A6
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
Health
Department:
Projections
show social
distancing can
cut infections
Models suggest
measures could cut
transmissions 50-70%
if in place into May
Contributed photo
EO Media Group/Kathy Aney
Contributed photo
David Newport does a selfie with his
youngest daughter.
Nick’ii Scott of Madagascar worked as a
tour guide on the island nation until coro-
navirus brought tourism to a standstill.
Ana Sofia Oliveira hugs her two chil-
dren while in isolation at her home in
Italy.
EO Media Group
Blue Mountain Eagle
Susan Lavender Kelley
People in other nations share their
observations of living life in a COVID-19 world
By Kathy Aney
EO Media Group
We are not alone.
In almost every other country in the world, people
are experiencing pandemic and the restrictions and
terror that come with it. The East Oregonian reached
out to individuals in Italy, France, Japan, Madagascar
and Panama to get a snapshot of what people around
the world are experiencing in a time of COVID-19.
David Newport,
Akashi, Japan
Ana Oliveira,
Ploaghe, Italy
Italians know the terror of COVID-19 even more
than most. Almost 14,000 people have died there
since the virus started rampaging the country in late
February. Funerals are prohibited and bodies go to
crematoriums. The mortality rate of 10.2 percent is
higher than elsewhere maybe owing to Italy’s large
elderly population or possibly because low rates of
testing means the real number of cases simply aren’t
known.
Ana Oliveira, an agricultural researcher who lives
in Italy, felt safe at first since she, husband Michele
Salis and their two small children live on the island of
Sardinia, giving them some separation from the rest
of the country. For a while the couple lived life as
usual, then things changed fast as the virus spread,
finally reaching Sardinia. She and Michele, a research
scientist with Italy’s National Research Council, now
work from home.
In a Facebook message, she said outside criticism
of the Italian government for reacting too slowly to
the pandemic seems unfair.
“I felt glad that the Italian government acted quite
rapidly, closing the schools and isolating the most
affected areas for quarantine,” Oliveira wrote. “How-
ever, too many people acted like this new disease was
not a matter of concern and kept their living standards
Contributed photo
Meredith Sykes and Bill Graham are hunkered down
for the duration at their stone farmhouse bed-and-
breakfast in Reuilly, France.
and priorities unchanged.”
The virus continues to spread in Sardinia and
finally arrived in their small village of Ploaghe. To
help keep people home, a group of volunteers deliv-
ers weekly grocery orders to each house for free.
“I miss going for a ride or to the sea with my fam-
ily in the weekend, I miss field working with my
team, I miss open air,” she wrote, “but I know I have
all that really counts at home. I think we can win this
war by behaving conscientiously and being respectful
of our community and our country.”
Nick’ii Scott,
Antananarivo, Madagascar
Nick’ii Scott works as a tour guide, showing tour-
ists around the island nation of Madagascar.
Scott has more time on his hands these days.
Numbers of tourists dwindled after the government
announced a suspension of all international air travel
on March 20. The country recently went into lock-
down and as of Friday, has 59 confirmed cases.
A week and a half ago, Scott started feeling ill with
a fever and checked into a quarantine center in the
capital city of Antananarivo where he lives.
“I was out of breath. I was extremely anxious
about myself and my little family,” he wrote in a
Facebook message. “It seems rather difficult for us
to get to know whether it is a simple cold or COVID
symptoms. Fortunately a cargo from China came on
the 25th of March and brought sophisticated stuff for
COVID-19 testing.”
Scott, who was allowed to leave the hospital and
spend the rest of his quarantine in a hotel, still doesn’t
know whether he actually had the virus, but feels
better.
He said Madagascar appears to be among the last
countries affected by COVID-19 and that “the first
case was detected on the 20th of March, brought by
three passengers from the same flight coming from
France on the 17th.”
Scott said he feels frustrated about about some res-
idents’ cavalier attitudes toward the virus.
“In general, some people do not really care about
it, as we can still see a bunch of people here and there,
whereas others follow the instruction to stay home,”
he wrote. “The decision was quite late for the state to
close down the airport and the border, but Malagasy
people are sometimes rather stubborn. The more they
are informed, the closer they get to the danger.”
Susan Lavender Kelley,
Alto Boquete, Panama
Susan Lavender Kelley, formerly of Pendleton,
Grant SWCD Weed Control Dept.
Working for You in 2020
Meredith Sykes and her partner Bill Graham
wait out the pandemic inside the bed-and-breakfast
they operate in Champagne, France.
