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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 2020)
FROM PAGE ONE WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2020 Freeze: Continued from Page A1 “It’s not only for our busi- ness, but also our employ- ees and their families.” Hair stylists and nail salon owners could breathe a sigh of relief that they weren’t included in this round of shutdowns. Shawn Massey, owner of Styling Arena and Gift Boutique in Hermiston, said they won’t have to cancel appointments this time around. “We’re sending mass emails to our clients, to let them know we are still open, and that we’re doing things to be able to stay open and keep everyone healthy,” she said. On the boutique side of the business, however, the shop is limited to 75% capacity. Massey said that restriction comes at a bad time, as retailers were just planning for Black Fri- day, Small Business Sat- urday and general holiday shopping. Still, she said she’s grateful they will still be able to have customers come in to shop. “You just have to change everything,” she said. “Your holiday events have to go longer, and stretch them out, so fewer people are in the store at a time.” She said usually they have an evening shopping party to kick off the holi- day season, but this year customers should look out for deals spread out over several days so that not everyone is in the store at once. “PARENTS: PLEASE HELP PREVENT THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 BY ENSURING THAT YOUR TEEN IS NOT OUT PARTYING. WE ARE AWARE OF ONE OR MORE LARGE PARTIES PLANNED IN OUR AREA FOR THE UPCOM- ING WEEKEND. PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOUR TEEN IS NOT IN ATTENDANCE.” Pendleton School District offi cials, in an email sent to parents this week Rising cases triggered restrictions Prior to the gover- nor’s announcement of the two-week freeze, Uma- tilla County Public Health Director Joe Fiumara said on Nov. 12 that the local rise in cases has been directly linked to at least “fi ve or six” large social gatherings of 30 or more, and at times 50 or more people, that were hosted around or after Halloween. Fiumara said a signifi - cant portion of these cases have been diagnosed in young adults and teens — county data showed nearly 55% of the county’s total HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A11 cases have been among people 39 or younger as of Nov. 13 — and the health department is pleading with parents and the community to prevent these gatherings from happening. “Parents: please help prevent the spread of COVID-19 by ensuring that your teen is not out partying,” an email sent by the health department to parents with students in the Pendleton School District stated this week. “We are aware of one or more large parties planned in our area for the upcoming weekend. “We have many instances of items like that happening, which make it confusing for us to know how many of these are the same party or how many are different,” he said. State Epidemiologist Dean Sidelinger said Nov. 13 that the vast majority of cases statewide have also been linked to social gath- erings, and the state has directed counties to prior- itize contact tracing for the most at-risk individuals when necessary due to the diffi culty in tracking cases associated with them. Please ensure that your teen is not in attendance.” Fiumara said those attending the parties have also been unwilling to share information with the health department during contact tracing and it’s hin- dering the local response. In one instance, Fiu- mara said an entire house- hold was diagnosed with the virus and had recently attended a birthday party of at least 25 people but wouldn’t share informa- tion about other attend- ees who may have been exposed. Younger individuals are generally more healthy and less likely to be hos- pitalized or suffer severe symptoms of COVID-19, but Fiumara said there’s still risk of spreading to other more at-risk individ- uals and the numbers will continue to keep schools and businesses under restrictions. “The real concern is who they’re going to bring it home to,” Fiumara said. “If they have a place of employment, who are they going to bring it to at work, who are they going to inter- act with in the community, and all of that really just pushes the spread up.” As the entire state enters another period of lock- downs trying to slow the virus’s spread, Fiumara said it’s “disheartening and frustrating” to have their local efforts impacted by those who continue to fl out the guidelines in place to protect the community. “We get it, people hate some of these restrictions,” he said. “But man, this is like the worst thing we could be doing.” WIN CASH AND FREEPLAY! Win up to $1,000 every Friday and Sunday in November! Every 30 minutes, 4–10pm 1 entry for every 50 slot points Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald A sign directs visitors at the Good Shepherd Health Care System campus in Hermiston on Monday, Nov. 16, 2020. Hospital: Continued from Page A1 he said the hospital is still turning over information to the Oregon Health Authority and Umatilla County Pub- lic Health so those contact tracers can work on notify- ing employees who were in contact with the sick person. He said so far contact trac- ers have not found any cases where a patient appeared to have contracted COVID-19 from an employee. Right now, Patrick said the best thing people can do to help health care workers is to take precautions rec- ommended by the medical community at large, includ- ing wearing a mask when around non-household members, washing hands frequently, sanitizing sur- faces and social distancing. The community is seeing a lot of spread from young people with mild symptoms exposing more vulnerable people to the virus, he said. “It doesn’t cost a per- son to be vigilant,” he said. “They don’t have to be in a panic state, but they should be vigilant.” He said there is light at the end of the tunnel with two vaccines that have been announced where tri- als are showing far higher effectiveness rates than the goal of 70% that had ini- tially been hoped for. Good Shepherd, along with other hospitals and public health agencies, has put together a task force that is writing plans to distribute the vac- cines as quickly as possi- ble once they are available, fi rst to health care workers and those with the highest risk of complications, and then eventually to the gen- eral public. He said he feels confi - dent in the vaccines com- ing out. “I think it’s gonna be interesting to see how many people want to get vacci- nated because there’s a lit- tle fear of how quickly they worked through the pro- cess,” he said. “But I think the process went fast mostly because the red tape was taken out of the way and it was a team effort. I don’t think they’re cutting any corners.” Sims said fi rst people need to be vigilant to get through the winter, however — as diffi cult as it may be to make the sacrifi ce to stay “cooped up.” “If we’re told we need to keep our groups down to six or less, we need to do that because I believe that the governor’s being given data that supports that,” he said. “There’s a reason that the direction being given is what it is right now.” 2020 FORD EXPLORER XLT SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29 10pm More Thursdays you play, your stacker increases up to 25X! SDAY R Y THU EVER Enjoy family style fine dining. 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