SALEM — Twelve counties will see fewer COVID-19 restrictions on businesses and activities beginning Friday, Feb. 12, as the state dropped risk level ratings for counties due to a decline in new infections.

Ten counties moved out of the extreme risk category, some for the first time since November 2020. That list include Deschutes, Clatsop, Columbia, Lincoln and Linn, which all moved from extreme risk to high risk.

Morrow County made a two-tier drop from extreme to moderate risk. Baker County also fell two spots, moving from high to lower risk. Grant County went from moderate to lower risk.

“Hopefully, this is a trend that will continue and our restaurants will be able to open up on whatever limited basis the governor allows and be able to try and salvage their businesses,” Morrow County Commissioner Don Russell said.

Russell said the move to moderate risk was a “step in the right direction” after the surge in case counts from families gathering for over holidays. However, Russell said he is still concerned that cases will rise after this past weekend’s Super Bowl gatherings.

“If you had extended friends and family and a party of 40 people in a closed space watching the Super Bowl, and one person was asymptomatic and didn’t know it and infected half the people there, that’s enough to put us back up a grouping probably,” he said.

The new rankings leave 14 counties in the extreme risk level, 11 at high risk, two at moderate risk, and nine at lower risk.

Among the counties still at extreme risk are Umatilla, Crook, Jefferson and Union.

“While I appreciate the fact we are 45th in the nation in terms of COVID, that’s taking a heavy toll on our students and our businesses — particularly our restaurants and bars,” said Umatilla County Commissioner George Murdock. “I was on a call with the governor (on Feb. 10) and we were begging for the opportunity to make the rules regarding the businesses advisory rather than mandatory. Oregon has moved away from local control in the last year and that concerns me. It is not a trend that bodes well for the future.”

Another Umatilla County commissioner, John Shafer, was equally disappointed in the county remaining in the top risk category.

“My biggest frustration is that our small businesses that are not allowed to be opened, they’re hurting,” he said. “They need some relief.”

Umatilla County’s daily case count has recently seen a steady decline. On Feb. 10, the county reported a daily case count in the single digits for the first time since October. But the totals were not enough to bring weekly cases and testing positivity rates to a level low enough to reopen

“We’re getting close, but just not close enough,” Shafer said. “My biggest fear is that there is going to come a day when we’re going to be moved down a risk level, and then what happens if we have a spike? We’re going to get bumped back into the extreme (risk) level, and then all the restaurants that were going to open, ‘Hey, bring back your staff. Oh sorry, you’re closed again.’ We’ve seen that, and that was so hard on them. We’re trying to hope that once we start going down we stay down and won’t come back up. That’s our ultimate goal.”

Murdock said Brown offered her compliments to counties for vaccinating more of their older citizens during the Feb. 10 call, something that puzzled Murdock.

“I don’t know what they are vaccinating them with,” he said. “We have 2,500 residents over 80, 2,400 in the 75 (age) category, 3,700 over 70 and 4,000 over 65. We got 400 doses this week and we are slated to get 300 more next week. Do the math. That leaves well over 90% of Umatilla County residents on hold, so we are going to have to get a whole lot of vaccine in the following two weeks and right now that isn’t likely to happen. And, while people in other categories have passed on the shots, that’s sure not the case with those who are older.”

Shafer said that although some vaccines have been sent to the county, it hasn’t been nearly enough. He noted that the county has a deep freezer from Oregon State University, which could hold hundreds of doses of the Pfizer vaccine if shipments were delivered.

“We’ve notified the Oregon Health Authority that we’re ready, able and willing,” he said.Pendleton Mayor John Turner agreed that Umatilla County is not receiving vaccines proportional to its share of the state’s population and will need to start testing more if it hopes to get its test positivity rate down. “Right now, the governor is focused on the numbers,” he said.

———

East Oregonian reporters Antonio Sierra and Bryce Dole contributed to this report.

The state of Oregon released new risk level ratings for counties on Tuesday, Feb. 9. The new risk levels go into effect on Feb. 12.

Lower Risk (9)

• Baker (moved from high)

• Curry

• Gilliam

• Grant (moved from moderate)

• Harney

• Sherman

• Tillamook

• Wallowa

• Wheeler

Moderate Risk (2)

• Lake (moved from lower)

• Morrow (moved from extreme)

High Risk (11)

• Clackamas (moved from extreme)

• Clatsop (moved from extreme)

• Columbia (moved from extreme)

• Deschutes (moved from extreme)

• Douglas

• Hood River (moved from extreme)

• Klamath (moved from extreme)

• Linn (moved from extreme)

• Lincoln

• Multnomah (moved from extreme)

• Washington (moved from extreme)

Extreme Risk (14)

• Benton

• Coos

• Crook

• Jackson

• Jefferson

• Josephine

• Lane

• Malheur

• Marion

• Polk

• Umatilla

• Union

• Wasco

• Yamhill