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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2020)
A16 NEWS Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, April 1, 2020 The Eagle/Steven Mitchell Huffman’s Select Market Manager Rebecca Camarena helps a customer load her car. Normal Continued from Page A1 Huffman’s manager, Rebecca Camarena said the store’s supplier said people tend to hoard necessities like toilet paper to maintain a sense of control during uncertain times. Huffman said Prairie City is dense with senior citizens, a vulnerable pop- ulation susceptible to con- tracting the virus. At Chester’s, Manager Deziree Chobo said their provider has been one to two days behind on mak- ing deliveries, but unlike Huffman’s Market, they are not limiting customers on the quantities of items like toilet paper that they can purchase. Chobo said one week after a meeting with local government and Virus Continued from Page A1 Some hospitals are storing used masks in bags or bins until the coronavirus no longer is considered viable and then reusing the masks. Irene Hunt of Springfield said she and other home- care workers have not Rebecca Camarena Deziree Chobo Robert Hunt Bill Wyllie health care officials at Blue Mountain Hospi- tal, they have not been able to catch up with the run on products like toilet paper, hand sanitizer and flour. Chobo, who lives with a family member with a compromised immune system, said the rule at home is to wash hands and change clothes when she gets home from work. At Len’s Drug, owner Greg Armstrong said, so far, every one of his staff is staying healthy, and for that he is grateful. Armstrong said the Subway store next door, which he owns, and Len’s are down roughly $2,000 in sales. Armstrong said he attri- butes the dip in sales at the pharmacy to health care providers limiting routine patient appointments. Armstrong said he is seeing an uptick in over- the-counter respiratory drugs, and so far, he has not had to allocate the amount that he can sell to each customer at one time. He said he continues to hope we see less cases in the future. Empty shelves at Chester’s Thriftway on Tuesday. been provided with masks, gowns or other protective equipment. Neither can they find them in stores to buy on their own. They also worry about running out of gloves. She has used a home- made mask, provided by her church, in an attempt to protect both herself and her clients. Worried about becoming infected, she has sent her daughter to tempo- rarily live with a relative. A Fred Meyer worker in Salem said many cus- tomers violate social dis- tancing requirements and don’t cover their coughs or sneezes. Rick Miller, head of the Avamere group of nurs- ing homes and other care facilities, said his employ- ees have resorted to using bandanas as face masks and wearing ponchos or over- size men’s shirts as gowns. Sen. Jeff Merkley noted that Oregon has quickly gone from averaging 10 new cases a day to over 60. On Monday, the Oregon Health Authority reported 58 new cases and three more deaths, bringing the state’s death toll to 16. The three patients who died Hospital Continued from Page A1 She said the number of test- ing kits can change by the day, depending on the usage and what gets shipped out to the nursing homes. Lindsay said that Community Counseling Solutions operates the Rural Health Clinic, which has tests and PPE. She said the health department does not do the lab work itself. “We just receive positive results,” she said. Rebekah Rand, director of Emergency Medical Services at BMH, said the hospital is inven- torying its supply of PPE. Rand said the worldwide shortage of PPE has put a strain on health care workers, but recently the Little Canyon Food Cart donated boxes of gloves and community member Phillip Wirth donated N95 masks. Rand said anyone looking to donate gloves or masks could reach her at 541-575-4159. Also, anyone interested in helping pro- duce masks can email Sylvia Ross at sross@bluemountain- hospital.org. BMH CEO Derek Daly said, in preparation of getting more COVID-19 cases, the hospi- tal has set up a tent in the Emer- gency Department parking lot. “The tent will be used as an extension of the Emergency Room to triage patients having respiratory symptoms from those seeking other medical needs,” said Daly. Daly said the tent also allows the hospital staff to practice drills if there is an influx of emergency room patients. Daly said the hospital, classi- fied as a critical access hospital, is mandated to have 25 beds or less available. “Typically, we have five or six patients in house daily,” Daly said. Daly said, over the last week, the hospital and the emergency room had seen less than regular averages in the emergency room. “People seem to be hearing the messaging going out and about,” he said. “When in doubt, stay home.” Something About Mary The Eagle/Steven Mitchell Sunday were men in their 80s and 90s with underly- ing medical conditions. Gov. Brown said Oregon has received 25% to 40% of the PPE requested from the federal government. Phelps, the director of the Office of Emergency Man- agement, said in a video press conference later Mon- day that the state was buy- ing all the PPE it can find. That included 135,000 N95 masks and 300,000 surgi- cal masks being processed this week for distribution around Oregon. Hundreds of thousands more will be needed. “We’re expecting this pandemic to last for a very long time,” he said. “We’re in the first mile of what’s going to be a marathon.” The Eagle/Steven Mitchell A greeter is prepared at the Emergency Room entrance at the Blue Mountain Hospital. TOM CHRISTENSEN CHRISTENSEN TOM House Sitter CONSTRUCTION Specializing in ranches, animals and house care. (541) 410-0557 • (541) 575-0192 Debbie Ausmus 245 South Canyon Blvd. John Day, OR 97845 OPEN WED. & THUR. 9 am - 5 pm 541-575-1113 CCB# 106077 24 hrs/7 days wk Mary Pruitt: 503-505-2725 marypruitt2010@gmail.com S176762-1 REMODELS • NEW CONSTRUCTION • POLE BUILDINGS CONCRETE EXCAVATION • SHEET ROCK • SIDING ROOFING • FENCES • DECKS • TELESCOPING FORKLIFT SERVICES S181008-1 debbie.ausmus@ countryfinancial.com S181016-1
