A8
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Only four new COVID-19 cases reported in the last week
Statewide, 14,500
vaccines have been
administered
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant County reported just
four COVID-19 cases since
last Wednesday, accord-
ing to the county’s health
department. The county will
remain in the lower-risk
level, which allows the most
activities.
As of Dec. 28, the Oregon
Health Authority reported
that in Grant County’s Region
7, shared with Deschutes,
Harney, Klamath, Jefferson,
Lake and Wheeler counties,
54 COVID-19 patients are
being hospitalized.
According to OHA’s
report, 12 of those people
were in intensive care units
while seven were on ven-
Eagle file photo
Grant County Health Department staff prepare for people to pull up to curbside testing at the fairgrounds.
tilators. Four staffed ICU
beds are available while 79
non-ICU hospital beds are
available.
At St. Charles Hospi-
tal in Bend, 29 COVID-19
patients are being hospital-
ized as of Dec. 28. Eight of
the COVID-19 patients are
in the ICU, and five are on
ventilators.
St. Charles reported
that, as of Dec. 28, they had
administered 1,050 Pfizer-Bi-
oNTech vaccines.
Statewide, 14,524 vac-
cines have been given. In
neighboring Baker County,
OHA reports that 64 peo-
ple have received the vac-
cine while Malheur County
has vaccinated 95 people as
of Monday.
On Monday, there were
1,416 new and presumptive
cases reported in the state,
and nearly 110,000 total pos-
itive COVID-19 cases since
the beginning of the pan-
demic, according to OHA.
State health officials
reported five deaths Sunday
and no deaths on Dec. 26.
According to the Centers
for Disease Control and Pre-
vention, the total number of
cases nationwide since Jan.
21 is just over 19 million
— up by roughly 145,000
infections.
EOMG file photo
Gov. Kate Brown announced new rules for opening schools
last week.
Gov. Brown changes
course with
re-opening of schools
Previous directives
optional if schools
take safety
precautions
By Teresa Carson
Oregon Capital Bureau
Eagle file photo
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, answers questions from Grant County community members during a town hall in 2019 at Prairie City
School.
Wyden: Stimulus bill funds broadband,
assistance for farmers, ranchers
Telehealth and
unemployment
benefits also included
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Rural Americans will see
benefits from the recent
stimulus bill.
The bill includes broad-
band funding and support
for low-income families as
well as telehealth funding
and assistance for farmers
and ranchers, U.S. Sen. Ron
Wyden, D-Oregon, said in a
conference call with report-
ers Dec. 21.
Wyden said the the broad-
band section of the stim-
ulus package includes $7
billion to help fund broad-
band internet access. This
would also help provide $50
a month to low-income fam-
ilies to help pay for inter-
net services, which Wyden
wrote into the package.
“We’ve got a lot of kids
trying to learn with less than
stellar connectivity,” Wyden
said.
Wyden said the bill
includes a provision, which
he wrote with Sen. Chuck
Grassley, to provide assis-
tance to farmers and ranch-
ers. Principally, $13 billion
in funding will be provided
for
agriculture
assis-
tance, and expenses paid
with the paycheck protec-
tion program loans will be
tax-deductible.
“The farmers will be able
to buy food and feed and
electricity and help ranchers
who suffered losses during
the pandemic,” Wyden said.
“... The ag provisions, I
think, are very important.”
Wyden said the stimu-
lus bill also includes money
focused on telehealth. He
also said it’s important that
people can see a doctor
whether it be in person or
not.
“I think we all know you
can’t have rural life with-
out rural health care, so it is
a quality of life issue, par-
ticularly with folks who are
elderly,” Wyden said.
Wishing you the Peace and Joy of the
Christmas Season. Best wishes for 2021 from
your friends at Eastern Oregon Realty.
The stimulus bill passed
on Dec. 20 includes a $600
stimulus check and $300 in
enhanced unemployment ben-
efits. However, Wyden said
what he worked on previously
was a package that was twice
this size.
Wyden said in the spring,
he wrote the law that pro-
vided four months of extra
unemployment insurance, an
extra $600 each week, for four
months.
“In Oregon, you might
make $350, $375 on unem-
ployment...” Wyden said.
“Get the extra $300, that’s
$675. Maybe you get the stim-
ulus check. It’s pretty hard for
a family of four to get by on
that.”
Gov. Kate Brown abruptly
announced new rules for
school re-openings Dec. 23,
making former directives
optional and allowing dis-
tricts to open if they follow
safety precautions.
In a letter to health and
education agencies, she said
“effective Jan. 1, 2021, Ore-
gon’s COVID-19 Health
Metrics for Returning to
In-Person Instruction will
become advisory rather than
mandatory. Moving for-
ward, the decision to resume
in-person instruction must be
made locally, district by dis-
trict, school by school.”
In an effort to tamp down
the COVID-19 pandemic,
most Oregon schools have
been closed since mid-March
and students have been learn-
ing remotely in their homes.
Many parents and students
had become increasingly frus-
trated with the situation and
the calls for reopening schools
had become more strident as
the months wore on.
The situation was com-
plicated by resistance from
some
teachers
unions.
Some teachers are at high
risk for COVID-19 or have
high-risk people in their
households.
Schools had been closed
and the parameters for
re-opening were complicated
and changed several times.
They also were more strin-
gent in Oregon than most
other states.
The Dec. 23 announce-
ment was made as school
districts were out on winter
break and most administra-
tors were not available for
comment.
The announcement said
the goal of the new policy
is “putting more school dis-
tricts on track to return stu-
dents to in-person instruction
especially elementary stu-
dents, by Feb. 15.”
The Oregon Education
Association
immediately
issued a statement slamming
Brown’s announcement.
“Today’s decision by
Gov. Brown will only result
in an increasingly disparate
patchwork of return plans
throughout the state’s public
education system — creat-
ing uncertainty in a moment
when clarity has never been
more crucial,” the association
wrote.
THE JUNIPER ARTS COUNCIL / GRANT
COUNTY CULTURAL COALITION IS SEEKING
GRANT PROPOSALS FOR OREGON
CULTURAL TRUST GRANT AWARDS
The coalition has $7,000 from the Oregon Cultural
Trust to distribute in Grant County to organizations
for projects relating to culture and / or heritage.
Applications are available from Karin Barntish,
131 W. Main Street, John Day, Oregon, or call
Kris Beal at (541)932-4892 for more information
or an application.
Grant applications will be accepted until
January 8, 2021 5 P.M.
Jerry, Michal, Lindsey,
Traci, Deann, and Jo
S220860-1
S216735-1