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Oregon Reinstates COVID-19 Restrictions
Oregon Governor Kate Brown ordered new measures pausing social activities to help stop the rapid spread of COVID-19 in counties where community transmission is on the rise. The state has recently experienced record-breaking increases of COVID-19 cases.
The pause measures will be in effect for two weeks, starting Nov. 11 and running through Nov. 25, for Malheur, Marion, Multnomah, Jackson, and Umatilla Counties. Based on increasing statewide case counts, as well as increased sporadic case rates in these five counties, the new public health measures to reduce spread are an effort to save lives in Oregon.
Governor Brown says, “It is alarming that recent high case rates are not linked to any specific outbreaks, but rather reflective of sporadic community spread. We are seeing in real time how this virus can quickly snowball out of control. This Two-Week Pause is a series of measures and recommendations intended to curb human contact — both through reducing the amount of people we interact with, and the frequency of those encounters. We must stop this virus from spreading.”
Five additional counties––Washington, Baker, Union, Clackamas, and Linn––are close to the COVID-19 thresholds that would necessitate adding them to the Two-Week Pause. The Oregon Health Authority will examine their COVID-19 metrics today to determine if those counties qualify.
The measures include:
• Urging all businesses to mandate work from home to the greatest extent possible.
• Pausing long-term care facility visits that take place indoors to protect staff and residents.
• Reducing maximum restaurant capacity to 50 people (including customers and staff) for indoor dining, with a maximum party size of six. Continuing to encourage outdoor dining and take out.
• Reducing the maximum capacity of other indoor activities to 50 people at gyms, fitness organizations/studios, bowling alleys, ice rinks, indoor sports, pools, and museums.
• Limiting social gatherings to a household, or no more than six people if the gathering includes those from outside a household, reducing the frequency of those social gatherings (significantly in a two-week period), and keeping the same six people in a social gathering circle.
For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Dennis Kaiser
- ◦Economy
