Governor Brown Announces Two-Week Pause on Social Activities to Help Stop Rapid Spread of COVID-19

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Here’s latest update from our Oregon State Chamber of Commerce (OSCC) legislative counsel. Any opinions expressed or implied are those of OSCC and do not necessarily reflect those of the Springfield Chamber or its representatives.

Measures take effect Nov. 11 in Malheur, Marion, Multnomah, Jackson, and Umatilla Counties, with five additional counties close to triggering these measures.

Governor Kate Brown today announced new measures pausing social activities to help stop the rapid spread of COVID-19 in counties where community transmission is on the rise. These pause measures will be in effect for two weeks, from Nov. 11 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.

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 on Monday to determine if those counties qualify.

The Two-Week Pause 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 (includes gyms, fitness organizations/studios, bowling alleys, ice rinks, indoor sports, pools, and museums). 

• Limiting social gatherings to your household, or no more than six people if the gathering includes those from outside your household, reducing the frequency of those social gatherings (significantly in a two-week period), and keeping the same six people in your social gathering circle. 

You can view Governor Brown’s full remarks here