JOSEPH — It may seem the COVID-19 pandemic is all but through, but the residents of the Alpine House senior living facility in Joseph would have to disagree.

Administrator Steve Zollman said Wednesday, July 13, that 19 of their 29 tenants had come down with what appears to be a mild version of the virus.

“We don’t expect to lose anybody,” he said.

Rumors that visitors were being barred from the facility are unfounded, Zollman said.

“We don’t stop visitors. That would be illegal,” he said. “We may talk you out of walking in here, but we don’t stop them.”

He said health care professionals visit regularly and some residents have opted to take the antiviral medicines offered by them.

He said about five employees have volunteered to stay on the premises 24 hours a day so others can go home and not risk spreading the virus to their families.

Of those who have contracted the latest round of the virus, none are among the four who contracted it early this year.

“It doesn’t seem to make any difference whether they’ve been vaccinated, boosted or what,” Zollman said.

Alpine House seems to be alone in the latest surge. A nurse at Wallowa Valley Senior Living in Enterprise who declined to be identified said no such outbreak has occurred there.

“There’s nothing like that’s going on here,” she said.