Oregon Pacific Bank Release Information on COVID-19 Outbreak
Recent cases of the coronavirus in Florence can be linked back to a workplace outbreak at the Florence Branch of Oregon Pacific Bank. In a release yesterday the bank confirmed that 4 employees have tested positive for COVID-19. The branch closed for a day last week when the first positive test came back in order to deep clean the facility, but the branch has been closed to walk-in business since mid-November. The origins of the four cases have not been determined so it is not clear if the virus was spread among employees at work or if it was part of the community spread that Lane County Public Health has been tracking. Oregon Pacific Bank is urging members of the community that may have had extended contact with a branch employee between the dates of January 4th and January 14th, to contact their local health provider immediately to assess the need for testing. OPB President Ron Green says the decision early on to close the branch for walk-in traffic has “kept the risk of transmission between Bank employees and the public extremely low.” More information regarding the bank’s statement can be found at opbc.com.
Waldport Man Indicted in Murder of Mark Campbell
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s office is reporting that a grand jury has indicted a 52 year old Waldport resident for the murder of Waldport businessman Mark Campbell. Jack E. Sigler was indicted yesterday on charges of murder in the second degree, four counts of burglary in the first degree and one count of theft in the first degree in connection with Campbell’s death on December 6th. The sheriff’s department has not said whether they know if this was a targeted attack or a robbery gone wrong. A trial date has not been set.
A New COVID-19 Case for Florence
As of yesterday morning the Florence area now has 125 total cases of the coronavirus reported. One new case was added yesterday as the number continues to climb. According to the daily release last night from the Oregon Health Authority there were 94 new cases reported for Lane County and there were 1,152 new cases for the state. The state, overall, is still experiencing a high death rate for the virus with 29 new deaths reported yesterday bringing the total number of people that died with complications to 1,737. There are more than 130 thousand known cases of COVID-19 in Oregon since the beginning of the pandemic.
Vaccination Goal Met
Governor Kate Brown said yesterday that at the end of last week the state made its goal of 12,000 vaccinations a day, although that number has not been consistent over the entire week nor into this week. The OHA reported 10,172 vaccinations on Wednesday of this week. OHA is reporting that it still has more than 170,000 vials of the vaccine yet to administer. Beginning on January 23 those doses will be made available to individuals over the age of 65 and to k-12 teachers.
Pop-Up Blood Drive Announced
If you are a regular blood donor there will be a pop-up blood donation event at the Presbyterian Church of the Siuslaw on February 10th through the 12th. This will give individuals plenty of time to set an appointment since there will not be any walk-ins allowed. You can schedule an appointment by visiting schedule.bloodworksnw.org.
