Editor’s note: This story will continue to be updated with information on re-openings in Central Oregon.
D eschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair heard the news from the State Wednesday night at 9:23 p.m.: The county’s application to move into Phase One of reopening was accepted.
That means starting Friday—after nearly seven weeks of forced or recommended closure due to the spread of COVID-19—some local businesses will open their doors. Restaurants, salons and gyms can welcome customers with a host of distancing restrictions and sanitization protocols.
Owners, employees and patrons will now have more freedom but greater personal responsibility. When people leave their house, they’re expected to wear masks and maintain 6 feet from other people outside their household, Brown said.
Owners, employees and patrons will now have more freedom but greater personal responsibility. When people leave their house, they’re expected to wear masks and maintain 6 feet from other people outside their household, Gov. Kate Brown said.
Social gatherings of 25 people or fewer are also OK, but large events are still off the table until September unless these events can be restructured with smaller crowds. Gyms now have capacity limits, vigilant sanitization and need to collect client contact information for contact tracing. Showers and pools are closed for now.
Both Gov. Kate Brown and the Deschutes County Commissioners held press conferences Thursday to announce Phase One. Neither the governor nor the DCCs said they planned to strictly enforce the new regulations, but agencies such as Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration can issue fines. State and local leaders instead emphasized individual action. (The Source will explore the enforcement issue further in our May 21 print edition.)
Brown announced Thursday that 28 out of 36 of the state’s counties were approved. State officials denied the applications of Marion and Polk counties due to an increase of cases in the Salem area. Three more counties—Umatilla, Morrow and Jefferson—were still under review Thursday morning, but Jefferson made the cut Thursday afternoon.
The state and the county released a glut of information over the past few days detailing the new regulations under Phase One. City and county leaders recommend first digesting the State’s guidelines at coronavirus.oregon.com. Then business owners should move on to the long lists of local resources and contact city and county government employees. They are standing by to help get businesses back off the ground, said County Commissioner Phil Henderson.
Contact tracing
The new normal requires a vigilant team of Deschutes County contact tracers to begin quarantines within 24 hours of contact with an infected person. Barring an expansive testing program open to everyone, one of Oregon’s best tools for containing the virus is isolating active cases, according to Dr. Pat Allen, the Oregon Health Authority Director, who joined the governor at Thursday’s press conference.
So why was Deschutes county approved by the state if it only has six contact tracers, when the state requires 15 tracers per 100,000 people in a county?
“We looked at [the county’s ability to] contact cases within 24 hours, 95% of the time,” Allen said. “If they were doing that, rather than require them to basically hire people that wouldn’t have a lot to do right now, we wanted to know they had a solid plan to ramp up that capacity quickly.”
“Law enforcement has really important things to do. I’m not going to be asking them to stop cars that are going to the coast, I’m asking… I’m encouraging Oregonians to be considerate of others.” – Gov. Kate Brown
How to handle tourists
Three counties were missing from the Phase One list that Brown read this morning: Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas which are part of the Portland metro region. As the Oregon coast and the Cascade mountains reopen, what is there to stop city dwellers from escaping to rural areas?
“Law enforcement has really important things to do,” Brown said. “I’m not going to be asking them to stop cars that are going to the coast, I’m asking… I’m encouraging Oregonians to be considerate of others.”
During the Wednesday Deschutes Board of County Commissioners meeting, Dr. Nahad Sadr-Azodi, Deschutes County director of Public Health and Dr. Richard Fawcett, Deschutes County Health officer, revealed some telling statistics about travelers and the first COVID-19 outbreaks in this area.
The first 10 to 15 local cases were traced to people who had recently travelled out of the country, mostly to Europe, Sadr-Azodi said. Two cases came from a couple that had been driving across county. Today, the majority of local cases have emerged from community spread, with people ages 20-29 having the most cases.
Four more Deschutes County cases Tuesday
The doctors said that the recent spike of four reported cases on Tuesday came as a result of the new way the Oregon Health Authority is calculating case numbers. Presumptive cases—in which a person has been exposed to another infected individual and then experiences symptoms—is now counted as positive regardless of test results.
