NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, August 5, 2020
Mask mandate misinformation
State expects
businesses to post
signs, provide
face coverings and
enforce regulations
Eagle file photo
By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle
Some local businesses
have claimed patient privacy
laws and constitutional pro-
tections exempted them from
enforcing Gov. Kate Brown’s
order to wear masks indoors,
but Oregon’s Occupational
Safety and Health Adminis-
tration shared facts on Friday
about what they said was mis-
information about the man-
date and a business owner’s
responsibility.
Oregon OSHA Public
Information Officer Aaron
Corvin said face coverings
are now required in outdoor
public spaces when physical
distancing is impossible and
in all indoor public areas.
OSHA guidelines say a
Gov. Kate Brown announced
that all Oregon residents are
required to wear masks or
face coverings in indoor public
spaces.
business needs to post a sign
regarding face masks and
enforce the requirements for
people who enter. A person
with a medical condition or a
disability that prevents them
from wearing one can ask for
accommodation.
He said a business must
post signs, provide face cov-
erings and enforce the regu-
lations, including providing
accommodations for people
with a medical condition or a
disability that prevents them
from wearing a mask without
putting other people at risk.
Typically, according to
a memo from OSHA, these
accommodations will not
allow individuals to enter a
business without required
face coverings.
According to OSHA guid-
ance, when people come into
a business without a mask,
it is not to be assumed they
have a medical condition.
“Businesses have to take
the person’s word in these
instances and should not
inquire further about the
medical condition or ask for
proof,” Corvin said. “How-
ever, in such situations, busi-
nesses have to provide rea-
sonable
accommodations
to receive the service with-
out putting workers or other
customers at risk. They can-
not simply let a person who
cannot wear a face covering
enter without one and with-
out regard to the safety of
others.”
OSHA’s guidance says it
will not cite or shutdown a
business if someone were to
enter their business without a
mask.
The agency would, how-
ever, be required to contact
the business to let the owner
know what they should be
doing to enforce the man-
date. This, according to the
guidance, gives businesses
an opportunity to let OSHA
know what they are doing as
well.
OSHA’s guidance says
business owners do not need
to be “militant” and refuse
people from entering their
stores and shops without a
mask. But, the guidance says,
if customers refuse to wear
a face covering, OSHA does
expect them to politely refuse
service.
Corvin said penalties to
businesses that fail to enforce
the order vary depending on
the factors involved.
“Under our penalty rules,
a serious violation that is not a
willful (i.e., intentional or pur-
poseful disregard for require-
ments) carries a minimum
penalty of $100 and a maxi-
mum of $12,675,” he said.
He said a willful violation
carries a minimum penalty
of $8,900 and a maximum of
$126,749.
Gov. Brown says virus spike, political
stalemate led to Umatilla County rollback
Brown: ‘This is a public health
crisis. Lives are at risk.’
By Gary A. Warner
For the Oregon Capital Bureau
Rapidly rising COVID-19 infec-
tions, an ominous public health report
and a political stalemate led to Gov. Kate
Brown’s unprecedented late-night order
rolling back the reopening of Umatilla
County.
“It was clear (Thursday) afternoon
that if we did not act immediately, this
could spread like wildfire,” Brown said
Friday in an interview with EO Media
Group. “More people would die unless
we took really quick action.”
It was the first time the state had
reversed a county’s progress under
the Reopening Oregon phased plan
announced in mid-April. Umatilla
County was moved two phases back to
Baseline, the highly restrictive rules in
place at the end of the spring peak of the
pandemic’s spread in Oregon.
The Oregon Health Authority reported
Friday that total COVID-19 cases in Ore-
gon now stands at 18,492. There have
been 322 deaths. The Johns Hopkins
Coronavirus Resource Center reported
Friday that there have been just over 4.5
million COVID-19 cases and 152,940
deaths nationwide. Worldwide, the center
reported 17.4 million cases and 675,584
deaths.
For Umatilla County, the move resets
the clock to restrictions in place last
spring. Residents are encouraged to stay
home, minimize travel, work from home
if possible and limit public gatherings
to 25 people and social gatherings to 10
people. Restaurants must return to take-
out only. Most recreational facilities and
entertainment venues must close.
If infection rates drop significantly,
the county could move to Phase 1 after
21 days.
Brown’s Thursday night order also
moved Morrow County from Phase 2 to
Phase 1. Morrow County officials said
they were working with the state on pos-
sible voluntary measures to head-off a
return to Baseline.
Morrow County ranks 70th and Uma-
tilla County ranks 75th in per capita new
coronavirus infection rates among the
over 3,000 counties in the United States,
according to an analysis of state health
records by the New York Times.
Brown said the state’s own met-
rics showed Umatilla County has the
state’s highest COVID-19 infection
rate: 234 positive cases per 10,000
residents. Morrow County reported
PMG file photo/Jaime Valdez
Gov. Kate Brown, at a May press event, wearing her mask in public.
213 cases per 10,000 people.
The weekly percentage of tests that
come back positive in Umatilla County is
23%, well above the statewide average of
5.1%. Morrow County’s positive test rate
is even higher — 30%.
For the past few weeks, Brown said
she and health officials made attempts
to get Umatilla County to take voluntary
actions. Union and Lincoln counties had
voluntarily rolled back from Phase 2 to
Phase 1 when they faced rising infection
rates. The two counties were removed
Thursday from the state’s watchlist of
counties where infections are rising
beyond acceptable limits.
Brown had hoped to replicate the
same pattern with Umatilla County,
but said her overtures were repeatedly
rebuffed. She said county commissioners
would only follow statewide restrictions.
