UMATILLA COUNTY — Umatilla County’s COVID-19 case total climbed with another 44 cases reported on Friday, July 10, marking a 130% increase over the last 14 days from 428 to 984 total cases. But while daily reports of double-digit cases continue, the Umatilla County Public Health Department is optimistic that the recent surge may have peaked on June 24.

According to the county’s latest epi curve, which identifies a particular day that somebody who has tested positive for the virus began showing symptoms, 58 people began to show symptoms on June 24. Since then, the largest single-day increase was 48 people on June 27 and 36 people on July 1.

Given that the latest epi curve was released more than two weeks after June 24 on Thursday, July 9, Alisha Southwick, deputy director of the Umatilla County Public Health Department, said it could indicate the amount of new infections is on a decline.

“That is encouraging and we’ll continue to see what happens as more testing happens over the next few weeks,” she said.

The majority of new infections continue to be attributed to workplaces as multiple employers in the county have now appeared on the Oregon Health Authority’s weekly outbreak report and has also represented outbreaks at prisons in the county, which Southwick said are counted in the county’s case total.

According to the Oregon Department of Corrections, one staff member has tested positive at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, while nine staff members and four inmates have tested positive at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla as of Wednesday, July 8.

While the virus is mostly spreading the same locally, location data from Umatilla County Public Health show it’s beginning to spread more evenly throughout the county.

A majority of local cases can still be found in Hermiston on the locations map on the Umatilla County Public Health website, which shows between 251 and 500 cases in the county’s most populous city. While case totals in the Pendleton area were minimal for the first many weeks, the area has jumped to somewhere between 76 and 100 cases as of this week.

“The jump in Pendleton from last week to this week and other smaller communities is showing that COVID is affecting people across the county instead of being highlighted in just one spot,” Southwick said.

Umatilla has the second-most cases in the county with between 101 and 125, while Stanfield now has between 26 and 50 and Milton-Freewater has between 16 and 25.

While access to tests for the virus have increased recently — Umatilla County is testing above the state average at 712 tests per 10,000 people, according to the Oregon Health Authority — Southwick said those increases alone aren’t driving the case totals upward.

While some have pointed to the relatively low death rate of the virus, with only seven deaths reported in the county, and local hospitals indicating they still have capacity for more patients despite the 17 residents reported as hospitalized with the virus as of July 10, the virus has significantly impacted those diagnosed with it regardless of the severity of their illness.

“Aside from the virus affecting your body, it’s affecting lives in many ways. It’s affecting work and finances, and I think that’s a really big impact with a majority of our cases right now with a lot of it being in younger populations,” Southwick said. “They’re needing to work. They’re wanting to work. They’re getting exposed, then they’re needing to stay home and it’s a challenge.”

As of July 10, Umatilla County reported that residents ages 20 to 29 accounted for nearly a quarter of the county’s cases, while just about 30% of the county’s cases have been diagnosed in people 50 or older.

Despite the recent surge placing Umatilla County second among the state’s 36 counties with 109.2 cases per 10,000 people, Southwick said the health department remains optimistic that daily case numbers will begin to decrease, while emphasizing that individuals need to be aware of COVID’s prevalence in the community.

“I wouldn’t say we’re surprised, but I definitely think that it should bring situational awareness to people that it is in the county and in large numbers,” she said of the rapid rise in cases. “Just start assuming everybody has it, and do distancing and wear masks.”