STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Brown orders vaccine redirected to Portland
all Phase 1a individuals statewide before
Feb. 8,” she said.
The state will send second doses to
the counties ahead of schedule so they
can keep on a timeline for those who
have already received their first shots.
In a related development, the Oregon
Health Authority said it would stop issu-
ing specific information about COVID-
19 deaths in Oregon. Since March 2020,
OHA has included the the age, home
county, place of death, the date of infec-
tion, the date of death and the existence
of any underlying conditions.
Statistics on overall deaths will be
maintained, but specific case informa-
tion will no longer be made public.
OHA said the compilation of the
daily death toll information was stretch-
ing staff too thin.
Critics and the media questioned the
timing of the change, coming amid a
debate over Brown’s decision to priori-
tize teachers over the elderly. The daily
reports showed that the deaths are over-
whelmingly in the 70 and above age
range. It also comes the day before the
Oregon COVID-19 vaccination com-
mittee is expected to issue ongoing pri-
oritization for vaccines. As of Jan. 26,
the committee was discussing whether
minority communities that have seen
higher infection rates and deaths should
be specifically targeted.
Other panel members have advo-
cated to next move on to people with
medical conditions that make them vul-
nerable to severe illness or death from
COVID-19.
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
Gov. Kate Brown on Jan. 27 ordered
32,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines
redirected to the Portland area instead
of going to other parts of the state.
The move came after news reports
that health care workers in Multnomah,
Washington and Clackamas counties
were unable to be vaccinated because
of a shortage of doses.
At the same time, other counties
were inoculating groups further down
the priority list because of excess doses
on hand.
“Health care workers and Phase 1a
individuals across the state have always
been my top priority for vaccination,”
Brown said
The Portland area would receive
17,000 additional shots for health care
workers and 15,000 for teachers and
school staff.
“That’s currently about 60% of the
53,000 first doses to be sent around
the state next week, reflecting the large
number of health care workers and indi-
viduals from vulnerable populations in
the region,” Brown said
Brown did not say where the doses
would come from, but her office pro-
vided a list of 15 counties that are ahead
of schedule on inoculating priority
groups. Some of the doses will be from
a new shipment authorized by the Cen-
ters for Disease Control.
The diversion was announced soon
after news reports that Deschutes
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Rebekah Rand, director of emergency management services at Blue Mountain
Hospital District, gets a vaccine shot ready Jan. 15 at the Grant County Fair-
grounds pavilion.
County and others were inoculat-
ing senior citizens 75 year old and
up. Under the current guidelines, those
groups were to received shots as late as
Feb. 14.
The reason that the 15 counties are
ahead of schedule was not mentioned in
Brown’s statement or information from
OHA.
Grant County has moved down the
list because of an unexpectedly high
rate of eligible people declining to be
vaccinated.
Brown has made inoculating teach-
ers and school staff a higher priority than
vaccinations for those aged 65 and above
who are most likely to get seriously ill
and die from the virus.
Oregon is the only state giving prior-
ity to teachers over seniors.
Brown praised counties that had
moved more swiftly than expected
through the early priority groups.
“Other counties have done a fantas-
tic job and have finished their first round
of vaccines for Phase 1a populations,”
Brown said.
But she said the state’s priority is to
get all counties through the Phase 1a
group before a widespread move into
lower priority groups.
“We will push to give first doses to
Some unemployment benefits will end Feb. 20
By Peter Wong
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon’s declining three-
month unemployment rate will
mean the end of benefits to
some people under one federal
program.
But the acting director of the
Oregon Employment Depart-
ment said, after the program
ends Feb. 20, some of them
will be shifted onto another
federal program that will con-
tinue into the spring.
David Gerstenfeld advises
people to continue to file for
their benefits weekly.
What is ending in Oregon is
the Extended
Benefits pro-
gram, which
kicks in when
a
state’s
three-month
average
David
unemploy-
Gerstenfeld
ment rate is
higher than
6.5% but below 8%. Although
Oregon’s rate went up a notch,
from 6% in November to
6.4% in December, Gersten-
feld said the average has now
fallen below the 6.5% average
threshold.
That program added 13
weeks of federal benefits onto
regular state benefits of 26
weeks.
What is continuing in Ore-
gon is the Pandemic Emer-
gency Unemployment Com-
pensation program, which
Congress recently extended
by 11 weeks. Gerstenfeld said
some people will be moved
to this federal program when
Extended Benefits end Feb. 20.
Claimants will be paid ret-
roactively. They may face
delays because the switchover
from one program to the other
will require staff work.
Gerstenfeld said, if Ore-
gon’s average three-month
unemployment rate increases
to 6.5% or greater, the Employ-
ment Department is empow-
ered to restart the Extended
Benefits program without wait-
ing 13 weeks. Gov. Kate Brown
has approved the required
authorization in advance.
Pandemic
Emergency
Unemployment
Compensa-
tion is scheduled to end its
11-week extension after March
13. (Some benefits may be paid
through April.) President Joe
Biden has proposed to extend
that deadline to the end of the
federal budget year on Sept. 30.
That proposal is part of the $1.9
trillion economic recovery plan
that is pending in Congress.
Also part of Biden’s plan
are extensions of federal unem-
ployment benefits for self-em-
ployed and gig workers in
a program known as Pan-
demic Unemployment Assis-
tance, and continued federal
support for Work Share pro-
grams, under which partici-
pating employers pay 60% or
80% of workers’ pay and the
difference is made up through
unemployment benefits. Work
Share normally taps the state
unemployment trust fund, but
since the start of the pandemic
10 months ago, federal funds
have gone to those payments
instead.
