In Rural Oregon, a Third Case of Coronavirus Is Diagnosed

The person is an employee of Wildhorse Resort and Casino. They attended a basketball game at a local middle school on Saturday.

A Home Depot in Northeast Portland ran out of face masks on March 1. (Justin Katigbak)
By Tess Riski

Oregon health officials announced a third confirmed case of COVID-19 coronavirus Monday morning.

The person is an adult from Umatilla County—250 miles from the first two confirmed cases in Washington County, on the outskirts of Portland. The person is being hospitalized at a hospital in Walla Walla, Wash.

State officials said the person attended a youth basketball game at Weston Middle School in Weston, Ore. on Feb. 29. Officials have closed the gymnasium, and they will do a deep cleaning of it out of an "abundance of caution."

The individual is an employee of the Wildhorse Resort and Casino in Pendleton, Ore. The casino, as well as the Nixyaawii community school, daycare center, and senior center will be closed until the facilities have been deep-cleaned, the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation said in a press release Monday.

Officials are considering this a case of "community transmission," or local spread of the illness: The person did not have contact with another identified case, and they did not travel to one of the affected countries.

This post has been updated.

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