Oregon governor issues emergency order requiring people in Lincoln County and six other counties wear masks inside public places starting June 24

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is requiring that people wear face coverings in Lincoln County and six other counties effective June 24 while they are inside public places like grocery stores and other businesses.

The other counties included in the surprise order this week are Marion, Polk, Hood River and three Portland-area counties of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas.

The requirement comes as the state has seen a 44 percent increase the number of new COVID-19 cases and a rise in hospitalizations.

In California on Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an order requiring people throughout the state to wear masks in most indoor settings and outdoors when distancing isn’t possible.

In Lincoln County, the number have cases has risen from 30 to 230 the past two weeks, driven in large part because of a large outbreak at Pacific Seafood in Newport which has spread into the community.

“The next few weeks will be difficult, and we will be monitoring the data regularly,” Brown said in a statement Wednesday. “We are much better prepared than we were in early March. We have increased PPE, much more widespread testing, and many more contact tracers.

“However, if hospitalizations spike too rapidly, if the capacity of our health care system is threatened, we will be forced to revert to stricter rules,” she said. “Our entire ability to reopen and stay open is dependent on whether each of us follows basic health and safety protections. Stay home if you feel sick, wear a face covering, keep six feet of distance, avoid crowds, and wash your hands regularly.”

As part of her order, the governor also:

• Is moving Marion, Polk, and Hood River counties to Phase 2 beginning Friday because Marion and Polk counties are seeing a decline in hospitalizations, and Hood River had only one new hospital admission in the past two weeks.
• Is allowing Multnomah County to move to Phase 1 starting Friday. “While Multnomah County has seen an increase in new cases recently, the county has not experienced an uptrend in new hospital admissions, and overall hospitalizations remain well within capacity,” Brown said.
• Is grouping several counties together as regional units for future reopening decisions. This applies to Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties being treated as a single unit in future reopening decisions. Marion and Polk counties, which each include parts of Salem, will also be treated as a unit. “Both of these regions include a highly-connected urban area, making it difficult to monitor the disease based solely on the contours of county jurisdictional lines,” Brown said.

Brown said the three Portland-area counties will have to remain in Phase 1 for at least 21 days after Friday before the three counties together will become eligible for Phase 2.

“I know this impacts communities and businesses in Clackamas and Washington counties but, as we reopen our state, we must recognize how interconnected the metro area is,” she said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that people do as Brown has ordered: wear masks whenever they are in public indoor spaces or in places where they cannot reliably remain six feet from others at all times.

Oregon has experienced record numbers of new cases of the virus this week. Tuesday’s was the most dramatic, with 278 more diagnosis but 119 of those were from a single outbreak tied to an evangelical church in the Union County community of Island City. But The Oregonian reported that Brown was pushed in part by of a string of highs, in which nine of the past 11 days have surpassed 100 new cases. Previously, the number of new cases in the state had never exceeded 100.

Brown said during a news conference Thursday that while her executive order on face coverings is enforceable “you won’t get arrested or get a ticket if you don’t wear a face covering.” But state officials said businesses could refuse entry to anyone not wearing a face covering.

“Face coverings need to be a part of our daily lives,” she said.

Brown said Thursday that she had been urging face coverings for months and after more recent COVID-19 case increases had hoped that local elected officials around Oregon would proceed on their own.

“They didn’t, so I did,” she said.

Lincoln County face covering directive effective immediately

Brown’s order Wednesday comes two days after Lincoln County commissioners asked their health officer to issue a directive asking residents and visitors to wear face coverings in public places where it is not possible to stay six feet apart. The directive – which carries no criminal, civil or financial penalties – took effect upon signing Wednesday and is in reaction to a wave of COVID-19 cases sweeping through Newport and populated areas of the county.

Lincoln County’s directive was signed by health administrator Rebecca Austen and health officer Dr. David Long.

Lincoln County’s directive goes further than Brown’s order by also applying to outdoor settings where people or groups cannot maintain six feet of distance from other parties. The county’s orders also applies to bars, restaurants and other eating establishments except when the patron is eating or drinking.

But the order exempts children under 12, people with disabilities or breathing issues, or people of color who “have heightened concerns about racial profiling and harassment while wearing face coverings in public.”

Brown said during a news conference Thursday that specific plans under her executive order will be coming soon so people have a chance to adjust.

But the county’s directive also said not wearing a face covering is not a reason for law enforcement to intervene or for other members of the public to harass people not wearing them.

“I applaud the governor’s action,” said commissioner Claire Hall. “While face coverings don’t halt transmission of the virus entirely, they are one of our most powerful tools to stop it.”

Commission Chair Kaety Jacobson told YachatsNews on Wednesday evening that she had been in contact twice with the governor in the past week to talk about coronavirus issues — and to let her know there was support from commssioners to include Lincoln County if there was a regional order on face coverings.