“Honestly, I have been in contact reg-
ularly with the local county commission-
ers. I would prefer to do things collabo-
ratively, but in this case, it has become a
crisis,” Brown said.
As late as Thursday afternoon’s
weekly Oregon Health Authority
COVID-19 briefing, the only mention of
Umatilla and Morrow counties was that
they would remain on the watchlist.
Brown said her decision to act Thurs-
day night came after she received reports
Thursday from Oregon State Univer-
sity. One showed 17% of Hermiston res-
idents turned up positive for COVID-19
in a special testing program. About 80%
of those who tested positive did not have
symptoms, but could infect others. A sec-
ond report showed “significantly higher”
levels of COVID-19 in wastewater sam-
ples taken in Hermiston and Boardman
compared to other areas of the state.
Brown said she knows the rollback
will be a health care and economic bur-
den on the counties and that she would
take action to reduce the impact.
Adding more testing is challenging
because of a growing nationwide short-
age of test kits. Longer waiting periods
are widely reported as labs struggle with
a backlog of tests.
Brown said she had asked for help
from the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services and asked Oregon’s
congressional delegation to keep up pres-
sure for more supplies.
“It’s not looking like it will be com-
ing,” she said.
Brown said she wanted to help those
impacted by the rollback by targeting
some of $35 million in funds from a spe-
cial fund the Legislature created to East-
ern Oregon. The program would send
$500 emergency relief checks to Orego-
nians who are still waiting on unemploy-
ment benefits.
Currently, the funds are allocated on a
“first come, first served” basis, but Brown
said she wants to set aside an unspecified
amount from the fund for rural and East-
ern Oregon.
While she understands that residents
are eager to get back to normal, the
quickest way is to concentrate on getting
the virus under control, Brown said.
“This is a public health crisis,” Brown
said. “Lives are at risk.”
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Counties must lower COVID-19
case numbers to allow in-person
school, governor orders
By Jackson Hogan
EO Media Group
In order to resume in-per-
son school this fall, Ore-
gon counties and the state
as a whole must meet a low
threshold of COVID-19
cases that only one county
currently meets, according
to a new mandate issued July
28 by Gov. Kate Brown.
The county in which a
school district is located
must meet these standards
for three weeks in a row: 10
or fewer COVID-19 cases
per 100,000 residents and
5% or less positive tests per
week, according to Brown’s
new mandate. The state
must also have 5% or less
positive tests as a whole, the
new rule states.
The rule is slightly
less strict for kindergar-
ten through third grade
classes, or rural school dis-
tricts with fewer than 100
students. Those grades and
school districts can reopen
in-person education if their
home counties have 30 or
fewer COVID-19 cases
per 100,000 residents over
seven days, the mandate
states.
Not only are younger
children less likely to catch,
show symptoms of or trans-
mit COVID-19 to others,
but in-person learning is
more crucial at that age, said
state health officer Dean
Sidelinger.
“These younger stu-
dents need access to in-per-
son education to develop lit-
eracy and numeracy skills
they need that are critical to
their continued learning,” he
said at the press conference.
However, an area that
meets these standards at first
but later has an uptick in
COVID-19 cases could be
forced to transition back to
at-home distance learning.
School districts must
make distance learning
plans if the local county
has 20 or more COVID-19
cases in a week or 7.5% or
more of COVID-19 tests
in the county are positive.
Districts will immediately
return to distance learning
if the local county has 30 or
more COVID-19 cases in a
week and 10% or more of
local COVID-19 tests are
positive.
“Let me be really clear:
I am absolutely unwilling
to lose an entire school year
for any of our kids,” Brown
said in a press conference
Tuesday afternoon. “But it
is also incumbent on all of
us … to take every measure
to slow the spread of this
disease so we can get our
kids into school as quickly
as possible.”
As of Tuesday, Oregon
has had 17,416 COVID-19
cases, according to the Ore-
gon Health Authority.
From April through
the end of June, less than
“LET ME BE
REALLY CLEAR: I
AM ABSOLUTELY
UNWILLING TO
LOSE AN ENTIRE
SCHOOL YEAR
FOR ANY OF OUR
KIDS, BUT IT IS
ALSO INCUMBENT
ON ALL OF US
… TO TAKE
EVERY MEASURE
TO SLOW THE
SPREAD OF
THIS DISEASE
SO WE CAN
GET OUR KIDS
INTO SCHOOL
AS QUICKLY AS
POSSIBLE.”
—Gov. Kate Brown
5% of COVID-19 tests in
Oregon returned positive,
Sidelinger said. In July,
the percentage of positive
tests rose to close to 6%, he
said, but it has been trend-
ing down again recently, he
added.
Only five Oregon coun-
ties had fewer than 10
new COVID-19 cases per
100,000 residents in the
past week, according to
state data. All five of these
counties — Sherman, Til-
lamook, Union, Wallowa
and Wheeler — are rural
and relatively small in
population.
When stretched out to
the three-week requirement
of fewer than 10 new cases
per week, only Wheeler
County — the state’s least
populous county — quali-
fies to re-open classrooms
for all students.
The major Oregon
counties with the few-
est COVID-19 cases per
100,000 residents were
Benton and Lane counties,
with about 10 and 16 cases
per 100,000, respectively.
To help make distance
learning more effective in
Oregon schools that need
to do so, Brown announced
a release of $28 million
of emergency funds to go
toward internet hotspots,
internet-accessible comput-
ers, online curriculum and
teacher training.
Brown and Sidelinger
also urged Oregonians to
keep wearing face cover-
ings, practicing social dis-
tancing and washing hands
to lower COVID-19 num-
bers so students can return
to class.
“We can’t relent, espe-
cially if we all work
together to reopen schools
and get students back in
desks,” Sidelinger said.
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