Portland artists joined together recently for Pavement, a socially distanced evening of pop-up performances in a public parking lot. Audience members watched from their cars while some of the city’s best singers, dancers and spoken word artists performed.
The evening was presented by Portland nonprofits Risk/Reward and Boom Arts. Featured performers included Portland Opera singer Onry, Rejoice! Diaspora Dance Theater artistic director Oluyinka Akinjiola and improvisational musician Amenta Abioto.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Saturday announced the launch of programs offering financial assistance to agricultural workers who must self-quarantine due to the coronavirus.
The Oregon Worker Quarantine Fund will provide up to two weeks of financial assistance to agricultural workers ages 18 and older, regardless of their immigration status.
The Oregon Health Authority also Saturday launched a program that allows agricultural workers who are either recovering from COVID-19 or in self-quarantine to apply to the funding through local community partners.
“This pandemic has exacerbated disparities in our systems that already existed — especially for low-income communities, rural communities, immigrants, and communities of color,” Brown said in a statement. “Oregonians working in agriculture and food processing are providing a vital service, ensuring families continue to have food on their tables and grocery store shelves during this pandemic. And yet, the nature of this work puts agricultural and food processing workers at higher risk of exposure to COVID-19.”
COVID-19 has claimed three more lives in Oregon, bringing the pandemic’s death toll in the state to 325, health officials reported Saturday.
The Oregon Health Authority also reported 330 new confirmed and presumptive cases of the coronavirus Saturday, bringing the total diagnosed with the virus to 18,817 since the start of the pandemic.
The most new cases were in Multnomah County, which reported 69 diagnoses, followed by Washington County with 43, Marion County with 40 and Umatilla County with 33.
Clark County, Washington, health officials Friday reported one more death to the coronavirus, a woman in her 70s with no underlying helath conditions. She was 40th person to die of COVID-19 in the Southwest Washington county. Officials also reported 22 new positive test results, bringing the number of Clark County residents diagnosed with the virus to 1,778.
The latest available data from the Washington Department of health shows 55,803 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed since the pandemic began, and 1,564 people in Washington have died from the virus.
Copyright 2020 Oregon Public Broadcasting