Governor Brown adds four more counties to ‘two-week break’ over spread of COVID-19

The total now counts nine counties in the state, as of Wednesday

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) – Governor Kate Brown on Monday announced the addition of four counties – Baker, Clackamas, Union and Washington – to the two-week hiatus from social activities that begins Wednesday, to help stop the rapid spread of COVID -19 where community transmission is on the rise.

The four counties join five others – Jackson, Malheur, Marion, Multnomah and Umatilla – in the hiatus, announced Friday. The break measures will be in effect for two weeks, from November 11 to November 25.

“As we continue to see extremely high case rates reflecting sporadic spread from the community, now is the time to implement measures to further reduce gatherings and curb human contact,” Brown said.

“The two-week break measures are designed to reduce the number of people we interact with and the frequency of those encounters. We must all continue to do our part to prevent this virus from spreading, especially by limiting our social gatherings and interactions, or we risk further closures and restrictions. “

Two-week break measures include:

• Urge all businesses to mandate work from home whenever possible.
• Interrupt visits to long-term care facilities that take place indoors to protect staff and residents.
• Reduction of the restaurant’s maximum capacity to 50 people (including customers and staff) for indoor dining, with a maximum size of six groups. Continue to encourage outdoor and take-out meals.
• Reduced the maximum capacity of other indoor activities to 50 people (includes gyms, fitness organizations / studios, bowling alleys, ice rinks, indoor sports, swimming pools and museums).
• Limit social gatherings to your household, or no more than six people if the gathering includes people outside your household, reduce the frequency of these social gatherings (significantly over a two week period) and keep the same six people in your social circle gathering.

The two-week break is instituted in counties with a case rate greater than 200 per 100,000 people over a two-week period, or more than 60 cases over a two-week period for counties of less than 30,000 people.

Clackamas and Washington counties are added to the two-week hiatus due to their case rate being just below the threshold, and both counties registering significant daily case counts in the past few days.

These measures replace the county watchlist process Governor Brown instituted in July.

The full list of the two-week hiatus – in effect from November 11 to November 25 – now includes the following nine counties: Baker, Clackamas, Jackson, Malheur, Marion, Multnomah, Umatilla, Union and Washington.