“France is on total lockdown as of March 17,”
Sykes said in an email. “All must generally stay at
home; if going out we need to carry a formal state-
ment noting the necessity. Online forms have been
sent to everyone in France for this purpose.”
Sykes is an über-active octogenarian, who
walked the Camino de Santiago almost every year
until her health recently took a downward turn.
She said President Emmanuel Macron spoke
to the nation on March 16 about what needed to
be done and how the nation’s health system would
adapt. At that time, he said the lockdown would
last at least 15 days.
“We are at war,” Macron told his nation. “The
enemy is there, invisible, elusive, advancing.”
As of Friday, France had 59,105 confirmed
cases of coronavirus and 4,503 deaths.
Sykes said the country’s borders are closed
with no travel permitted except to buy food or seek
health assistance. Meredith and Bill, who are in
their 80s, are battening down. After closing their
bed-and-breakfast, they stocked their farmhouse
with food and medicine.
“We hope to go forward with courage and
strength of will towards the inevitable,” Sykes
said. “All life is chance; things are or are not. I
shall not worry about what I can’t control, but shall
hope for the best while trying to make things better.
May we all have the mental and physical strength
to persevere.”
A MAN
WAKES
UP in the
morning
after sleeping on...
an advertised bed, in advertised
pajamas.
He will bathe in an ADVERTISED TUB, shave with an ADVERTISED RAZOR,
have a breakfast of ADVERTISED JUICE, cereal and toast, toasted in an
ADVERTISED TOASTER, put on ADVERTISED CLOTHES and glance at his
ADVERTISED WATCH. He’ll ride to work in his ADVERTISED CAR, sit at an
ADVERTISED DESK and write with an ADVERTISED PEN. Yet this person
hesitates to advertise, saying that advertising doesn’t pay. Finally, when his
non-advertised business is going under, HE’LL ADVERTISE IT FOR SALE.
Then it’s too late.
AND THEY SAY ADVERTISING DOESN’T WORK?
DON’T MAKE THIS SAME MISTAKE
Advertising is an investment, not an expense. Think about it!
S177196-1
Thanks to the Grant County Court and Northeast Oregon Forests Resource
Advisory Committee, Grant Weed Control is able to offer a 25% Cost
share program for Noxious Weed Control on Private Grazing Lands,
through a Title II funded Grant Project. This program will provide a
maximum $5,000 of noxious weed control services with a $1,250 maximum
landowner contribution to qualifying participants. To be eligible for
participation, the treatment property must not be actively irrigated and
must be primarily managed for livestock grazing, minimum of 20 acres in
size, located within Grant County, and must contain priority noxious weed
species. Applications for this limited weed control assistance opportunity
will be ranked and funded according to a priority noxious weed list.
Contact the Grant Soil and Water Conservation District Office at
(541) 575-1554 or visit 721 S. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845 for
applications and additional information.
This application deadline for this program is April 10th, 2020.
Meredith Sykes,
Champagne, France
Blue Mountain Eagle
MyEagleNews.com
S181033-1
Former East Oregonian page designer David
Newport now lives in Akashi, Japan. The home he
shares with his wife and three young daughters is a
45-minute train ride from Osaka.
As a translator for the Ida Corporation, he spent the
first two weeks of the country’s coronavirus outbreak
translating closure announcements for hotels and
restaurants. He said the prime minister quickly closed
schools and asked residents to refrain from unneces-
sary outings. Japan, he said, has so far avoided the
explosive outbreaks of Italy and the U.S.
Large attractions, such as Tokyo Disneyland and
Universal Studios Japan, are shuttered. Sumo wres-
tling matches were held with no spectators.
Newport said he continued to commute to his job
for a while wearing a mask, but last week he began
teleworking.
“Various cities are also banning picnics under
the sakura cherry trees just beginning to bloom,” he
wrote in a Facebook message. “Governors are starting
to request reductions in unnecessary travel between
some prefectures (mine included).”
Newport said American friends ask why Japan
seems to be experiencing a milder outbreak.
“I can think of a few reasons. First, health care is
very convenient and easy to get here … so I think
Japan has done a good job at tracking clusters and
catching sick people early. Second, Japan has been
facing a population crisis for years due to an aging
society — the “Gray Wave” — so we tend to recog-
nize it as our duty to care for the elderly.”
People also ask him if he thinks Japan has pur-
posefully kept test numbers low to keep a good image
as the Olympics approached.
“I can’t say, but I haven’t felt like the country is
dragging its feet or working to keep things quiet,”
he said. “Nightly news is still focused on COVID-
19, and talk of more drastic measures are still taking
place. At this point, though, I can only hope we’ve
flattened the curve enough. I’d like to think we have.”
lives in the Central American country of Panama,
where coronavirus has radically changed residents’
daily lives.
