MALHEUR COUNTY, Ore. — Malheur County spent most of 2020 on Oregon's list of COVID-19 hot spots. Case rates, daily cases, and positivity rates were usually some of the highest in the entire state.
Recently, the county has shown vast improvements in slowing the spread. So much so, it has been sitting in the moderate risk category for a few weeks.
Oregon has created three risk categories. It's an indicator the state uses to determine the risk based on population. Right now, the Oregon Health Authority considers Malheur a large county. The county health director doesn't think that's fair.
“We actually have the same metrics to meet as Deschutes, Lane County, and Multnomah and Washington counties,” Malheur County Health Department Director Sarah Poe said.
Multnomah and Washington counties are part of the Portland metro area. Lane County includes Eugene. Deschutes County, in central Oregon, includes the city of Bend. All of those counties have populations well over 100,000.
Poe doesn't think the risk of spreading COVID-19 in Malheur County is equal to those counties.
Right now, counties with a population 30,000 and more are placed into a risk level based on their two-week case rate per 100,000 people.
“We feel that has been a bit unfair because it means with even a small number of cases, we can see a really great jump in the rate per 100k,” Poe said.
Poe wants Malheur to be moved to the medium-size category, which is for counties with between 15,000 and 30,000 people.
Poe sent a letter to the state asking them to move Malheur to the medium category. Her argument as to why that should happen involves the state prison.
“The governor’s office is removing the adult-in-custody cases from the prison, we have the largest prison in Oregon,” Poe said, referring to the Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario.
So, the cases aren't counted, but the population of the prison is. This is what's putting Malheur over that 30,000 threshold.
If they were in the medium size category, a different indicator would be used to gauge the risk of spreading COVID-19. For minimal spread, the state uses the number of COVID-19 cases over a two-week period. If the cases are under 30 over two weeks, it’s considered minimal.
Malheur County recorded 19 cases between the dates of March 7 and March 20.
“That would have put us in the low risk category this last time,” Poe said.
This means fewer restrictions on businesses and residents. For example, in moderate risk, restaurants cannot exceed 50% capacity or 100 people, whichever is smaller. There is also an 11:00 p.m. closing time on all bars, restaurants, breweries and wineries.
Parties are limited to six people per table inside, and outdoor dining is allowed with a capacity of 150 people.
In the minimal risk category, restaurants still can’t exceed the 50% capacity, but up to 300 people are allowed to eat outside at one time and parties are limited to 8 people instead of 6. The closing time is also moved up one hour to midnight.
These are just some of the differences the county would see if the population of the prison wasn’t counted for Malheur County. Poe told KTVB she thinks it is mostly safe for people to start engaging back with the public again.
“I really do believe that is possible now because our case rates have dropped significantly, they're not gone,” Poe said.
Another indicator that it is much safer in the county is the positivity rate. As of March 20, the test positivity rate in the county was 1.1%. 5% is considered the benchmark for what is safe.
“That felt impossible for most of 2020 for us and then even into January and February, the numbers were still above that,” Poe said.
Another reason why numbers are decreasing is due to the distribution of the vaccine.
“The vaccine is safe, effective and free and it makes such a huge difference to our cases and the spread in our community,” Poe said.
KTVB did reach out to both the Oregon Governor's office and the Oregon Health Authority to ask about the request to move Malheur County down a level in population size.
At time of publication, neither one had responded to our request.
Moving forward, the health department is holding weekly vaccination clinics at the cultural center starting at 1pm.
They're doing this through the end of April. If you're eligible for the vaccine you can just show up to the clinic. No appointment is necessary.