Oregon legislative panel starts hearing policing bills
By Peter Wong
Oregon Capital Bureau
Five lawmakers on an Ore-
gon House subcommittee will
focus on the state’s policing
practices and the people who
carry them out.
They already have started
public hearings on more than
a dozen bills, some of them
overlapping, that propose var-
ious changes to Oregon laws
in the aftermath of last year’s
death of George Floyd at the
hands of a Minneapolis police
officer and the nationwide pro-
tests it triggered.
One hearing on two bills is
scheduled Monday.
The subcommittee chair is
Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Dem-
ocrat from Clackamas who
also leads the full House Judi-
ciary Committee. Her District
51 straddles Multnomah and
Clackamas counties.
Bynum, while canvass-
ing her district in 2018, was
reported as a “suspicious per-
son” to the Clackamas County
PMG file photo
Oregon legislators are considering bills about policing.
Sheriff’s Office. She is Black.
Bynum said in opening the
subcommittee’s work Jan. 25
that, while there is a need for
a strong law enforcement pres-
ence, “that is not the only way
to keep the peace.”
“I believe that our commu-
nities need some healing and
an update to our laws so that
everyone can live and breathe
freely,” she added. “That is
the perspective I am bringing
to this committee — a sense
of fairness, a sense of balance
and an opportunity to fix things
that have been neglected for
a long time — and make sure
that all of us feel safer in our
communities.”
Bynum was the House
co-leader of a joint interim
committee that produced half
a dozen bills lawmakers passed
during a special session June
24 to 26. But the committee
conceded in its final report that
more work needs to be done.
While several bills now
before the subcommittee
emerged from the interim
committee, the committee
never voted on its final report
because it was unable to meet
in person in December due to
the coronavirus pandemic. The
Legislature’s lawyers advised
lawmakers that the Oregon
Constitution and House rules
bar remote voting, unless the
governor invokes a “cata-
strophic disaster” provision
that has never been used since
voters approved it in 2012.
The two Republican mem-
bers of the subcommittee are
former police chiefs in small
communities.
Rep. Ron Noble of McMin-
nville was police chief from
2006 to 2014, and was with
Corvallis police for 18 years
before that. He also was on the
joint interim committee. Part of
his District 24 goes into Wash-
ington County.
“I am looking always to
ensure the highest profession-
alism of the people that the
Legislature asks to do their
bidding to ensure a safe soci-
ety,” Noble said in his opening
statement.
Rep. Rick Lewis of Silver-
ton was police chief from 1988
until his retirement in 2012. He
was elected mayor in 2014 and
appointed to the House seat in
2017. He also has been chief in
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By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
Gyms can reopen under
tight guidelines to control
COVID-19 infections, Gov.
Kate Brown announced Jan.
26.
The new rules for “indoor
recreation” were included
in an update of county risk
levels.
There was little move-
ment among counties from
their risk levels two weeks
ago. Nearly all of the state’s
most populous counties
were among the 26 that
remained in the extreme risk
category.
Under the four-tier
risk ratings, counties are
assigned a level based on
COVID-19 spread: lower,
moderate, high or extreme.
As the levels go up, more
health and safety mea-
sures, along with business
and activity restrictions, are
required.
Tillamook County was
the big mover, dropping
from extreme risk all the
way to lower risk. Curry
County went from moderate
to lower. Grant rose from
lower to moderate risk. All
other counties remained in
the current status.
The levels will be in
place from Friday through
Feb. 11, with the next revi-
sion announced Feb. 9
Brown said the state will
issue new guidelines allow-
ing for indoor activities that
were previously banned in
extreme risk counties.
Beginning Friday, a
maximum of six people
can be indoors at facilities
such as gyms that are over
500 square feet. The new
rules do not include indoor
dining.
Facilities smaller than
500 square feet allow for
one-to-one customer expe-
riences, such as personal
training.
All facilities must follow
guidelines on social distanc-
ing, face coverings, hygiene
and cleaning of surfaces.
The full updated guidance
has been posted to coronavi-
rus.oregon.gov.
Brown encouraged peo-
ple to exercise outdoors
whenever possible.
“The science has shown
us that outdoor activities
are safer than indoor activ-
ities when it comes to the
spread of COVID 19,” she
said.
But a recent drop in
infection rates and the
lack of a major “spike” in
COVID-19 cases over the
winter holidays allowed for
some limited indoor activ-
ity during the colder winter
months.
“We have seen over the
last several weeks that Ore-
gonians have largely com-
plied with risk levels to the
point that we have not seen
a surge in hospitalizations
that would have jeopardized
hospital capacity,” Brown
said.
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Union and Bandon, and worked
in Umatilla. Part of his District
18 goes into Clackamas County.
“I want to ensure that what
we do is workable, not only
for law enforcement, but also
addresses the concerns of our
citizens,” he said.
Lewis also sat on the interim
committee.
The other Democrats on the
subcommittee are Maxine Dex-
ter of Portland, a physician with
Kaiser Permanente — she rep-
resents District 33 in Northwest
Portland and part of Washing-
ton County — and Marty Wilde
of Eugene, a lawyer who also
has spent 25 years with the Ore-
gon National Guard, both Army
and Air, with overseas service.
All legislative panels are
taking testimony virtually or in
writing because the Capitol has
been closed to the public since
March 18, 2020, at the start of
the pandemic. They are not
expected to amend or advance
bills until the midpoint of the
session in April, when they will
start meeting in person.
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