Umatilla County sets another new case record
By Terry Murry on Friday, January 8th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – Umatilla County reported 158 new positive COVID-19 tests and one new death Thursday afternoon. Umatilla County Commissioner John Shafer said that more than 65 of those are at the county’s two state prisons, with the vast majority of those recorded at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla.
“If you think about it, the living situation in prisons is not COVID-friendly,” he said. Social distancing in a prison? I don’t think that’s even remotely possible.”
The Oregon Department of Corrections has not reported how outbreaks occur. Shafer said new surges in case counts could come from transferring inmates and from employees who test positive. There are two large outbreaks reported, with TRCI recording 235 new cases and the Oregon State Penitentiary recording 135. There are only three active cases among inmates in the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton.
Shafer said that holiday gatherings could be a cause for the dramatic spike. “The timing is definitely right for the holidays,” he said. “I love my family just as much as anybody, and I’d love to be in those huge social gatherings, but that just isn’t the way it works out.”
