A2 THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, MAY 1, 2021
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GENERAL
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LOCAL, STATE & REGION
DESCHUTES COUNTY
COVID-19 data for Friday, April 30:
Deschutes County cases: 8,029 (81 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 73 (zero new deaths)
Crook County cases: 988 (11 new cases)
Crook County deaths: 20 (1 new death)
Jefferson County cases: 2,130 (12 new cases)
Jefferson County deaths: 32 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 184, 812 (990 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 2,495 (4 new deaths)
COVID-19 patients hospitalized
at St. Charles Bend on Friday: 31 (6 in ICU)
EMAIL
120
(Jan. 1)
7-day
average
90
new
cases
103 new cases
(April 23)
100
90
74 new cases
80
(April 10)
50
new
cases
70
60
(Feb. 17)
50
(Nov. 14)
(July 16)
40
*State data
unavailable
for Jan. 31
31 new cases
(Oct. 31)
16 new cases
30
(Sept. 19)
20
(May 20)
1st case
10
(March 11)
March 2020
110
(Nov. 27)
47 new cases
9 new cases
bulletin@bendbulletin.com
130
(Dec. 4)
108 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.
28 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.
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
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January 2021
February
March
April
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Memory care
outbreak grows
to 15 cases
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BY BENNETT HALL
The Albany Democrat-Herald
B
ADMINISTRATION
Publisher
Heidi Wright ..............................541-383-0341
Editor
Gerry O’Brien .............................541-633-2166
Tom Kogut/USFS
A northern spotted owl in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest of Washington state. The species is at the
center of ongoing lawsuits.
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Bend, OR 97708
Phone ......................................... 541-617-7829
U.S. will look to overturn
spotted owl habitat rollbacks
BY GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
The Biden administration
announced Thursday it in-
tends to revise or withdraw
a Trump-era rule that would
roll back 3.4 million acres of
federally protected “critical
habitat” for the northern spot-
ted owl.
It is the latest twist in the
battle over the small, for-
est-dwelling owl, with envi-
ronmental and timber inter-
ests lobbing lawsuits on both
sides.
Days before leaving office
in January, Trump’s Interior
Department reduced critical
habitat for the spotted owl by
roughly one-third in Oregon,
Washington and California.
The rule was supposed to be
implemented in March, but
was delayed by the new ad-
ministration until April 30
pending further review.
Now, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service says it will
block the rule until Dec. 15
while it prepares a revision or
withdrawal.
The northern spotted owl
was listed as threatened under
the Endangered Species Act
in 1990.
Initially, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Services set aside 6.9
million acres of critical habitat
where the birds nest.
A new management plan
for the species in 2012 in-
creased protected habitat to
9.5 million acres. The Ameri-
can Forest Resource Council,
a regional timber trade group,
led a lawsuit against the ex-
pansion, arguing it wrongfully
restricted logging in more
than 1 million acres of land
where the owls do not live.
Nick Smith, resource coun-
cil spokesman, said the group
strongly supports the January
2021 rule “because it provides
an opportunity for agencies to
address the real threats to the
species,” including large wild-
fires and the barred owl.
The American Forest Re-
source Council and Associ-
ation of O&C Counties is al-
ready suing the government
over delaying habitat roll-
backs.
The effort to overturn the
rule has also drawn condem-
nation from several Western
Republicans, including Ore-
gon Rep. Cliff Bentz.
“It is shameful that the
Biden administration would
rather kowtow to radical envi-
ronmental groups than follow
the science and the law,” Bentz
said in a statement.
Nine environmental groups
filed their own lawsuit in
March seeking to overturn the
Trump administration’s spot-
ted owl rule. Ryan Shannon,
staff attorney at the Center
for Biological Diversity, one
of the plaintiffs, described the
habitat reduction as “inaccu-
rate, sloppy and illegal.”
CORRECTIONS
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stories are accurate. If you know of an
error in a story, call us at 541-383-0367.
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prior approval.
Lottery results can now be found on
the second page of Sports.
COVID-19 outbreak leads to
closure of Wallowa High School
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa High School
closed Thursday after sev-
eral COVID-19 cases were
confirmed at the school, and
the superintendent expects
it to remain closed for two
weeks.
In a Facebook post Thurs-
day morning, Superintendent
Tammy Jones said six individ-
uals have tested positive for
COVID-19 — two Wednes-
day night, and four others
earlier in the week. In a post
Tuesday evening that first
outlined the outbreak, the dis-
trict said that it did not plan
to close.
That plan changed Thurs-
day morning.
“We are working closely
with our local and state health
authority to respond to this
news and protect the health
of our community,” Jones
wrote in the Thursday morn-
ing post.
“We are rapidly putting
the contact tracing logs to-
gether and providing them
to local health officials for
contact tracing. Given the
timing and the numbers of
contacts that local health of-
ficials will needing to con-
tact, we are immediately
closing our high school.”
The Facebook post Tues-
day evening linked the out-
break to a community prom,
which the post said was not a
school -sponsored activity.
A COVID-19 outbreak at a
Corvallis care facility for de-
mentia patients continues to
grow, according to the latest
information from the Oregon
Health Authority.
As of Sunday, there were 15
cases associated with Willa-
mette Springs Memory Care,
according to a weekly update
released on Wednesday by
OHA. That number was up
two from the previous week.
Outbreaks at congregate care
facilities can involve residents,
staff, members of their house-
holds or other close contacts.
Since the start of the coro-
navirus pandemic, congregate
care facilities have accounted
for 1,318 COVID-related
deaths, more than half the
state’s fatalities from the dis-
ease, and a total of 14,071
cases.
The area’s largest current
workplace outbreak, connected
with the Target Distribution
Center in Albany, grew by one
case to a total of 23, OHA re-
ported in its weekly update.
Workplace outbreaks can
include employees of a particu-
lar company, members of their
households and other close
contacts. At present, the two
largest workplace outbreaks
in Oregon are at state prisons:
Two Rivers Correctional In-
stitution in Umatilla, with 767
cases, and Snake River Correc-
tional Institution in Ontario,
which has 633 infections.
To date, 20,811 cases of
COVID-19 and 111 deaths
from the disease have been
connected with workplace
outbreaks. OHA does not list
COVID-related deaths by spe-
cific workplace, saying that
information would violate pa-
tient privacy.
LOCAL BRIEFING
Police set forum to discuss
body cams with the public
The Bend Police Department
will host an online public fo-
rum to discuss the issue of body
cameras Thursday evening.
The Zoom webinar will be
held from 6 to 7 p.m. Register
at bit.ly/bbcamerazoom.
The event will be lives-
treamed on YouTube.
The Bend City Council re-
cently approved a $1 million
expenditure to equip all offi-
cers with body-worn cameras.
At the forum, members of the
Bend Police command staff
will field questions about the
new technology and how it will
affect operations, according to
Bend Lt. Juli McConkey.
A Spanish-speaking depart-
ment employee will interpret
on a separate channel.
City of Bend offices to
close their doors to public
The city of Bend will close
its doors again to the public,
canceling in-person customer
services.
Because of an increase in
COVID-19 cases in Deschutes
County, several departments,
including utility billing, mu-
nicipal court, the permit cen-
ter and the police department
lobby will be closed for at least
three weeks.
The earliest the city offices
could open is May 24.
— Bulletin staff reports
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