“COVID-19 has reared its ugly head in Pan-
ama,” Kelley wrote in an email. “The danger of
COVID-19 has brought the country to a standstill.
Only pharmacies and grocery stores remain open
and with shortened hours.”
Kelley said the South Carolina-sized nation is
home to 4 million people, half of which live in Pan-
ama City. As of Friday, Panama had 37 coronavi-
rus deaths.
“People have been practicing social distanc-
ing,” she said. “We aren’t even doing the elbow
bump any longer. But there apparently are prob-
lems in the city with people out on the streets in
defiance of the directives.”
A nightly curfew keeps people at home between
9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Women can go out in two-hour
time slots on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to
purchase necessities. Men may venture out on
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Each person has
two slots, the times dependent on the last four num-
bers of the individual’s identification number. Out
on the street, people wear masks. The government
even sent out a directive about how to safely walk
one’s dog during the dog owner’s assigned time
slot. Dogs are to be walked inside the yard’s perim-
eter and cleaned with a moistened towel before
going back inside.
Kelley said the government has suspended
mortgage payments, electric payments and garbage
bills for those who are strapped. Crime is increas-
ing as people lose jobs and income.
“I live in a gated community with people from
several other countries and including Panama,” she
wrote. “To a minimum wage person, it appears that
we are all very wealthy. We have had two attempted
break-ins. People are starting to get desperate for
cash. Our country-wide quarantine is scheduled to
end April 8, but that can change. Laws are made
and changed here in a space of a moment.”
Kelley misses Kris who died in 2018. She keeps
sane by walking with friends while keeping their
distance, reading, quilting, watching Netflix and
talking with her four siblings by phone.
Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710
Updated projections from
health researchers show that
there is strong evidence that
measures currently in place in
all of Oregon, including Grant
County, are reducing trans-
mission, according to a Grant
County Health Department
press release citing the latest
models.
The most recent data sug-
gest that current social distanc-
ing measures could cut trans-
mission rates between 50-70%
if Oregonians maintain these
limitations on virus-spreading
interactions into early May.
If Oregonians can main-
tain current social distancing
efforts and the current projec-
tions hold true, the state could
meet the likely demand for
hospital beds under current
strategies.
According to the lat-
est report, researchers esti-
mate that Oregon has slightly
higher numbers of current
infections than previously
assessed, based on an increase
in reported cases from earlier
time points.
• COVID-19 infections:
Under current social distanc-
ing conditions with the coop-
eration of most Oregonians
to “Stay Home, Save Lives,”
it is estimated that in early
May Oregon would have over
4,000 cumulative infections
and 200-1,200 active infec-
tions. However, if the state
were to reopen non-essen-
tial businesses (while keeping
schools closed), the number of
new infections would spike to
as many as 3,500 active infec-
tions by early May.
• Hospital beds needed:
Researchers found “expected
demand for hospital beds is
predicted to remain relatively
constant before decreasing,
assuming current or strength-
ened interventions and contin-
ued high compliance.”
• Uncertainty: Research-
ers highlighted that the pro-
jections remain uncertain. In
coming weeks, state public
health officials and researchers
will get a better picture of cur-
rent actual infections and how
they affect the projections, as
well as more data on the pub-
lic’s continued adherence to
social distancing measures.
The models state health
officials released March 30
were prepared by the Institute
for Disease Modeling, based
in Washington.
Oregon’s
emergency
response continues to focus
on strengthening the health
care system’s ability to meet
the coming surge. State and
local health officials are work-
ing with hospitals and other
health care partners to mobi-
lize the health care workforce
and keep workers safe, expand
bed capacity and secure more
ventilators. However, the pub-
lic’s ability to maintain social
distancing will be the most
important factor in determin-
ing whether Oregon prevents
local hospitals from becoming
overwhelmed by COVID-19
admissions.
Dr. Dean Sidelinger, state
health officer at OHA, said,
“We know coronavirus has
brought painful disruption and
distress for Oregonians. How-
ever, these numbers tell us that
what we’re doing can work.
We know social distancing is
tough and comes with incredi-
ble sacrifices. But steps we’re
all taking to maintain social
distancing could save the lives
of people we know and people
who are important to us. As
Oregonians, we all must con-
tinue to put Stay Home, Save
Lives into practice.”
In conjunction with the
OHA and other local health
departments and hospitals, the
Grant County Health Depart-
ment and local health care pro-
viders are working together
to help protect the health and
wellbeing of the residents of
Grant County.