MORROW COUNTY — More than 1,400 cases of COVID-19 have earned Umatilla County national attention, but neighboring Morrow County hasn’t been spared.

Morrow County’s 207 cases as of July 21 pales in comparison to the Umatilla County case count, but the former’s smaller population means the pair are neck-and-neck when it comes to the virus’ prevalence.

Morrow County’s surge took a twist on July 15 when the county announced that a worker at the public health department had tested positive for COVID-19, and two other staff members were presumed positive after falling ill.

Overseeing a county of 11,600 people, Morrow County Administrator Darrell Green said the county’s public health department isn’t large enough to coordinate a response to the virus by itself. So public health is splitting its duties with the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office under its emergency management team, which is handling communications and daily case updates.

Representatives from the sheriff’s office, public health department, and Morrow County Board of Commissioners meet regularly to go over the current state of COVID-19 in the county. But they’re doing it without the assistance of Public Health Director Sheree Smith, who has been on leave during the pandemic.

Green declined to comment on why Smith was on leave, and although Green and Melissa Lindsay, the chair of the board of commissioners, praised the job interim Director Diane Kilkenny is doing, Kilkenny did not return phone messages seeking comment.

In addition to the public information officer for the sheriff’s office assisting the public health department with daily communications, Morrow County Sheriff Ken Matlack said his undersheriff, John Bowles, also serves as the county’s emergency manager.

Without a full-time staff member in that position, Bowles has had to balance his usual full-time responsibility of helping supervise daily police operations with helping coordinate the county’s virus response.

“It’s really put a lot more work on all of us,” Matlack said.

Despite the significant uptick in Morrow County COVID-19 cases, the board of commissioners sent a letter to Gov. Kate Brown on July 7 asking her to take them off a state watch list for the coronavirus.

While acknowledging the close relationship between Umatilla and Morrow counties, Lindsay said each county should be recognized for their individuality rather than grouped together with the rest of Eastern Oregon.

“It’s said all the time, ‘If you’ve seen one county, you’ve seen one county,’” she said.

Lindsay said the governor’s office has yet to respond to the letter.

The commissioner said Morrow County still would like help from the state to put together educational messaging about social distancing. Given that more than one-third of Morrow County is Latino, Lindsay said the material would need to be produced both in English and Spanish.

Lindsay was careful not to attribute the spike in COVID-19 cases to a single business or group of individuals, but added that residents could improve their observance of health guidelines.

Matlack echoed her sentiments.

“Looking at it from our perspective on what would be causing that, it’s because of the people that are not trying hard enough to social distance and wear face coverings,” he said.

Like the rest of the state, Matlack said the sheriff’s office isn’t wading into enforcing complaints about people or businesses violating the governor’s executive orders but instead try to explain why it’s important that they take precautions.

“We want to make sure people know why we’re trying to get people to wear their masks, social distance and kind of live with this uncomfort for a while longer, and hopefully we’ll see the numbers start going down,” Matlack said.

The coronavirus has hit northern Morrow County harder than the county’s more sparsely populated southern half, with more than 9 in 10 COVID-19 coming from Irrigon or Boardman.

Although Columbia River Health had a COVID-19 scare of its own when a staff member at its Boardman clinic tested positive in mid-June, Project Director Sonja Neal said the clinic was able to contain the case and resumed operations.

Neal said Columbia River Health is in the process of improving its coronavirus testing operations by bringing in a rapid testing machine that will deliver results on-site and much quicker than traditional testing.

While supplies are adequate now, Neal said Columbia River Health will need help getting more personal protective equipment for staff members in the future.