From 6 last week to 23 to 123. A town of about 12,000, rural. Holy cow.

https://www.lagrandeobserver.c...91-2b635cea196e.html

https://www.kptv.com/news/covi...5f-df3d24cfa6a7.html

Large group of people in an enclosed space for a long period of time. Videos on their facebook page (now deleted) of no social distancing, no masks. According to the story, the church was previously warned about not following guidelines for reopening. Hopefully nobody will pay the ultimate price for this stupidity.

Guess some people won't take the virus seriously till it hits them directly.

God is calling his people home. This is the rapture that they have been waiting for...

Though the articles are saying it can’t be tied to one event, apparently the church had something big recently (the person in the article talked about not going). That’s the attitude here in Butte too - its going to take a serious cluster and some deaths for people here to take it seriously (so far only 11 knows cases in the county (12 if you include me).

This is happening all over the country and is going to get worse.

For many of these rural communities, the nearest hospital is hours away, and then may only have one or two ventilators and only one person trained to use it.

Hundreds of hospitals throughout the country have closed in the last few years as venture capital takes over health care. If it doesn't turn a profit, close it.

But will this pandemic change anyone's mind about the for-profit health care system in the U.S.? I doubt it.

Just got a message from one of my friends - there is a HUGE RV trailer factory in town, and they are all getting tested - multiple vectors of the disease that work all over town, so there are going to be a lot more cases. She is really stressed out because she’s in a higher risk group. She was at a clinic to have blood drawn for something and she said there was a steady stream of folks walking THROUGH THE WAITING ROOM to get tested. And that nobody was wearing a mask.

119 more Positive cases today.

quote:

nobody was wearing a mask.

This. This just makes me crazy. It's so simple and would make such a difference if everyone wore one. And down here as well, hardly anyone does.

I was reading that this morning. I hadn't realized they'd linked it to a church's testing event. I wonder what the protocol was for people going to be tested, and whether basic social distancing (masks, separation, etc.) was in place.

It's weird here. The governor "opened" almost every county as Phase I, which means basically that some businesses are allowed to open if they follow pretty standard physical distancing, with employees required to wear masks. A county qualifies for a Phase I opening if they meet a specific set of numeric criteria (such as the # of new cases, # of tests available, tracers, ICU beds, etc.)

Well, you'd think that Phase I opening meant "hey everyone, it's over! Let's all go back to pre-COVID stuff, and do it like, yesterday! People who socially distance and wear masks are weenies!"

It's also worth nothing, I suppose, that your small Oregon town likely had very few protests, and regardless, this outbreak hasn't been traced to any protest activity. Of course that could change in the next few days.

I'm soooo annoyed. I've spent months here at home, and in a few short weeks all our work has been undone. No gradual businesses are opening, borders to Canada remain closed, in all likelihood Oregon is looking at a (re)lockdown, schools may well remain closed in the fall.

Gad.

It’s not linked to a testing event, I don’t think ? They are cooperating with the health department and held a testing event, my understanding is it’s linked to a large wedding, Possible graduation event, and there are videos of a church service with no social distancing and singing at a time when there were not supposed to be large indoor gatherings.

My friend said there was also a 300 person protest, that people wore masks, but article says they did not social distance. Also, though multiple cases came from the church, there are other sources of infection, so it’s not just the church.

And it looks like my my original post is wrong, it looks like the church services were outside, not sure about the wedding and graduation.

“Local public health officials expressed appreciation to the congregation for hosting testing onsite,” according to the press release, “and underscored that the results confirm the presence of COVID-19 in the community.”

The church held services in April and May, despite Gov. Kate Brown’s executive orders limiting gatherings, and recently held a wedding and a graduation ceremony with more than 100 people at each event.

The rest of the article, they do a hand laying ritual, Descriptions of the videos of the church services that have since been deleted from their Facebook page:

https://www.lagrandeobserver.c...66-9bb49be5644c.html

But again, there are more sources of infection in the county than just the church.

I didn't realize the church had done anything more than whatever the "testing event" was.

To your point, not all infections have been linked to the church. But I think it's safe to say that most infections were likely to have been linked to everyone going a bit crazy once the county was "opened." I routinely deal with two conflicting emotions on things like this: first, I'm very sorry that anyone has become infected. If I hear of a single other person saying, "it's no worse than the flu," I think my head will explode. Second, I can't help but wonder what people expected would happen when they ignored social distancing and didn't wear masks?

The state epidemiologist says at least 236 cases are linked to the church.

https://www.oregonlive.com/cor...argest-outbreak.html

The county has voluntarily moved back to Stage 1 reopening, from Stage 2.

With 236 positive cases, and only 5 people hospitalized, I’m afraid that some might think that it’s just mild, like the flu. And then go out and infect more people.