Tribal government ending three-week pause on Monday, May 10

By Dean Rhodes

Smoke Signals editor

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde government will end a three-week pause and return to its Phase 3 re-opening on Monday, May 10, General Manager David Fullerton said on Friday, May 7.

The governmental campus returned to an “essential employees only” model in mid-April after an uptick in positive COVID-19 cases in the West Valley not only affected the Tribe, but forced to the Willamina School District to return to remote learning for a week.

Fullerton said outside guests will still be limited and employees are encouraged to continue wearing masks, monitoring their temperature, keeping socially distant and washing their hands.

According to the Tribal government website, www.grandronde.org, there are 12 active COVID-19 cases being monitored by the Health & Wellness Center, but no new cases were detected this week.

In all, the Tribe has vaccinated more than 18,700 people with the two-dose Moderna vaccine and more than 9,400 of those doses have gone into the arms of people 55 or older.