Commissioner Phil Henderson was concerned about this new method of calculation, noting that many public policy issues, as well as public pressure to either open or close, rides on the OHA’s daily counts.
Sadr-Azodi explained that 25% of the polymerase chain reaction tests used to identify people with an active COVID-19 infection are false negatives; one-quarter of positive cases are shown to be negative. Someone who has had close contact with COVID-19, followed by symptoms, is more than likely a positive case no matter what the test results say.
The decision to reopen or stay closed, to save the economy or to protect health, has largely polarized along party lines locally and nationally, without many nuanced discussions that consider ways to do some of both at the same time.
“We are venturing out onto thin ice, and we need to step carefully and cautiously,” Brown said.
The Source will continue to bring you articles in our print edition (back May 21!) and invite in experts for our new podcast “Bend Don’t Break,” to explore the consequences of living with the door half opened for the foreseeable future.
More to read: The Bend Chamber of Commerce offered some resources and a webinar for businesses for “Oregon’s Reopening Plan” on its website.
Businesses announcing reopenings:
Mt. Bachelor
The mountain announced it will be open with limited capacity starting May 16. The limited access will be open for 2019/20 passholders, including Outplay 365, Season, Midweek, 12-Day and 4-Day passes. There are only 500 spots open each day, and reservations can be made online up to 36 hours in advance. There is a max of two reservations per transaction and reservations will reopen each day at 6pm.
This article appears in Mar 25 – May 20, 2020.
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Amazing! The second greatest mass violation of Civil Rights since the internment of Americans of Japanese descent in 1942 by Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt has occurred in Oregon:
Generations of Oregonians and Americans have dealt with these pandemics, in my lifetime and my parents we have dealt with the 1918 Influenza pandemic ( 5-7 per cent mortality : most everyone survived)
Scarlet Fever, Tuberculosis, whooping cough, Rubella, Typhoid outbreaks, polio, and my experience in 1994 with the FIRST Wuhan virus with five days in hospital in Portland. (research this, it’s on the web.)
After my experience, am I fearful? Not in the least.
Governor ( Viceroy?) Brown and her political Party of micromanager- control freaks believe we are ignorant and irresponsible. On the contrary, I’ve yet to meet a person in Oregon who is now NOT an expert, doesn’t keep their distance, doesn’t wear a mask in an inside crowded area, and doesn’t take precautions.
Everyone needs to grow a spine, and get back to work and defy all illegal dictates from politicians.
I never stopped working, nor felt a need to at any time.
The only closure should be all schools and Universities until fall, 2020, and then reinstitute safe distancing and class size and mask regulations.
As an American with Civil Rights, You are morally bound and legally entitled to reopen your business and return your staff from the brink of economic catastrophe.
Governor Browns attempt to beta test Tyranny has failed, as businesses we’re defying the edict and opening anyway. She is saving face and trying to stave off a second and likely successful Recall election.
Our family loves the Rule of Law, not unconstitutional edicts from Governor’s or Mayors who feel they are entitled to dictate as they see fit.
You, as an American don’t require nor need the permission of those in GOV acting beyond the Law, which is made in the Oregon Legislature by the People’s Representatives.
The ” D” Party is shamelessly exploiting this to kneecap our economy and exaggerate the danger to the average cautious and sapient Citizen. Their actions are beyond reprehensible.
Finally, file and join with any Class Action suits that seek Justice for your Civil Rights violated by any City, County, or State agency or politician.
As our Americans of Japanese descent prevailed in their Civil Rights lawsuits against their injustices, so shall You.
What the person above fails to realize is that the perception of human life has become much more precious as history has evolved and unfolded. Much of this is likely due to the nature of our societies and culture. We now have modern medicines and surgical techniques that extend lives far beyond what they were in 1918 or during the other scourges mentioned. Context matters right?
