The Hybrid In-School version of education is about to begin across the valley including at East Valley High School near Moxee. Sophomore Brady Locke is a good student, he has supportive parents who are themselves educators and he was able to overcome the distractions and obstacles to on-line learning and earned a straight A report card. Awesome job Brady!
Still, he says it was hard to keep on task and to see the ultimate purpose of earning good grades without some kind of light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.. He is well aware that not every student has his positive home circumstance, his personal drive and focus and he feels bad for those who struggled more than he did..
Secretary of Health Visits as Yakima Waits for More Vaccine
No COVID-19 vaccination sites will be open in Yakima this week or this weekend because health officials say they still don t have the needed vaccine. Washington State Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah was in Yakima Wednesday praising the area for response to the pandemic. He s touring sites around the state this week as the state pushes toward a goal of vaccinating 45,000 people a day.
Yakima Health District officials say they continue to receive doses of the vaccine just not enough to open a large vaccination site. The officials say this week the county received 5,725 doses of vaccine, which includes 2,150 first doses and 3,575 second doses. They say every clinic, hospital and pharmacy that s receiving the COVID-19 vaccine is administering the vaccine to all eligible community members with no organization prioritizing patients at this time.
Department of Corrections Gets Rapid Test Machines
When the COVID-19 pandemic started the Yakima County Department of Corrections took immediate action to prevent the spread of the virus. High risk inmates being held on low risk crimes were released from the jail and local authorities were told to only place in the county jail those who are committing the most serious crimes. Officials also stopped taking contracted inmates from other counties and like the pandemic restrictions continues so to do the restrictions at the jail. Before the pandemic the population of the jail averaged about 700 inmates on any given day. Today the population is an average of 400. Although some inmates and officers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 there s been no mass outbreak at the Yakima County Department of Corrections and officials want to keep it that way through some new tools arriving Thursday.