Second Umatilla County resident dies from COVID-19 as total cases rises to 84
Published 2:30 pm Monday, May 11, 2020
PENDLETON — Umatilla County reported its second death of a confirmed COVID-19 patient on Sunday.
According to a news release from Umatilla County Public Health, the patient was a 64-year-old man who tested positive on April 29 and died May 9 at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Walla Walla, Washington. The person had underlying health conditions.
According to the Oregon Health Authority, the man was diagnosed with the virus on April 29 and died on May 9.
The county’s first COVID-19 death was a 76-year-old woman who tested positive on April 14 and died April 30 at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, Washington.
The health department only reported one new confirmed case Monday, a patient who was in close contact with a previous case and is now recovering from home in self-isolation. The new case brings Umatilla County’s total confirmed caseload to 84.
The county is also now reporting a new presumptive case.
In the early days of the pandemic, a person was presumed to have coronavirus if they tested positive but the case wasn’t confirmed by further analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While Oregon cases no longer need confirmation from the CDC, the Oregon Health Authority and Umatilla County Public Health now define presumptive cases as people who have displayed symptoms and have been in close contact with a previous case but have not tested positive yet. If their test comes back positive, they are added to the number of confirmed cases.
According to the county, there are 26 currently active cases of COVID-19 in Umatilla County, 56 recoveries and two hospitalizations.
Umatilla County has now surpassed 1,000 tests with 92% coming back negative.
In numbers last updated on May 5, state and local governments are reporting that most of the cases are coming out of Hermiston and Umatilla, while a smaller number are being reported out of the Pendleton and Milton-Freewater areas.
Thanks to an uptick of cases in Jefferson and Polk counties, Umatilla County is now only the fifth worst in terms of COVID-19 rate, with 105.2 cases per 100,000 population.
