Late last week Governor Kate Brown announced that face coverings for office workers statewide could be mandated within weeks.
Governor Brown stated that state officials are consulting with professionals, medical experts and physicians regarding the challenges of implementing such an order since office settings and conditions in office buildings vary widely. For this reason her announcement of such a mandate is yet to be determined.
Governor Brown continued saying that many state offices, including the Employment Development Department and correction officers have experienced considerable outbreaks despite COVID-19 precautions already and currently implemented statewide.
State offices have been closed or operated with limited staff since March and Governor Brown went on to say that she regrets that she had not implemented face coverings earlier as her administration started the reopening process stating that the science just wasn’t as clear.
Currently, Oregonians are required to wear face coverings indoors in public spaces and outdoors when 6 feet of distance can not be maintained.
Again, no reference was made to the over 70 days of demonstrations in the Portland area as social gatherings such as family reunions and birthday parties were pointed to as the cause of outbreaks.
As of Friday, August 7th, of the 36 counties that comprise the state of Oregon, the 6 northern Oregon counties of Clackamas, Marion, Multnomah, Umatilla, Washington, and Malheur comprise 73% of all of the state of Oregon’s cases reporting 15,066 of the states 20,636 cases of COVID-19.
Gov. Kate Brown said on Friday the new order and details about it will come in a week or more.
