We ll update this story throughout the day with the latest news about coronavirus and its effects in Oregon on Saturday, Jan. 30.
Oregon has 14th day with fewer than 1,000 new cases
Oregon had its 14th day with fewer than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the state Saturday when 707 new cases were reported, along with 19 new deaths, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
The state’s most recent day with more than 1,000 new cases announced was Jan. 16, when 1,173 new cases were announced.
The record for the most new cases in a day in Oregon was 2,176 on Dec. 4.
The state has had 142,416 total cases since the start of the pandemic.
Another Oregon inmate has died from coronavirus, bringing the total of in-custody deaths to 42. According to the Department of Corrections, the inmate was at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla. The inmate was anywhere between 70 to 80 years old. The DOC says it has started vaccinating some staff as well as following the health and safety guidelines at its facilities. Advocates have called for inmates to be vaccinated as soon as.
‘It’s just a matter of time’: Inmates detail horrid conditions amid COVID spike in Oregon prisons
Updated Jan 30, 2021;
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Frances Lanegan has watched with a growing sense of dread over the past month as coronavirus cases have exploded where she lives.
Her home for the moment is Coffee Creek Correctional Institution. Lanegan, a 56-year-old inmate, is serving a three-year sentence after a drug conviction last year. Of the 219 coronavirus cases at the Wilsonville facility since the beginning of the pandemic, 164 have been diagnosed in the past three weeks.
She and her cellmate both tested negative on Dec. 19 and 28, but when tested again on Jan. 6, Lanegan’s cellmate tested positive, though she did not. Lanegan expected to be moved, but when she asked the guards, they told her that since she had already been exposed, she would be staying with her infected cellmate.
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Juan Daniel Tristan, right, with his brother Paul, center, and nephew. Tristan was incarcerated for more than two decades and died this month, at 58, at the Salem Hospital. Prison officials took him from the Oregon State Penitentiary to the hospital on Dec. 26 where the hospital staff said he had multiple organ failure, pneumonia and sepsis, and tested positive for COVID-19.
So far, at least 41 Oregon prisoners have died during the pandemic after testing positive for the virus.
For more than two decades, Juan Daniel Tristan was an inmate, most recently at the Oregon State Penitentiary. On Dec. 26, he was admitted to Salem Hospital.
Transit memorial, pen pals, White House doctor: News from around our 50 states From USA TODAY Network and wire reports, USA TODAY
Alabama
Birmingham: The Birmingham VA Health Care System is expanding its ability to vaccinate veterans against COVID-19, provided it can get enough doses. A partnership with the United Way of Central Alabama will allow the agency to provide as many as 1,000 shots a day beginning this week to veterans who are at least 65 years old, the VA said. That’s up from the current daily total of 300 people. The change comes because the VA’s vaccine clinic is moving into a United Way building in downtown Birmingham. Chief executive Stacy Vasquez said the system will schedule as many veterans as it can for shots, but obtaining additional vaccine is key. “Right now, I have enough vaccine to take care of 5,000 people next week. But then after that, unless I get another shipment, I don’t know,” Vasquez told WBRC-TV last week. The VA’s vacc