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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (April 15, 2020)
NEWS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2020 HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3 School districts, businesses provide internet options By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR After Oregon students got the news on Wednesday that they will be “distance learning” for the rest of the school year, students who don’t have internet access are at a disadvantage. Fortunately, for those students, internet provid- ers, cellphone carriers and school districts are stepping up to extend access. Charter is now offer- ing free Spectrum broad- band internet for 60 days to households with at least one K-12 or college student who do not already get service through Charter if they call 844-488-8395. Installation fees will be waived. The company is also opening up its Wi-Fi hotspots, which usually require a Charter customer password and username, for free public use. They can be located at www.spectrum. com/free-wifi-hotspots. html. “As the country works HH fi le photo A Spectrum service truck sits parked near the Umatilla County Courthouse last month. Spectrum is among a growing list of service providers taking extra steps to alleviate the fi nancial impact of COVID-19 closures on consumers. collaboratively to con- tain this pandemic, broad- band internet access will be increasingly essential to ensuring that people across the country are able to learn and work remotely, that businesses can continue to serve customers, and that Americans stay connected and engaged with family and friends,” the company stated. Comcast is also opening up Xfi nity Wi-Fi Network for free nationally. The net- work has several locations in Hermiston and Pendle- ton and two in Pilot Rock. People can fi nd the hotspots by downloading the Xfi n- ity app or searching for their ZIP code at https://wifi .xfi n- ity.com. For current CenturyLink customers, the company is suspending limits on data usage, waiving late fees and holding off on termi- nating service for people who are struggling to pay their bill. Eastern Oregon Tele- com recently extended Ath- ena, Weston and Adams their fi rst broadband inter- net service, and is offering customers in those areas free installation and their fi rst two months of service free. Customers who have already signed up can get two months of internet free if they refer a friend. Ser- vice can be set up by calling 541-289-7000. Pendleton Fiber Co. posted to its website that Wtechlink is waiving instal- lation fees for new cus- tomers in the next 60 days who need internet installed to participate in school or work from home, and is encouraging customers who are struggling to pay their bill because of COVID-19 to call the offi ce at 541-276- 2887 to discuss payment plans. School districts providing internet options Some school districts are also working to provide their own internet options for stu- dents, in addition to making Chromebooks available for students to check out. Umatilla School District has set up Wi-Fi hotspots in its school parking lots and in neighborhoods around the city, and in some cases pro- viding individual students with internet if they are not within walking distance of a hotspot. Pendleton School District sent a letter to parents detail- ing options for students, including Wi-Fi hotspots at Washington and McKay Creek elementary schools. Stanfi eld School District is working to procure inter- net hotspot devices that can be checked out to families in need. Families without internet access are asked to reach out to Superintendent Beth Bur- ton at 541-449-8766. Echo School District families without internet are asked to contact Super- intendent Raymon Smith at rsmith@echosd5.org. Cellphone carriers The nation’s largest cell- phone carriers have all signed a pledge to increase access during the COVID- 19 crisis, including waiv- ing late fees and not disrupt- ing service for people who contact the carrier to show they’re experiencing fi nan- cial hardship because of COVID-19. AT&T and T-mobile have both launched $15 monthly plans. T-mobile is giving current customers unlimited data and AT&T is giving current customers an addi- tional 10GB of data. Sprint is giving unlim- ited data to capped plans for the next 60 days and add- ing 20GB of hotspot data for those who have Wi-Fi hotspot capability. Through April 30, Veri- zon is adding 15GB of data, free international calling and unlimited domestic minutes to most plans. Umatilla County announces new cases of COVID-19 HERMISTON HERALD Umatilla County Pub- lic Health announced two new cases of the novel coro- navirus on Monday, bring- ing the county’s total to 16, and released a map Tuesday indicating most of the coun- ty’s cases are in the Hermis- ton area. According to a press release, both of the people diagnosed with COVID- 19 on Monday were in close contact with previ- ous confi rmed cases and are recovering from home in self-isolation. As with previous cases, the county is declining to include demographic infor- mation like city of resi- dence, age range and gender with these new announce- Centers for Disease Control Photo COVID-19 ments. However, on Tues- day, the department released a map at www.co.umatilla. or.us/health/covid_map/ showing a range of cases by zipcode. The map indicates a majority of the county’s cases are in Hermiston and Umatilla. Of the 16 reported diag- noses, the county health department says 11 are still actively sick, with the rest considered recovered com- pletely. None of the active cases are hospitalized and no one in the county has died. The Umatilla County Public Health website states that 400 tests have been conducted, of which 16 have tested positive. Morrow County now has fi ve positive cases, which the county says includes cases in both the northern and southern parts of the county. The statewide report put out by the Oregon Health Authority on Tuesday noted a total of 1,633 con- fi rmed cases in the state, and 30,730 tests that had come back negative. Fifty-fi ve people in the state have died from complications of COVID-19, and investiga- tive reporting by The Ore- gonian and other Oregon news outlets revealed last week that roughly half those deaths have happened in a handful of nursing homes. Based on the report, 56% of confi rmed cases are female, at least 49% are white (25% of patients are of unknown race), and 47% are under the age of 50. At least 17% are health care work- ers, 59% are not, and 25% are unknown. At least 23% were hospitalized during their illness, 68% were not, and 9% are unknown. The state currently has 328 of a total 751 adult intensive care unit beds available, and 85 of its 198 pediatric ICU beds open. The New York Times database of confi rmed cases nationwide showed 587,834 cases and 25,191 deaths. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the 2009 swine fl u infected 60 mil- lion Americans and killed between 8,868 and 18,306 people over the course of 12 months. Umatilla County Health director Joseph Fiumara said in a news release that the department encourages healthy individuals to con- tinue essential functions, but to avoid all non-essen- tial trips outside of home and maintain six feet of dis- tance from other people when they do go out. “To minimize the spread of COVID-19 between communities, we strongly encourage all residents to utilize essential services within the communities where they live,” he said. Employers are encour- aged to enforce social dis- tancing in the workplace, give employees time off for illness and send them home if they are ill. Anyone who knows they are sick should isolate themselves in their home until 72 hours after their symptoms subside. “Both the short-term and long-term success of containing COVID-19 in Umatilla County hinges on every single resident of Umatilla County adher- ing to the ‘Stay Home Save Lives’ order from Gover- nor Brown,” Fiumara said. “Maintain social distanc- ing, stay home unless abso- lutely necessary and help fi ght the spread with proper hand-washing and hygiene techniques.” BENEFITS OF TREE TRIMMING Clearing trees and overgrown vegetation is vital to provide safe, reliable power to our consumer-members. We clear certain areas in our service territory, known as rights of way, to: • Keep power lines clear of tree limbs • Restore power outages more quickly • Keep crews and members of our community safe • Reduce unexpected costs for repairs Hermiston Office 750 W. Elm Ave. Hermiston, OR 97838 (541) 567-6414 Boardman Office 400 N.E. Eldrige Drive Boardman, OR 97818 (541) 481-2220 www.UmatillaElectric.com Vegetation management improves service reliability for you – our members!
