Gov. Kate Brown announced Tuesday that Multnomah County will move from “high risk” to “lower risk” on Thursday, a shift that will bring with it far less restrictive COVID-19 containment measures -- including higher capacity limits at restaurants, bars, gyms and spectator venues such as the Trail Blazers’ opening home playoff game at the Moda Center.
The governor’s looser COVID-19 restrictions will have no effect on her mask mandate that unvaccinated Oregonians must wear masks in indoor public spaces in most situations. But Multnomah County health officials are imploring all members of the public -- vaccinated or not -- to continue wearing masks indoors regardless of whether they’ve been vaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month said vaccinated Americans no longer need to cover up in most indoor spaces. But in their steadfast mask recommendations, county officials seem to be acknowledging that guidance created one big, real-world problem: Unvaccinated people might present forged vaccination cards if asked for documentation or simply remove their masks after they enter businesses, continuing the spread of the coronavirus to others.
So, beyond unvaccinated people, county health officials are “advising everyone else to keep wearing masks because, in many situations, there is no practical way to tell who is fully protected,” read a statement from the county Tuesday.
Jessica Guernsey, county public health director, noted that the state still is identifying more than 400 new known infections each day.
“Masks work, and we ask you to keep masking up until our vaccination rates go up and our disease rates go down further,’' Guernsey said in a written statement. “Thousands of people have been fully vaccinated across this county, but not in every neighborhood or age group. Nearly one-third of those eligible have not yet received any shot, particularly young people.”
Brown is loosening Multnomah County’s COVID-19 restrictions because at least 65% of its residents 16 and older have been vaccinated with at least one dose against COVID-19 and the county sent the state an equity plan meant to address disparities among vaccination rates among races.
Brown last Friday moved five other counties -- Benton, Deschutes, Hood River, Lincoln and Washington -- to lower risk because they’d met those two qualifications. Multnomah County had already reached the 65% threshold last week and the county could have joined the other counties in their lower risk status last Friday -- except that county officials didn’t submit their equity plan because they wanted more time to develop it.
Currently, 67% of Multnomah County residents 16 and older are at least partially vaccinated.
Under the county’s new lower risk level, restaurants and bars can increase their capacities from 25% to 50%.
Gyms, movie theaters, museums, zoos and swimming pools also will be able to increase boost capacity from the currently allowed 10% or 15% to 50% on Thursday. A special provision also will allow some businesses -- such as the Moda Center -- to designate vaccinated sections with no physical distancing or capacity limits. The Blazers, however, will require fans in vaccinated sections to wear masks.
Thursday’s shift comes less than four weeks after Brown moved Multnomah County and 14 other counties to “extreme risk” and shut down indoor dining and instituted some of the most restrictive measures on businesses to stem a fourth surge of coronavirus cases. Since then, new cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations have been falling -- and all 15 counties moved out of extreme risk about three weeks ago.
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-- Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee
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May 26, 2021 at 08:12AM
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As Multnomah County is approved to ease restrictions Thursday, officials plead with public to still wear mask - OregonLive
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