He ‘Left This World In Such Agony’: Rural Health Systems Challenged By COVID Surge

By Anna King
Ken Roberts, left, with his step-sister Debbie Roberts and her husband Steve Kinzie at a Christmas gathering at the Tonasket care facility in 2018. Courtesy of Debbie Roberts
Rural America has been the site COVID hotspots this year: prisons, nursing homes and meat packers. But there are few doctors, ICU beds and little backup when health care workers also get sick. Ken Roberts died Nov. 29, just one person among many who died in an outbreak of COVID-19 at North Valley Extended Care in the Okanogan County town of Tonasket — population about Read More

Brewster And Okanogan County Latest Areas Of Hot Spot Concern For Washington COVID-19 Cases

By Enrique Pérez de la Rosa
File photo. Brewster, in Okanogan County, shown here in 2013, is one of the primary areas of north-central Washington's tree-fruit industry -- for growing, packing and shipping. CREDIT: Jessica Robinson/N3
Eight people, at least two of them foreign H-2A farmworkers, have died in the county. Health officials say cases are climbing quickly with nearly 300 confirmed over the last two weeks alone. The county has seen about 800 total cases during the pandemic. Many of the recent cases are in the small town of Brewster, home to a large tree-fruit growing, packing and shipping industry.Read More
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