KWSO News for Tues., Aug, 24, 2021

The Fox complex is burning Northwest of Booth State Scenic Corridor Park, approximately 10 miles west of Lakeview.  Crews continue to increase containment on the Patton Meadow Fire within the Fox Complex. Handheld infrared cameras last night confirmed the east side and southeast corner of the fire is out cold 100 feet into the fire’s perimeter, while the west and north perimeters of the fire still have considerable heat which crews are addressing through mop up operations. One small spot fire was identified on the north perimeter of the fire, but was quickly contained by crews monitoring the area. The size of the fire is 8,304 acres and 41 % contained.

The Internal Revenue Service has launched a new feature allowing any family receiving monthly Child Tax Credit payments to quickly and easily update their mailing address using the Child Tax Credit Update Portal, found exclusively on IRS.gov. This feature will help any family that chooses to receive their payment by paper check avoid mailing delays or even having a check returned as undeliverable. Any family can easily have their September check and all future checks sent to their new address by using the portal to make an address change request. To have the change take effect in September, people need to complete the request before midnight Eastern Time on Monday, Aug. 30. Families can still make changes after that date, but their request will not be effective until the next scheduled monthly payment. Visit irs.gov for more information.

Most Oregonians who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will receive emergency allotments in September. The federal government has approved emergency allotments every month since March 2020. This gives SNAP recipients additional support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emergency allotments will be available on Sept. 11 for current SNAP households. New SNAP households will receive the emergency allotments Sept. 30 or Oct. 2. SNAP recipients do not have to take any action to receive these supplemental benefits as they will be issued directly on their EBT cards

Oregon hospital beds are filling up.  There are only 47 ICU beds available statewide. There are no open ICU beds in Regions 5 (Josephine and Jackson counties in southern Oregon) and Regions 6 (Hood River, Wasco, Sherman and Gilliam counties). And even the regions that have hospital beds available for COVID and other patients may be unable to serve those patients. Hospitals have already postponed elective surgeries to maintain or create space to care for emergency patients. Doctors and public health officials note that delaying elective surgeries will have impacts on people awaiting heart valve replacement – or the removal of a cancerous tumor, for example.

The Food and drug administration has approved the Pfizer-bioNtech Covid-19 vaccine for people 16 years and older. The Warm Springs health and wellness will be offering a 3^rd-shot to those individuals who are immunocompromised. There are plans to offer a 3rd (booster) dose to immunized people, who are not immunocompromised, effective 8 months following their 2nd dose.  In Warm Springs – that would begin in October. Warm Springs community health nurse Katie Russell has more.