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.”
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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.”
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