During the first full week of 2022, Umatilla County hit some dark milestones in its continuing experience with the coronavirus pandemic.

The county on Wednesday, Jan. 5, had 218 new COVID-19 cases, according to the Oregon Health Authority. And on Jan. 6, the county announced 306 new COVID-19 cases, an all-time high for the daily case count since the county recorded its first case in March 2020.

The latest spike in cases brings Umatilla County to a total case count of 16,355. While the tally doesn’t differentiate between first-time and repeat COVID-19 diagnoses, there are enough cases that 1 in 5 Umatilla County residents could have contracted the virus at some point during the pandemic.

While there have no mandates to shut down local businesses again, local institutions are starting to feel the effects of the latest wave. Nixyaawii Community School announced on Jan. 5 it would shut down for the rest of the week due to the number of COVID-19 related illnesses.

With the onset of the omicron variant, Umatilla County Public Health Director Joe Fiumara said his department was expecting a spike, but not so soon.

“I think what surprised us was just how fast and just how soon it showed up,” he said. “We really thought we had a couple more weeks before it was going to spike and I don’t think we were expecting it to spike this dramatically. (It happened) almost overnight. This really happened in a matter of a couple of days. We went from 20 cases a day to over 100, which is mind boggling.”

Although COVID-19 spread is rising rapidly, Fiumara doesn’t anticipate introducing new strategies or initiatives during the spike.

“At the risk of sounding ill prepared, I don’t know that there’s much more we can do that we’ve already been doing,” he said.

Fiumara added the county will continue to promote vaccinations and boosters plus staying home if residents feel sick.

Based on the experiences of countries that already endured the wave of illness the omicron variant caused, Fiumara is hopeful the wave will be short-lived and won’t result in a rash of hospitalizations. He said the silver lining of the wave is that it’s showing plenty of people still have access to testing.

A lack of tests has been a concern across the country, especially as people have trouble finding at-home rapid tests in stores. In late December, the Oregon Health Authority announced it was purchasing 12 million at-home tests that it would send out to public health authorities, various health care organizations, schools and other relevant groups.

Fiumara said he anticipates Umatilla County getting its own shipment of tests, but was light on details he could share.

“What I know is there are a number of agencies in the county who are going to get some of these (tests),” he said. “I don’t know how many and I don’t know when. The only number I’ve been given so far is us as the health department. We are going to get just over 10,000 of them eventually. But all I know is they’re not going to show up all at once and they’re going to show up at some point.”

While they won’t be rapid tests, St. Anthony Hospital, Pendleton, recently announced it would offer free drive-thru COVID-19 testing every Wednesday in January from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

While no county in Oregon has been immune from the effects of the pandemic, Umatilla County has been hit hard by each successive wave of COVID-19. Fiumara said the county has done the best it could with the information it had at the time.

Fiumara has long held the stance that residents shouldn’t need to test for COVID-19 if they are asymptomatic, a view he largely maintains today. He said if the country had a larger supply of tests, he might change his mind, but at the moment, he thinks only people who have been directly exposed or are experiencing symptoms should seek out tests.

“I know you can spread this without symptoms, and I’m not denying that,” he said. “I just still believe you don’t spread it as efficiently as somebody who does have symptoms.”

Even if a resident does have symptoms of COVID-19, Fiumara said they don’t necessarily need to get tested as long as their symptoms are mild and they can self-isolate at home when they feel sick.

“At the risk of sounding ill prepared, I don’t know that there’s much more we can do that we’ve already been doing.”

— Umatilla County Public Health Director Joe Fiumara on dealing with latest COVID-19 spike