Oregon governor orders 2-week coronavirus freeze, restricting bars and restaurants to takeout, closing some businesses

Coronavirus press conference

Gov. Kate Brown speaks at a press conference about Oregon's record-setting volume of COVID-19 cases on Nov. 10, 2020. Cathy Cheney/Portland Business Journal pool

Gov. Kate Brown on Friday announced the most extensive set of restrictions since her March stay-home order – once again closing some businesses and restricting social gatherings – in an attempt to slow the rapid spread of coronavirus across Oregon.

She will limit all bars and restaurants to takeout only, close all gyms, restrict indoor and outdoor gatherings to no more than six people from two different households, limit capacity at grocery stories and pharmacies, and allow churches and faith groups to accommodate indoor crowds no larger than 25.

The statewide “freeze” will be effective next Wednesday and run through Dec. 2, spanning the Thanksgiving holiday.

Some counties, including Multnomah County, are expected to remain in the partial shutdown for significantly longer. The freeze for Multnomah County, if not the entire metro area, will be at least four weeks.

“I want to be honest,” Brown said during a Friday news conference, noting the restrictions would be hard for everyone. “We are trying to stop this ferocious virus from spreading even more quickly and far and wide, and to save lives.”

The sweeping restrictions come at the end of a brutal week, where Oregon set its single day record for positive COVID-19 cases, broke new records for hospitalizations and saw the state’s overall share of cases tilt toward the Portland metro area for the first time since July.

The confluence of negative trends accelerated action by Brown, who announced one week ago that certain Oregon counties would be placed on a two-week “pause” for social activities beginning this Wednesday. Troubled by the pandemic’s trajectory and the rising number of Oregonians in the hospital, Brown is now upping the restrictions and expanding them statewide – an implicit acknowledgment that her original plan didn’t go far enough.

Oregon has fared better than most states throughout the pandemic, and Brown’s announcement Friday makes it one of the earliest this fall to again restrict access to some businesses. Brown and fellow West Coast Govs. Jay Inslee and Gavin Newsom also issued warnings Friday that people traveling to any of the three states should self-quarantine for 14 days if they must travel.

Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the state’s epidemiologist and health officer, said the freeze was “a very difficult decision,” and he called on Oregonians “with the means to do so” to order takeout or otherwise support businesses affected by the freeze. “They need our help now more than ever,” he said.

While progress won’t be easy, he said sacrifices are critical right now.

“Maybe we thought the fight was over, but it’s not,” he said. “This is likely the most dangerous time in Oregon.”

Social gatherings big and small, including Halloween or house parties, continue to drive the cases “exponentially” upward, health officials said. While they noted there isn’t significant evidence linking dining in bars or restaurants to Oregon’s spike, health officials do know that people who are more likely to hang out with people outside their household are also more likely to go to bars and restaurants, potentially fueling further cases.

The governor said she has asked Terri Davie, Oregon State Police superintendent, to work with local law enforcement agencies to determine how to enforce the social gathering restrictions.

So far during the pandemic, Brown has been unwilling to take that step, but she said violators could now face a citation, fine or arrest.

“At this point in time, unfortunately, we have no other option,” she said.

Oregon’s recent surge – which has seen daily cases double in just two weeks – came as the calendar turned to fall and COVID-19 fatigue set in for many. Health experts had long said to expect another wave of cases in the fall and winter, and that has arrived: Oregon is now averaging more than 900 daily, while the nation is topping an unprecedented 150,000.

In the past week, Multnomah County’s per capita case rate outpaced those of any other West Coast county that is home to a major city, according to data compiled by The New York Times and reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

But it was the sharp uptick in hospitalizations, and fear admissions will continue rising with cases, that proved to be a tipping point for Brown’s action Friday. The number of Oregonians with COVID-19 hospitalized at the start of last week was a record 180; it’s 308 now.

Meanwhile, the state set a record with 42 fatalities reported last week, and November is on track to become Oregon’s deadliest.

Brown and officials from Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon Health Authority spoke in frequently stark terms to describe the COVID-19 situation in the state.

As record numbers of Oregonians are infected more will become sick enough seek treatment in hospitals, straining doctors and nurses. Officials called on community members to sacrifice their personal needs, like spending time with family or friends, in order to preserve hospital capacity.

Although Oregonians with COVID-19 comprise only a fraction of patients in hospitals, any increase is felt, particularly during fall and winter months when more patients traditionally seek care.

