Employees of 3R’s Construction Company spray a hospital-grade approved disinfectant into the interior of a vehicle from the Aumsville Police Department Thursday. (Ron Cooper/Salem Reporter) In the spring, when COVID-19 began to spread in the United States, first responders were charged with ensuring safe transport to hospitals. So, Molalla Fire[Read More…]

Lane Hawkes, emergency room nurse, receives a Covid vaccine at Salem Hospital on Dec. 17 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Covid vaccines are rolling out to health care workers and long-term care facilities around Oregon, with nearly 15,000 people vaccinated to date. Locally, Salem Health began offering vaccines to workers in contact[Read More…]

New Covid cases have climbed rapidly in Marion County in recent weeks, prompting Gov. Kate Brown to declare the county at “extreme risk” (Graphic by Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Marion and Polk counties will have to live under stringent limits on businesses and gatherings beyond next week as Gov. Kate Brown[Read More…]

Gov. Kate Brown listens in during a phone call with Vice President Mike Pence and other governors on Monday, April 20. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) A Salem-area lawmaker has joined a lawsuit alleging that Gov. Kate Brown’s pandemic-related orders undercut the constitutional authority of the Legislature. State Rep. Mike Nearman, R-Independence,[Read More…]

 Oregon State Correctional Institution. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter)   A medium-security prison located just outside of Salem has reported an outbreak of Covid a month after the prison was evacuated due to nearby wildfires. Fifty-nine inmates and six employees at Oregon State Correctional Institution, located at 3405 Deer Park Dr S.E.,[Read More…]

An image of the coronavirus from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of staff and residents infected with Covid at a Woodburn assisted living facility continues to rise and now has the highest number of cases of any congregate living setting in Oregon outside of prisons. [Read More…]

 Oregon OSHA   A longstanding west Salem cafe and fruit stand has received a nearly $14,000 fine from the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration for not requiring employees to wear masks or maintaining social distancing. But Clyde Aspinwall, the owner of Cafe 22 West that has a fruit store[Read More…]

An image of the coronavirus from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outbreaks of Covid at workplaces and long-term care facilities in the Salem area remained mostly steady with few spikes in new cases. The numbers on the outbreaks were included in the most recent weekly Covid report[Read More…]