A2 THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, MAY 29, 2021
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GENERAL
INFORMATION
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
DESCHUTES COUNTY
COVID-19 data for Friday, May 28:
Deschutes County cases: 9,604 (40 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 79 (zero new deaths)
Crook County cases: 1,197 (2 new cases)
Crook County deaths: 22 (zero new deaths)
Jefferson County cases: 2,298 (9 new cases)
Jefferson County deaths: 38 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 200,632 (433 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 2,665 (5 new deaths)
COVID-19 patients hospitalized at
St. Charles Bend on Friday: 36 (4 in ICU)
New COVID-19 cases per day
129 new cases
(May 8)
103 new cases
(April 23)
120
110
100
(Nov. 27)
90
74 new cases
80
(April 10)
50
new
cases
70
60
50
(Nov. 14)
(Oct. 31)
16 new cases
(July 16)
40
*State data
unavailable
for Jan. 31
31 new cases
30
(Sept. 19)
9 new cases
EMAIL
7-day
average
(Feb. 17)
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
bulletin@bendbulletin.com
90
new
cases
130
115 new
cases
47 new cases
28 new cases
ONLINE
(April 29)
108 new cases
(Jan. 1)
BULLETIN
GRAPHIC
125 new cases
(Dec. 4)
Vaccines are available.
Find a list of vaccination
sites and other information
about the COVID-19
vaccines online:
centraloregoncovidvaccine.com
If you have questions, call
541-382-4321.
541-382-1811
www.bendbulletin.com
SOURCES: OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY,
DESCHUTES COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES
20
(May 20)
1st case
10
(March 11)
March 2020
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December January 2021 February
March
April
May
AFTER HOURS
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Coronavirus in Oregon
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B
ADMINISTRATION
6 cases of India variant found in state
BY AIMEE GREEN
The Oregonian
The Oregon Health Author-
ity has identified the first six
cases of B.1.617 — the highly
transmissible COVID-19 vari-
ant that has devastated India
this spring — within Oregon’s
borders.
Public health officials first
reported two cases of one
of the variant’s subtypes —
B.1.617.2 — on May 12, fol-
lowed by two more cases May
19 and another two cases
Wednesday. Health authority
spokesman Tim Heider said
Wednesday that at least one of
the cases was detected in some-
one who’d traveled internation-
ally recently.
Scientists are worried about
B.1.617 and its subtypes be-
cause they suspect it’s largely
responsible for propelling
India to the highest weekly
case and death counts in the
world in recent weeks. One
study found it might be up to
50% more contagious than
the B.1.1.7 variant, which is
thought to be up to 50% more
contagious than the strain
that had dominated cases in
the United States until March,
when B.1.1.7 took over.
Oregon officials say B.1.1.7
is partially responsible for Ore-
gon’s fourth surge of coronavi-
rus cases in March and April.
But B.1.617 only makes up
less than 1.5% of cases in the
U.S. as of early May, according
to the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention. Mean-
while, B.1.1.7 comprises an
estimated 70% of cases nation-
wide and 60% in Oregon.
Oregon and the nation,
however, are only identifying a
small portion of variants cur-
rently circulating among the
population because individ-
ual states analyze so few posi-
tive test samples. Oregon does
far better than most — ana-
lyzing close to 4% of positive
COVID-19 samples for vari-
ants, placing it seventh in the
nation. It’s still likely, though,
that there have been more than
six cases of B.1.617 in Oregon
because the vast majority of
samples aren’t analyzed.
There is one bit of good
news in all of this: A study of
the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
by British public health offi-
cials found the vaccine to be
88% effective at preventing
symptomatic disease caused
by B.1.617 in fully vaccinated
people. About 40% of the U.S.
population is fully vaccinated,
compared to 3% in India.
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Heidi Wright ..............................541-383-0341
Editor
Gerry O’Brien .............................541-633-2166
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CORRECTIONS
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OTHER SERVICES
National Guard asked
to help staff Oregon
State Hospital
Associated Press
SALEM — Significant
staffing shortages at the Ore-
gon State Hospital prompted
health officials to call for the
National Guard’s assistance at
the psychiatric facility.
Oregon Public Broadcast-
ing reports the state’s health
authority, which oversees the
hospital, requested 30 nurses
from the National Guard.
The governor’s office has
not reached a decision on
whether to fill that request.
“We need your help,” Or-
egon Health Authority Di-
rector Patrick Allen wrote on
Tuesday to state employees.
“OHA has exhausted all other
staffing options for the hospi-
tal’s Salem Campus, and our
circumstances are dire.”
Officials say the hospital,
which employs 1,800 people
and has more than 600 pa-
tients, is full and temporarily
stopped new admissions.
The hospital treats some
of the state’s most vulnerable:
those found guilty except for
insanity, civil commitment
patients and those ordered to
the hospital by a judge on aid
and assist orders.
The staffing crisis at the
hospital has persisted on and
off throughout the pandemic.
But the number of staff out
on coronavirus-related leave
has increased dramatically
since February.
Hospital Superintendent
Dolly Matteucci told state
lawmakers on earlier this
“We need your help. OHA
has exhausted all other
staffing options for the
hospital’s Salem Campus,
and our circumstances are
dire.”
— Patrick Allen, Oregon Health
Authority director
month that nearly 700 em-
ployees had taken some form
of COVID-19 leave and
From February to March
there was a 45% increase in
direct-care staff taking leave.
Matteucci told hospital
supervisors they would be
required to work weekend
shifts on patient units starting
this weekend and continuing
through July 4.
“Just last week, we had
approximately 33% of
our Nursing staff out on
COVID-related leave,” Mat-
teucci wrote to staff.
In his plea to state employ-
ees, Allen wrote the hospital
especially needs state em-
ployees with nursing experi-
ence or familiarity with be-
havioral health.
“However, anyone who
has good people skills is en-
couraged to volunteer for an
emergency assignment,” he
said. “The need is great, and
any assistance you can pro-
vide will better enable (state
hospital) staff to do their most
critical work — patient care.”
T RINITY E PISCOPAL
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Lottery results can now be found on
the second page of Sports.
Love God,
Love Your Neighbor,
Love Yourself
Worship online @ trinitybend.org
Meal schedule @ familykitchen.org
LOCAL BRIEFING
County’s proposed budget
includes road projects,
$38M in federal money
More road and transporta-
tion projects, as well as mil-
lions of dollars in federal
funding, are helping to push
up Deschutes County’s new
proposed budget for the next
fiscal year 23% over last year’s
budget.
The total proposed bud-
get, including service districts
for rural fire districts and the
sheriff’s office, is $634,746,104,
according to the county’s
budget summary. This is up
$118,678,174 from last year’s
budget.
The increase is largely
driven by the county receiv-
ing $38 million in American
Rescue Plan Act funding from
the federal government for
COVID-19 relief and $41 mil-
lion in capital investments, ac-
Find it all
online
bendbulletin.com
cording to the summary.
The county also received $7
million more than expected in
transient room tax from hotel
lodging, given that most pro-
jections anticipated it would be
down due to COVID-19.
Some highlights include
$29.6 million on road projects
like reconstructing Hunnell
Road from Loco Road to Tum-
alo Road and funding the con-
struction of a roundabout at
U.S. Highway 20, Cook Avenue
and O.B. Riley Road, according
to the budget.
About $14.5 million is pro-
posed to modernize the Negus
Transfer Station in Redmond,
and another $5 million is allo-
cated to expand Knott Landfill.
The County’s Budget Com-
mittee will review the proposed
budget during the week of June
1. A full schedule is available
online at www.deschutes.org/
meetings.
— Bulletin staff report