Cover a sneeze with a tissue or cough into your elbow.
6. Clean frequently touched objects and surfaces.
120
7-day
average
103 new cases
(April 23)
110
100
(Nov. 27)
90
74 new cases
80
(April 10)
50
new
cases
70
60
(Feb. 17)
47 new cases
50
(Nov. 14)
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
(Oct. 31)
16 new cases
(July 16)
40
*State data
unavailable
for Jan. 31
31 new cases
28 new cases
30
(Sept. 19)
9 new cases
ONLINE
BULLETIN
GRAPHIC
129 new cases
What is COVID-19? A disease caused by a coronavirus.
Symptoms (including fever and shortness of breath) can
be severe, even fatal, though some cases are mild.
541-382-1811
www.bendbulletin.com
SOURCES: OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY,
DESCHUTES COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES
New COVID-19 cases per day
20
(May 20)
1st case
10
(March 11)
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Vaccine demand drops in Umatilla county
the Umatilla Indian Reserva-
tion, and information about
those doses goes to the federal
government before making its
way to the state. Others have
received the vaccine from the
VA hospital in Walla Walla,
Washington, which also takes
longer to show up in the OHA
database.
What public health offi-
cials do know is that the vac-
cination rate so far is nowhere
near the point needed to stop
transmission of COVID-19 , as
evidenced by Umatilla Coun-
ty’s rising cases and hospital-
izations. Umatilla County was
placed on a two-week warning
period after passing the 100
cases per 100,000 people over a
14-day period mark that would
put it back into high risk. OHA
reported 114 cases total for
Umatilla County over the past
two weeks, all but guaranteeing
the county will return to high
risk in another week.
The county did get some
BY JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
As Umatilla County is likely
headed back into the “high
risk” category for COVID-19,
the county is turning away vac-
cine allocations from the state
because supply has outpaced
demand.
Umatilla County Public
Health Director Joe Fiumara
said the county told the state it
could send last week’s allocation
for Umatilla County to a county
with higher demand and will
likely do so again this week.
“Our demand level is drop-
ping dramatically,” he said.
Fiumara said Umatilla
County Public Health has
about 6,000 vaccine doses on
hand, but is hearing from part-
ners in the county that they
don’t need more doses yet. Last
week, the county itself admin-
istered fewer than 500 doses
total, and most of those were
second doses. At some points
during their most recent free
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian file
Susan Hilliard, right, receives her second dose of the Moderna vaccine
during a drive-thru clinic operated by the Umatilla County Public Health
Department in Pendleton in March.
clinic, Fiumara said, staff were
just sitting and waiting around
for anyone to arrive — a stark
difference from the long lines
a few weeks ago. According to
the Oregon Health Authority ,
Umatilla County is the least
vaccinated county in the state,
with 19% of its population
fully vaccinated (versus 27%
statewide) and 23% partially
vaccinated. The OHA vaccine
dashboard shows an incom-
plete picture, however. Some
Umatilla County residents have
been vaccinated through fed-
eral vaccine allocations directly
to the Confederated Tribes of
good news over the weekend
— Oregon counties were once
again cleared to begin admin-
istering the Johnson & Johnson
version of the vaccine.
The vaccine was paused tem-
porarily in the United States
after six women out of nearly 7
million people vaccinated expe-
rienced dangerous blood clots.
Since then, panels of experts
at the state and federal level
has determined the benefits of
continuing with the vaccine far
outweigh the risks. Fiumara
pointed out that many over-
the-counter medications sold in
grocery stores have higher risks
of serious side effects.
“It’s still, relatively speaking, a
very safe vaccine,” he said.
Before the pause, he said, the
county heard from many Uma-
tilla County workers, partic-
ularly in agriculture and food
processing, that they would
only take the Johnson & John-
son vaccine, because it only re-
quires one dose.
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OREGON LEGISLATURE | ON THE MOVE
Out-of-state drivers Bill aims to help forewarn police
may no longer need of deaf driver during traffic stops
knowledge test
BY ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
BY CHRIS LEHMAN
The Oregonian
People who move to Oregon
from another state would not
have to demonstrate knowl-
edge of their new state’s traffic
laws in order to get a driver’s li-
cense under a bill on its way to
the governor’s desk after final
Senate passage Monday.
It’s part of an effort to help
the Oregon DMV clear out a
backlog of paperwork that’s the
result of measures the agency
took last year to slow the
spread of COVID-19 among
its customers and employees.
The DMV said it adminis-
ters about 100,000 such tests a
year, and waiving the require-
ment would free up appoint-
ment slots at its field offices.
Currently, an appointment is
required to conduct in-person
business at the DMV.
Eight states, including Or-
egon, require someone with
a valid out-of-state license to
take a knowledge test to trans-
fer their licenses, according to
testimony from DMV Admin-
istrator Amy Joyce.
House Bill 2137 would also
extend a grace period for driv-
ers with expired licenses or ve-
hicle registrations. It would al-
low the use of such documents
for up to six months after the
expiration date.
The current grace period
for expired documents ends
Friday. The bill would extend
it through the end of 2021.
The reason for the extension
is DMV’s ongoing struggle to
catch up with its backlog.
That only solves part of the
problem, said Sen. Lynn Find-
ley, R-Vale, who represents a
district that borders Idaho.
“This bill should have been
amended to reimburse Oregon
residents who receive a citation
for expired credentials when
traveling in other states,” said
Findley, who said it’s happened
to his constituents when they’ve
ventured across the state line.
SALEM — A deaf driver is
pulled over by the police. The
officer approaches the car.
The driver doesn’t respond
to commands. The situation
escalates, sometimes with fa-
tal results. It’s something deaf
people worry about.
“They are scared to com-
municate with law enforce-
ment officers because they are
worried they would be shot
in case they ‘act’ as if they are
not listening to the police offi-
cers’ instructions,” said Steven
Brown, vice president of Ore-
gon Association of the Deaf.
The Oregon Senate unan-
imously passed a bill Mon-
day to keep such situations
patio
world
from developing. It was ear-
lier passed by the House, also
unanimously. It allows a per-
son who is deaf or hard of
hearing to have that noted on
their vehicle’s registration and
on their driver’s license.
“The intent behind the mea-
sure is to provide law enforce-
ment with this information be-
fore they come in contact with
an individual who is deaf or
hard of hearing,” Lindsay Baker,
assistant director of the Oregon
Department of Transportation,
testified in support of the bill.
If Gov. Kate Brown signs
the bill into law, law enforce-
ment officers would be able
to learn — before walking up
to the vehicle — that a driver
is deaf as they run the license
plate through their database.
The action by Oregon law-
makers comes amid height-
ened awareness in the nation
of how interactions with po-
lice can go horribly wrong. In
2016, a North Carolina state
trooper shot Daniel Harris,
who was deaf, to death after
an attempted traffic stop.
David Barovian, of Hills-
boro, is deaf. He told lawmak-
ers having a notation about
his deafness will make him
feel safer.
“This would help a po-
lice officer or an emergency
person know that I cannot
hear them,” Barovian said. “It
would make me feel less wor-
ried if I were stopped by a po-
lice officer for any reason.”
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