As of Friday, the state said there were only 15 intensive care unit beds available in the Portland metro area, a worrisome figure given that people who are sickened with the virus now may be weeks away from needing more aggressive care.

“Our dedicated frontline health care workers continue to risk their lives,” said Dr. Renee Edwards, OHSU’s chief medical officer. “We are perilously close to overwhelming them. Like many of us, they are tired, frustrated and grieving.”

State modeling released Friday omitted projections about how many more Oregonians will become sick enough in the weeks ahead to require hospitalization or who may die.

A staple of previous reports, the state used new software this week and calculated but then decided not to include information about those severe cases because it didn’t appear to “give us the right numbers,” Sidelinger told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Asked if the number of severe cases appeared too high or too low, he said he didn’t have details but would look into it.

Identified coronavirus cases, meanwhile, could remain near the current daily average of 900 or spike to 1,500 in the weeks ahead, according to the modeling.

Brown’s announced freeze is somewhere in between her recent “pause” plan and her statewide stay-home order in effect from March through May. Brown had long warned she would implement broad restrictions, if necessary. But she was reluctant to move too aggressively for fear of cratering the economy and sending more Oregonians back into record unemployment, as seen early in the pandemic.

The freeze will hit gyms and restaurants particularly hard.

“This is going to be devastating,” said Katy Connors, the advisory board chair of the Independent Restaurants Alliance of Oregon and the operations director for the Thai restaurant Hat Yai’s two Portland locations. “There are going to be many, many restaurants that won’t be able to survive even a two-week closure.”

Other mandatory closures apply to museums, outdoor recreational centers, The Oregon Zoo, gardens, aquariums, and other outdoor entertainment venues. Faith groups are capped at 25 attendees indoors or 50 outdoors.

Brown also asked employers to allow employees to work from home to “the greatest extent possible” and to close their offices to the public. Indoor visits to long-term care facilities will also be prohibited.

The governor’s order is far less restrictive on retail businesses than the order she issued last spring,

when she closed shopping malls and boutiques. The new threshold allows all stores and malls to remain open, provided they limit occupancy to 75% of capacity.

Grocery and retail stores also will be capped at 75% of normal occupancy, and the state encourages people to use curbside pickup when possible.

That’s a high threshold that most retailers would rarely hit. Brown’s new order, though, may preclude some of the Black Friday craziness normally associated with midnight openings and the kickoff of the holiday shopping season. It’s not clear that any retailers planned that kind of event this year.

The National Federal of Independent Business immediately denounced Brown’s order Friday, noting that Oregon health officials are blaming social gatherings – not businesses – for precipitating the unprecedented surge in cases.

“It simply doesn’t make any sense to impose further restrictions on businesses that provide safer, regulated spaces for Oregonians to engage in economic and social activities in masked and socially distanced atmospheres,” NFIB Oregon director Anthony Smith said in a written statement.

Brown acknowledged the potential for financial hardship. But Brown said she had no choice but to take these restrictive actions, despite the economic fallout, and called on federal lawmakers to resume $600 unemployment benefits to cushion the blow for anyone who might lose hours or their job.

“It’s time for Congress to just do it,” she said of a relief package, “and quit talking about it. Oregonians can’t wait.”

The new freeze will not apply to barber shops, hair salons or homeless shelters. Outdoor recreation and sports programs, including Pac-12 college football games, are also exempt. Similarly, childcare programs and K-12 schools are not included in the new freeze.

The new restrictions come as the holiday season beckons and could extend in some places toward Christmas. Sidelinger said the counties most likely to face prolonged freezes are the nine with high per capita case counts initially identified in Brown’s “pause” plan.

Those are Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Marion, Jackson, Malheur, Umatilla, Baker and Union counties.

The governor acknowledged it’s an emotional time and people may be hard-pressed to change plans they’d had in the works for weeks.

But Brown noted that Thanksgiving must be different this year.

She and her husband, Dan, will host his daughter and her fiance at their house.

“Ideally we’ll eat outside,” she said, while adding that might not be doable and they may end up eating inside while wearing masks and socially distancing.

While it won’t be the same, she noted, similar action by all Oregonians may end up saving lives.

-- Andrew Theen and Brad Schmidt

Staff writers Mike Rogoway and Michael Russell contributed to this report

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