A COVID-19 study aimed at helping local leaders better track, test and map the spread of coronavirus across the state ended Thursday after failing to enlist a diverse pool of participants.

Oregon Health & Science University has decided to end its Key to Oregon study.

The study began May 1, and was designed to enlist and monitor 100,000 Oregonians from across the state for COVID-19 symptoms for one year.

In a press release, the university said more than 10,000 Oregonians enrolled, but the cohort of participants didn’t represent the state in a way that is necessary to address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on historically disadvantaged populations in the state.

The study was heavily criticized in June by organizations and health-care experts in Black and Latino communities who said the study was flawed by racial biases. Critics found problems with OHSU’s outreach efforts to communities of color.

Later that month, the university said it would redesign its approach to the study after several community leaders wrote to OHSU detailing their concerns.

The university said it will now support ongoing conversations with the Oregon Health Authority, the governor’s office and communities of color to better understand disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 within those communities.

More Oregon universities shift to remote learning

The University of Oregon told students Wednesday that it will shift to nearly all remote learning this fall to minimize the spread of COVID-19. A day earlier, Western Oregon University made a similar decision. Some students will still live on campus, with dining halls and dorms staying open, but it marks a significant shift as headlines from across the country share news of coronavirus outbreaks at other American universities, including elsewhere in the Northwest.

Faculty at UO and WOU will have their work cut out for them, if stories coming out of Southern Oregon University are any guide. Professors there say the transition to a new model of teaching has brought long workdays, technical challenges and an emotional burden for faculty members.

“I am 100% burned out and so is everyone I know,” said SOU digital media professor Andrew Gay. “I think that all of us are still pretty much in crisis mode of knowing that we have these really difficult tasks.”

OHSU joins effort to examine convalescent plasma as treatment

Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University are part of an effort to dig into a COVID-19 treatment touted by President Donald Trump.

They’re looking into whether convalescent plasma, made from the blood of people who have recovered from the coronavirus, can pass along antibodies that will help currently sick people get better more quickly.

The Federal Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the treatment, which has some backing in history, but has not been yet been verified through rigorous scientific research.

Sewage could shine a light on COVID-19′s spread across Oregon

Researchers are hoping to get the latest poop on just how far coronavirus reaches — literally. With $1.2 million in state support, Oregon State University is preparing to start analyzing samples from more than 40 wastewater treatment plants across the state.

People infected with COVID-19 shed the virus in their feces. Already, OSU tests have been used to get a focused look at outbreaks in Newport, Bend and Hermiston. Expanding that program will allow researchers to report results to the Oregon Health Authority and county officials, and get a sense of trends beyond what testing reveals on its own.

Oregon’s COVID-19 death toll climbs to 438

Oregon has lost five more lives to COVID-19, bringing the coronavirus death toll in the state to 438, the Oregon Health Authority said Thursday. Four residents of Washington County, all in their 80s and 90s, have died, as has a 74-year-old Malheur County man. Each had preexisting medical conditions, the agency said.

Officials reported 212 diagnoses Thursday, bringing total confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases in Oregon to 25,761 since the start of the pandemic.

Thursday’s tally from the state reflects a continued gradual decline in Oregon coronavirus diagnoses and deaths over recent weeks.

Clark County, Washington, reports a death

Another 24 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Clark County, Washington, and one more person has died, the local public health department reported Thursday. To date, 2,502 residents of Clark County have tested positive for the virus and 49 have died.

The man who died was over 80 and had underlying medical conditions, Clark County Public Health said.

Since the start of the pandemic, 72,161 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in Washington, and 1,880 have died, according to the latest data available from the state.

Oregon reports fifth prison inmate death

The Oregon Department of Corrections said Thursday that a fifth inmate in its custody has died from COVID-19, marking the fourth death to the virus so far this month. The inmate was a man between 50 and 60 years old and was serving a sentence at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, the prison agency said.

Related: Prison inmate dies of COVID-19

Live updates: OHSU ends COVID-19 study suspected of racial bias