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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 2020)
NEWS A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2020 Tips for keeping homes and businesses clean during COVID-19 By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR If there’s an upside to a global pandemic, it might be that everything is cleaner than usual. Greg Wilke of Mariposa Cleaning Services in Pend- leton said the businesses his service cleans are stepping up their game, sanitizing sur- faces every couple of hours and asking cleaners to come in multiple times a week. “They’re being really careful,” he said. There has been confl ict- ing research and advice on exactly how long COVID- 19 can live on various sur- faces, but it seems the virus can at minimum remain a threat for infection for sev- eral hours, and more likely several days. A combination Cases Continued from Page A1 following social distancing guidelines. According to the health department, 268 tests total have been conducted in Umatilla County. The public health depart- ment stated in its news release that the state is “still in the middle of a severe cold and fl u season” and as such, not everyone with respiratory symptoms needs to be tested. Patients can be tested at the discretion of their health care provider after other ill- nesses, such as infl uenza and pneumonia, have been ruled out, but they may also be told to just rest at home and isolate themselves if their symptoms are mild. Anyone experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, such as fever, cough or short- ness of breath, should call their primary care provider before visiting a clinic so that staff can prepare to receive them. of hand washing and sani- tizing surfaces can help pre- vent people from acciden- tally transferring the virus from a door knob to their nose or mouth. Wilke said surfaces that are touched frequently by multiple people — door han- dles, light switches, keypads — are most important to san- itize several times a day. His business cleans the less fre- quently touched areas too, however, and does detail work like vacuuming fur- nace fi lters. He has also been trying to help customers stay stocked up on cleaning sup- plies as the stores continue to run low. As people buy cleaning supplies they aren’t used to using, or substitute com- mon household items, such as bleach or vinegar when the stores run out, reading labels is an important part of using the products safely and effectively. Bleach, for example, can create danger- ous gases when mixed with cleaning products containing ammonia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives advice for proper household cleaning on its website. Best practices include wearing gloves while cleaning, wash- ing hard surfaces with soap and water fi rst to remove dirt, and then sanitizing them using an Environmental Pro- tection Agency-approved disinfectant as directed. “As directed” usually means letting the liquid sit on the surface while it does its work. Spraying a cleaner on a surface, and then immedi- ately wiping it off with a dry The Centers for Dis- ease Control and Preven- tion released guidelines last week encouraging every- one to wear a mask in pub- lic. Offi cial medical masks such as N95 masks should generally be reserved for health care providers, but homemade cloth masks and makeshift items like ban- danas can help prevent peo- ple — particularly those with no symptoms who don’t realize they are conta- gious — from spreading the virus into the air when they talk or cough. Governor Kate Brown encouraged Oregonians to follow CDC guidelines in a recent statement. “Like every other strat- egy we have used to address this crisis, wearing home- made masks will only be effective if we all work together,” she said. “Continue to stay home to the maximum extent possible, and add wear- ing a homemade mask to the list of precautions you are practicing when you go out in public. Make sure you are still abiding by all the social distancing mea- sures we have in place. And, please only wear homemade masks, not medical masks that are desperately needed by our frontline health care workers treating COVID-19 patients.” According to the Ore- gon Health Authority, the state has had a total of 1,181 known cases and 33 deaths related to COVID-19 as of Tuesday afternoon. So far 23,007 people have been tested statewide. Of the reported cases in Oregon, at least 329 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized, while 756 are not and the hospitaliza- tion status of 96 cases are unknown to the state. Six- ty-nine COVID-19 patients are on a ventilator, and the state currently has 816 ven- tilators available, according to OHA. According to a tally kept by the New York Times of each state’s reported cases, the United States had at least 395,090 confi rmed cases since Jan. 21 as of Tuesday afternoon, with at least 12,786 deaths. paper towel reduces its effec- tiveness at killing germs. Lysol wipes and Clo- rox wipes, for example, direct users to let the sur- face remain visibly wet for at least 10 seconds