UMATILLA COUNTY — In the nearly one week since entering Phase 2 of reopening, Umatilla County has reported 28 new cases of COVID-19 — from 130 to 158 — and reported a fourth resident had died from the virus on Friday, June 12.

There were also two additional hospitalizations due to the virus this week, and there are three residents hospitalized with it as of Friday.

This week’s local uptick comes after weeks of single-digit increases, and coincided with Oregon’s four highest single-day increases since the pandemic began, including a record of 178 new cases reported on Thursday, June 11.

As state health officials try to grapple with what this week’s surge represents, local health officials said the rise in Umatilla County isn’t attributed to a single factor and may be a sign of the surge that was anticipated with reopening.

“It’s not one thing,” said Umatilla County Public Health Director Joe Fiumara. “What we’re seeing is some people gathering and doing things like holding family barbecues that were allowed in Phase 1 and are allowed in Phase 2.”

The expanding of COVID-19 testing access and capacity has also aided the increase, though Fiumara said local testing remains fairly limited, and has allowed for more testing of those without symptoms of the virus.

The health department released its latest “epi curve” on June 11, which shows what day an individual who has tested positive for the virus began exhibiting symptoms. This week’s data revealed that seven individuals started showing symptoms on June 2 and eight individuals on June 3, which surpassed April 19 and 20 as the largest two-day increase since the pandemic began.

“I hate coincidences because they rarely, if ever, exist in (public health),” Fiumara said. “But this seems like a bit of a coincidence and a sign of that bump we were expecting from Phase 1.”

According to the Oregon Health Authority, that bump means that Umatilla County is now failing to meet four of the six metrics required of counties in Phase 2.

The state evaluates weekly and biweekly data in order to measure how effectively each county is meeting these metrics, and this week it evaluated the county data collected up to June 7.

In those time frames, Umatilla County has seen an increase in the rate of positive test results and the number of hospitalizations, both of which fail to meet the state’s Phase 2 metrics.

After the state recorded nine new cases in the county between May 25 and June 1, the latest data represents 27 of the county’s new cases. That’s an increase of 200% when the state wants to see no more than a 5% increase.

Nine of those 27 cases — or 33% — weren’t traced to a known source of the virus, which is just above the state’s goal of staying below 30%.

The state has indicated that counties won’t take steps back in phases but rather would provide assistance to local health authorities if a large outbreak was proving difficult to contain. Despite the recent increase, Fiumara said the Oregon Health Authority hadn’t reached out with concerns about Umatilla County this week and he felt local staff were staying on top of contact tracing investigations.

Recent contact tracing investigations haven’t revealed direct evidence of COVID-19 spreading at any of the local rallies or protests that have been held throughout Umatilla County, which matches reports from state health officials, too. But Fiumara thinks it’s likely just a matter of time.

“I fully expect that we will,” he said. “It’s nothing against the protesters or their message, I’d just be surprised if we don’t see some type of spread from these gatherings.”

While local cases rise, Hermiston remains the county’s hotspot for the virus. According to the Oregon Health Authority’s weekly COVID-19 report, there were 82 cases within Hermiston as of June 7.

Data from Umatilla County Public Health shows that somewhere between 10-15 cases have been reported in Milton-Freewater, while nowhere else in the county has more than 10 cases.

Hermiston is also home to many of the county’s Hispanic and Latino residents, who Fiumara said appear to be disproportionately affected by the virus locally. However, the county has yet to definitively track and report on that trend.

“(The) biggest issue right now is that while we do capture that data, the reporting system doesn’t pull it properly,” Fiumara wrote in an email. “I would have to manually go through the files to compile the data, and we just have not decided to do that. The state can pull it statewide, and they tell me they are getting closer to a mechanism that will allow me to pull it at the county level also.”

The Oregon Health Authority reported on June 10 that 34.6% of the state’s cases have been identified as Hispanic despite accounting for just 13% of the state’s overall population.