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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2021
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Hermiston plans return to full-time classes
Change in distancing rules allows new schedule starting April 13
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
What’s the diff erence between 3
feet and 6 feet?
For Hermiston students, it’s the
diff erence between hybrid learning
and full-time school.
On Monday, March 22, the
Oregon Department of Educa-
tion announced that schools would
only be required to keep students
3 feet apart in the classroom. The
next day, Hermiston School Dis-
trict announced that all grade lev-
els would be returning to class full
time, fi ve days a week, starting
April 13.
Superintendent Tricia Mooney
said the previous 6-foot require-
ment had been the thing holding
the district back from off ering full
time school sooner. Once 6 feet
was only recommended, but not
required, the district was eager to
move forward.
“We might have to look at how
we use some spaces diff erently,
but we’re excited to have every-
one back,” she said.
Building administrators are
working out the logistics now.
According to ODE’s “Safe
Schools, Ready Learners” guide-
lines, elementary school students
can sit 3 feet apart regardless of
their county’s COVID-19 case
levels, while middle and high
school students can be 3 feet apart
in counties with fewer than 200
cases of COVID-19 in a 14-day
period. Umatilla County has been
averaging roughly half that in
recent weeks.
In some situations — includ-
ing physical education classes,
choir or band classes and times
when students are taking off their
masks to eat lunch — 6 feet of
space between students are still
required.
Mooney said in Hermiston,
See Classes, Page A9
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Students in Lucas Eivins’ social studies class sit socially distanced during
class at Sandstone Middle School in Hermiston on Thursday, March 26,
2021.
UPDATES
COVID-19
numbers
updated
HERMISTON HERALD
Umatilla County saw
42 new cases of COVID-
19 reported in the past
week, from Wednesday,
March 24, to Tuesday,
March 30, according to
Umatilla County Public
Health.
The regional dash-
board on the health
department’s
website
also showed seven new
cases and one new death
of a person with COVID-
19 reported in Morrow
County.
Statewide, The Ore-
gonian reported on Mon-
day, March 29, that Ore-
gon averaged 351 cases
a day over the past week,
up 28% since March 15.
The paper’s analysis also
found the state’s test pos-
itivity rate had increased,
to 3.8%, and active hospi-
talizations of COVID-19
patients had increased by
22% to 142.
The increase of cases
in Oregon and in the
United States as a whole
comes as Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Preven-
tion Director Dr. Rochelle
Walensky and other fed-
eral offi cials have asked
states to keep up their
COVID-19 restrictions a
little while longer, warn-
ing that people are relax-
ing their precautions too
quickly before enough
of the population is
vaccinated.
The American Health
Care Association and
National Center for
Assisted Living released
a study showing positive
news for nursing homes,
however.
The
organizations,
which together represent
more than 14,000 nurs-
ing homes and long-term
care facilities across the
country, released a report
on March 30, stating that
nursing homes have seen
a 96% decline in new
COVID-19 cases among
residents since Dec. 20,
2020, and COVID-19-
related deaths in nurs-
ing homes declined by
91% during the same time
period.
INSIDE
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Jaime Aguilera, left, receives a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine during a mass vaccination event for farm and food processing workers in Morrow County at
the Sage Center on Wednesday, March 24, 2021.
Roll up those sleeves
Umatilla and Morrow counties
begin vaccinating ag workers
By BRYCE DOLE
STAFF WRITER
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Staff at a COVID-19 mass vaccination clinic at the Sage Center in Boardman
administer doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, March 24, 2021.
Ben Lonergan/Hermiston Herald
Cars navigate a COVID-19 mass vaccination event at the Sage Center in
Boardman on Wednesday, March 24, 2021.
A3 A windstorm over the
weekend caused scattered power
outages in the region
A6 Churches and cities off er
an array of free community Easter
activities
Offi cials in Umatilla and Mor-
row counties are ramping up
vaccine eff orts after receiving
approval from the state to broaden
eligibility to agricultural workers
immediately in an eff ort to help a
workforce hit disproportionately
hard by the pandemic.
While agricultural workers,
food processing workers, preg-
nant women and people ages 45
and up with underlying condi-
tions became eligible statewide
on Monday, March 29, Umatilla
and Morrow counties had already
received permission to start vac-
cinating those groups a week
early.
In Morrow County, offi cials
from the Oregon Health Author-
ity worked with county offi cials at
a four-day mass vaccination clinic
at the Sage Center in Boardman
through Saturday, March 27.
Akiko Saito, deputy direc-
tor for the COVID-19 response
and recovery unit, a joint divi-
sion between the Oregon Health
Authority and the Oregon Depart-
ment of Human Services, said the
clinic was a “pilot project” specif-
ically geared to immunize a com-
munity long understood to be espe-
A7 New grants will be available
in April for restaurants, event ven-
ues and other businesses
INSIDE
For a list of vaccine clinic loca-
tions and contact information,
see Page 9A.
cially vulnerable to COVID-19.
In all, offi cials vaccinated over
1,000 agricultural workers at the
clinic, according to the Morrow
County Health Department.
Saito said state offi cials are
looking to hold similar eff orts
statewide. State offi cials recently
conducted a survey with 585 agri-
cultural facilities that showed
more than 21,000 workers were
eligible for the vaccine.
“We’re working with our local
public health authorities to con-
nect agricultural, migrant and sea-
sonal workplaces to see if they can
do an event(s) like this” across
Oregon, Saito said.
In Umatilla County, health offi -
cials have started reaching out to
agricultural and food processing
facilities, hoping to bring vaccines
to people who are both hard to
connect with and often can’t take
time off work.
“We are trying to aggressively
See Vaccine, Page A9
A9 The same construction com-
pany will build both of Hermiston’s
new elementary schools