to sani- tize the surface, and at least four minutes to disinfect it. (The CDC considers sanitiz- ing reducing germs to a gen- erally “safe” level while dis- infecting kills all the germs on a surface). Stephen Dean is an indus- trial hygienist in Hermiston, who consults with compa- nies on the best ways to keep workers and customers safe from illnesses like COVID- 19. He said businesses should consult the guidelines put out by the Oregon Occu- pational Safety and Health (OSHA) for preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the BTW Continued from Page A1 “We wish you could have witnessed the grati- tude expressed, and smiles you brought to our staff’s faces,” the hospital wrote on Facebook. One of the hospital’s neighbors also posted a large sign thanking Good Shepherd staff for their courage in the face of a pandemic. • • • Madison Hynes, an agriculture and math teacher at Riverside Jr./Sr. High School in Boardman, received one of Eastern Oregon University’s Inspi- rational Teacher Awards. The university allows freshmen on the dean’s list to nominate a teacher who inspired them on their path, and Hynes was recognized by Joseph O’Brien. • • • The city of Umatilla has closed its public parks to help fi ght the spread of COVID-19. Parks will be Thank you to the following businesses for supporting workplace. “Those are best practices from the best hygienists in the industry,” he said. Those guidelines include recommendations, such as cleaning break rooms at least twice per day and providing sanitizing wipes for work- ers to wipe down their work- space on a regular basis. Dean said at home, peo- ple should take the same sort of precautions in fre- quently sanitizing surfaces they touch often, particularly with unwashed hands. Those areas can include things like door knobs, steering wheels, keys, cellphones and handles on sinks and showers. Peo- ple should also avoid sharing things like utensils and water bottles. If you don’t have sanitiz- ing sprays or wipes, washing closed, with the exception of the marina and area trails. City hall and the library are also closed to the public. The city has been try- ing to fi nd other ways to infuse some fun into resi- dents’ days, however, and is partnering with Uma- tilla School District to send Easter eggs home to students with their home- work packets, and to drop off eggs to residents who request them. • • • Community Coun- seling Solutions is offer- ing virtual visits and phone calls to help local residents handle the stressors of COVID-19, including vis- its with prescribers. Call 541-676-9161 or visit www.community- counselingsolutions.org to learn more. • • • Banner Bank is work- ing to help customers with current fi nancial burdens by easing some rules for cus- tomers affected by COVID- 19 shutdowns, including waiving late fees for per- sonal loans and credit cards hard surfaces with soap and water works great too. “Hand soap kills the virus,” Dean said. He said germs and aller- gens can get caught up in furnace and air conditioning fi lters, so now is a good time to change those too. If someone sneezes or coughs, those germ-laden droplets often settle onto the fl oor, where other peo- ple can step on them. Dean said people should be tak- ing their shoes off before entering their home where possible to avoid tracking germs into the house. They should also change clothes when they get home from public places like the gro- cery store. “You don’t want to wear the same clothes at home as you do in public,” he said. and offering payment defer- ral options for individual customers and businesses. For more information, contact Banner Bank at 541-567-2291. • • • Pendleton Cattle Bar- ons Weekend, set for May 1-2 at the Pendleton Con- vention Center and Pend- leton Round-Up Grounds, has been canceled due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. “We are deeply saddened over the need to postpone this premier event,” said Andy VanderPlaat, presi- dent of the board of direc- tors, “but we are optimis- tic that our decision will be a small step in helping our nation recover quickly.” Cattle Barons Week- end expressed their thanks to sponsors, vendors, par- ticipants and spectators in bearing with them as all possible options were considered. Pendleton Cattle Bar- on’s Weekend can be fol- lowed at https://www.cat- tlebarons.net/ on Facebook and Instagram. AN AMAZING GIFT FOR AN AMAZING Newspapers in Education Their generous support of the Hermiston Herald NIE program helps provide copies of the newspaper and unlimited access to HermistonHerald.com and the e-Edition to schools throughout the community. 1090 W. Hermiston Ave. Hermiston, OR 541-567-8229 JeremyJLarsonDMD.com 1739 N. First St. Hermiston, OR 541-564-0264 OldWestFCU.org Delgado’s Beauty Salon & Medical Massage 1150 W. Hartley Ave. #D Hermiston, OR 97838 541-571-3629 541-567-3908 $44.95 plus shipping offer expires May 10, 2020 Hardcover book • $10 off • Limited supply Bert's Auto Salvage & Towing DuPont Pioneer Hermiston 541-567-1860 pioneer.com Starvation Ridge Farming 750 W. 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