Saving lives, respecting health care and essential workers lives and rights and banding together as humans to stave off unnecessary death is not tyranny or a mass violation of civil rights but is instead civil duty in this day and age. Recognizing we are all on this planet together with a shared goal to live long and prosper is actually the opposite of tyranny.
Yes, we can all agree that businesses having to struggle for an unknown time is unfortunate and no one wants that. But the truth is that the economy is nothing more than an elaborate trade and barter system and when it is safe to do so we will all go back to trading and bartering services or goods for funds that were likely earned by rendering other types of services or selling goods. To imply this is a radical plan to tank the economy by a political party sounds fascist and like a poorly contrived conspiracy theory. But unfortunately this type of ideology is rampant now in this country. Makes you wonder whats worse, the virus……or this type of selfish thinking?
“I’ve yet to meet a person in Oregon who is now NOT an expert, doesn’t keep their distance, doesn’t wear a mask in an inside crowded area, and doesn’t take precautions.”
Uhh, you’re not getting out much, are you? (That’s good, actually.) I talked to a local grocery store clerk last week who was upset, worn-down, and sad because so many people refuse to wear masks. They’ve decided that putting on a show of standing up to a governor over the pass in Salem is more important than the health of their fellow citizens—including the folks who provide their food in difficult times.
When I was in the clerk’s store, there were people ignoring the advice about distance and masks. Clerk said many people had been visiting over the last couple weeks, out of towners, and many of them were particularly “rude” about it. She called out Californians especially.
I’m proud to be an Oregonian, and proud that we have low death rates and available hospital beds. It took balls for State leaders, including the governor, to clamp down on this thing instead of being wishy-washy. Glad they did. Seems like the right choice. We’re doing okay.
Our “economy is nothing more than a
elaborate trade and battering system” that will just automatically start back up when it is safe to do so,Bob Erickson?! I’m guessing you’ve never gone through the process of opening a business, dedicating your entire life and all your resources to making it work despite all the efforts by the various levels of government to .alr it as difficult as possible for you to succeed….and then trying to keep it going through an apparently-unending economic shutdown…again,.government-imposed!
Do you suppose,.like the government apparently does, that all business people have endless resources, will always be able to cough up even more fees and taxes, and will somehow all be able to pay their bills without being open, and then spring back into operation when you are finally comfortable enough to venture out?
The only “theory” predominant in this situation is that the continuance of the shutdown and all the radical measures being forced down our throats are necessary for public health or even helpful at this point. The costs in terms of shutdown-related lives and damage to our economy are too great to be carrying out practice runs for new testing protocols, contact tracing policies,etc. Yesterday, the number of deaths by suicide over the past couple of months in California moved past their (inflated) number of corona-related fatalities. We have no sure way of tracking all other shutdown-related deaths, but with hospitals shutdown to everything but corona cases for over 6 weeks along with testing centers, and with millions of people forced into isolation with family members for a longer period than most have ever experienced, we know the toll has been, and continues to be high.
No one originally claimed that we could stop the spread of this virus. As you well know, the intent of the shutdowns was to “flatten the curve” to avoid overwhelming our hospitals and to give us time to learn more about this particular strain. While we are still learning about it, the rate of serious cases wasn’t anywhere close to what was anticipated,and we now know that our measures have been largely-ineffective…or worse,.have likely worked against us. There is plenty of science suggesting that we would have been better off had we NOT shut down completely and simply taken measures to protect the vulnerable. We now have several treatments for serious cases and we know what NOT to do in terms of ventilators,etc. At this point, many governors (including ours) have moved well-beyond the “science” and people who have been paying attention realize it. Reopening fully will, because of our efforts to limit the spread,.WILL likely result in somewhat of an increase in the number of cases, but if shutting completely down in the face of a virus akin in most ways to a nasty influenza strain is to become the norm, we are finished. If that is the case, we do not have the intelligence, the common sense,nor the fortitude to keep a country running. The world will NEVER be “safe enough” for our citizens to venture out in.
Our healthcare system may have the means of extending life, but if we cannot let go of our fear and exercise a little common sense, we will never really be able to live. It is time to reopen…just as fully as we do every flu season.