More people than ever are testing positive for COVID-19 in Central Oregon and it’s bound to have an impact on staffing for businesses, schools, and other agencies around the region.
It’s just not yet widespread.
Bend-La Pine Schools report about 300 students and just 13 staff members are currently quarantined due to COVID exposure.
The Redmond School District has 88 positive cases in their schools, 58 students and 30 staff.
“We’ve definitely seen an uptick just this week in the number of students and staff who are sick with COVID,” said Communication Coordinator for the Redmond School District, Sheila Miller.
Miller says they have absolutely no plans to go back to distance learning.
“Even if that was the case, it wouldn’t probably be done on a district-wide basis, it would be done on a school-to-school basis,” Miller said.
The Crook County School district says they are feeling minimal impacts on staff at the time.
“Our staffing levels are strong right now, and we aren’t seeing that many staff out due to COVID-19,” said Crook County Communication Director Jason Carr. “Of course, that could change in the coming weeks, but we’re in a good position right now.”
The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Ooffice reports three staff out of 297 total staff are out with COVID.
Bend Police say they are experiencing some impacts of staffing levels, but have a plan to evaluate the impacts of these temporary staffing reductions and ensure that the Department can respond to emergency calls.
“If the impacts of COVID continue to reduce staffing levels, we will continue our ongoing evaluation process to determine how we will move personnel from non-patrol units back to patrol to keep officers on the street,” said Lt. Juli-Ann McConkey. “If this happens, this will impact some of our non-emergency service levels in the future.”