“She was thinking something about face coverings and wondered where Lincoln County was at,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson said several businesses had contacted commissioners urging them to make a decision on face coverings to take pressure off them mediating customer disputes or so they could point out to people that it was a government directive.

“I always hope that people have good behavior and follow the rules,” Jacobson said.

Commissioners have scheduled a special meeting Friday with seven city councils to discuss a mandatory countywide requirement that people wear face coverings. That meeting is still scheduled, but they are now to discuss dropping the limit on gatherings from 25 to 10 people and whether to continue a requirement in the county and some cities that motel rooms not be entered for cleaning for 24 hours after a guest leaves. Many in the lodging industry continue to lobby hard for the rule to be dropped because it limits the number of available rooms to rent, especially on busy weekends..

During a wider discussion on face coverings Monday, county Counsel Wayne Belmont suggested the directive as a first step to encourage more people to wear face coverings in public.

No other county health officer in Oregon has issued such a directive and no other local jurisdiction has voted to require that people wear face coverings. But in Washington state, a number of counties in the Puget Sound area have adopted mask directives.

Commissioners were inclined Monday to enact a county regulation on face coverings, but Belmont reminded them it would only affect unincorporated areas of Lincoln County outside of cities – which have the most people and majority of large businesses.

Belmont said he had already asked city managers if their councils could attend an online meeting at 1:30 p.m. Friday to discuss whether they wanted a face mask requirement in their jurisdictions.

“They are aware of the issue,” Belmont said of the seven cities in Lincoln County, adding that a unified and consistent approach across the county would be best, if possible.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Lincoln County has ballooned to 226, the second-highest rate of the illness in Oregon, after the June 7 announcement that 127 Pacific Seafood workers had tested positive. That has spurred a massive testing and tracing effort by Lincoln County Public Health, which is drawing help from neighboring counties, the state, the Siletz tribe and volunteers.

Oregon State University announced Monday it will bring a COVID-19 sampling project being used in Corvallis and Bend to test 400-450 volunteers in Newport neighborhoods this weekend to see how prevalent the coronavirus spread has been.

In other developments this week:

• The Oregon Health Authority added 17 more COVID-19 cases in Lincoln County as of midnight Monday, then reported just three new cases for Tuesday and four for Wednesday, bringing the county’s total to 230. The OHA and the county confirmed two more hospitalizations this week, bringing to six the number since the June 7 outbreak. State health authorities consider hospitalizations a more accurate picture of the seriousness of any outbreak.
• More than 330 people considered “close contacts” with positive cases signed up for free COVID-19 tests Tuesday. A special team from Clatsop County conducted those tests.
• As part of a long-planned effort, staff of the five long-term care facilities in Lincoln County are being tested this week. The state has announced plans and funding to test all staff and residents of Oregon nursing homes by September.
• Because of the contact and nursing home efforts “Obviously with that amount of testing we will see an increase in cases,” Nicole Fields, deputy director of Lincoln County Public Health, told commissioners.
• State epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger told commissioners that employees of four Newport-area restaurants have tested positive for COVID-19. Sidelinger said there was “significant spread” among restaurant workers, but those appear to be connected to living arrangements or social gatherings. The Oregon Health Authority will name those and any other businesses Wednesday, if more than five employees test positive. But two restaurants, Local Ocean and Georgie’s, have already announced their results and closed temporarily.
• Sidelinger said the “vast majority” of new cases are people who did not have symptoms of the illness. “That becomes a challenge because you can’t tell when they got the virus” and makes tracing contacts more difficult.

Commissioners push countywide requirement

Despite asking the county’s health officer issue the face covering directive, Lincoln County commissioners seem to have lost patience with relying solely on attempts educate the public on the importance of wearing them.

All three – Jacobson, Hall and Doug Hunt – want to require them, especially in grocery stories, pharmacies and larger inside spaces. But they need cities – especially Newport, Lincoln City and Waldport – to agree.

Sidelinger told commissioners that social distancing is the most important of all anti-coronavirus practices, but that masks are critical when people are inside buildings and can’t maintain 6 feet of space with others.

“This is one of the best tools we have to prevent the spread,” Hall said, advocating for a mandatory face covering regulation. “But we really need our city partners to be on board with us for this to really work.”

Hall said many business owners have told her they would like the county to enact such a regulation, thus taking the onus off individual businesses to require customers to wear them.

Hunt suggested that the county and cities also enact a local restriction on the size of gatherings, which under the state’s Phase 1 plan can be up to 25 people. Under Phase 2 rules – which have been paused until later this week – the size of gatherings could be 50 to 250, depending on the situation.

“If we’re going to talk about face masks we ought to talk about gathering size too,” he said.

Jacobson said she was inclined to have the county write a framework for any new restrictions and then let cities tweak them to their individual situations.

“Each community is a little different … ” she said.