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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 2020)
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2020 HermistonHerald.com EasternOregonMarketplace.com HOLIDAY FREEZE Restaurants move back to takeout only as of Nov. 18 By JADE MCDOWELL and ALEX CASTLE STAFF WRITERS TRACKING COVID-19 This week was déjà vu for Hermiston restaurants as they trotted out the same signs and Facebook posts they have used multiple times this year. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the notices state, the restaurant is returning to takeout only. This time it’s not just Umatilla County being put in a timeout to curb rapidly rising COVID-19 cases. The entire state of Ore- gon is being put on a “two-week freeze” from Wednesday, Nov. 18, to Wednesday, Dec. 2. Gov. Kate Brown said some coun- ties may be frozen longer if their cases are still going up at the end of the two weeks. During that time, restaurants and bars must close their dining areas and offer delivery or take- out only. Gyms and other fi tness facil- ities, indoor and outdoor recre- ation facilities and event venues are closed entirely. Grocery stores must limit capacity to 75% of the shop- pers they are usually allowed. Churches and other faith-based organizations are limited to gath- erings of 25 people indoors or 50 outdoors. Everyone is asked to work from home to the greatest extent possible. And all social gatherings involving more than one house- hold are limited to no more than six people from no more than two households — including Thanks- giving gatherings. Luz Escalante, of Ixtapa Mexi- can Restaurant in Hermiston, said closing their dining area is hard on the business, but they will fol- County, state and federal health departments provide daily updates on COVID-19 data to the public. On a county level, information about COVID-19 cases, hospi- talizations, demographics, ZIP codes and the “epi-curve” that tracks the onset of symptoms can be found for Umatilla, Morrow, Union, Baker and Mal- heur counties on the Regional COVID-19 Dashboard at co.uma- tilla.or.us/health/COVID_Re- gion9_Dashboard. On a state level, the Oregon Health Authority has set up a website tracking COVID-19 cases, workplace outbreaks, school metrics and other data at https://govstatus.egov.com/ OR-OHA-COVID-19. Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion tracks cases and deaths at https://covid.cdc.gov/ covid-data-tracker. Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald A sign advises pedestrians to wear face coverings and maintain social distancing in downtown Hermiston on Oct. 24, 2020. low the rules and revert to take- out only. The restaurant installed a drive-thru window in its build- ing during the last shutdown, she said, so people don’t even have to get out of their car now when picking up the orders they phoned in. Luckily, she said, the people of Hermiston have been gener- ous and supportive to the restau- rant during times of takeout only in the past, even if sales have dropped off some. “Hopefully people continue to support our business,” she said. See Freeze, Page A11 Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald, File A sign along Southgate in Pendleton advertises takeout and delivery only following Gov. Kate Brown’s ban on dine-in restaurants in March 2020. Oregon is being put on a “two-week freeze” in an attempt to curb the rapid spread of COVID-19, Gov. Kate Brown announced at a press conference on Nov. 13, 2020. Good Shepherd improves COVID-19 handling, administrators say By JADE MCDOWELL NEWS EDITOR As shutdowns rippled across the world in the spring, they were implemented under the rallying cry of “fl attening the curve” of new infection rates to keep hospi- tals from being overwhelmed and buy health care providers time to learn how to treat the virus’s sick- est patients. That time has been valu- able, say administrators at Good Shepherd Health Care System in Hermiston. “(Health care workers) were doing the best we could when this started, and the inroads that health care has made in the last seven, eight, nine months has just been amazing,” CEO Brian Sims said. “The science has really caught up and we have learned to really use what’s there and available, and as of this morning it was announced there’s another vaccine that shows potential that’s shown a 95% suc- cess rate. I think as we continue to go down this road we’re just going to continue to get better.” Brian Patrick, vice president of nursing, said the Good Shepherd has used what it has learned to put together a physically shielded, well-ventilated COVID-19 area that can quickly add and subtract beds as needed. “This is how we’re managing it INSIDE Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald A sign advises visitors of limited visitation at the Good Shepherd Health Care System campus in Hermiston on Monday, Nov. 16, 2020. now and it’s working very well,” he said. Patrick came to Good Shepherd from a southern California hospi- tal in September, and Sims came to Good Shepherd from Iowa in October. Both said Good Shep- herd, and Oregon in general, v in comparatively good shape com- pared to the situation in other parts of the country. Patrick said Good Shepherd A3 Umatilla and Umatilla County grant 15-year tax breaks to new Amazon data centers hasn’t faced the level of personal protective equipment shortages many hospitals have, for exam- ple. One innovation the hospital adopted early on was using P100 respirator masks instead of N95 masks. The P100 mask fi lters don’t need changed nearly as often as an N95 mask would need replaced, Patrick said, allowing supplies to last longer. According to the Centers for A7 New reporter Bryce Dole joins the East Oregonian team Disease Control, P100 masks are also more effective at fi ltering out viruses than the N95 masks typi- cally used in health care. “I can tell you, because I have a new perspective from the outside, as Brian (Sims) does too, the posi- tion we’re in here at Good Shep- herd is outstanding compared to a lot of other places,” Patrick said of the hospital’s PPE supply. He said the hospital has also A8 The Cigarette Shop to close in Umatilla after passage of tax increase been able to maintain needed staff- ing levels by utilizing Premium Staff, which supplies registered nurses to backfi ll gaps in staffi ng. Good Shepherd hasn’t been immune to the challenges of main- taining a large workforce during the pandemic. According to the Oregon Health Authority’s track- ing of workplace outbreaks, since the start of the pandemic Good Shepherd Health Care System as a whole has had 64 cases of COVID linked to it, most recently on Nov. 3, either through staff testing pos- itive or close contacts of those staff, such as family members whose cases were traced back to the positive employees. The health care system has more than 700 employees. Earlier in the year, the Orego- nian quoted nurses at Good Shep- herd who were unhappy that Good Shepherd was moving away from handling contact tracing and noti- fi cations of exposure internally. They said the change put them at additional risk of spreading the virus to others before they knew they were exposed. Patrick said some people came away from that with the impres- sion that Good Shepherd employ- ees weren’t being notifi ed at all about contacts with the virus, but See Hospital, Page A11 A9 The Arc of Umatilla County discusses revenue losses from suspension of bingo nights
