Gov. Kate Brown talks reopening Oregon

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>> live, local, late breaking, this is kezi 9 news, breaking news.

>> we are now going to governor kate browns where she is expected to talk about the counsel des approved for reopening in phase one.

>> good morning, everyone.

Thank you all for joining us this morning.

We're here today to share the latest updates about ouring response to the covid-19 pandemic and to outline several new guidelines.

We will also share new about the counties that have qualified to enter phase one of the reopening plan to build a safe and strong oregon.

I'm joined by pat allen, director of the oregon health authority and our state epidemiologist.

It has been over seven-weeks since announced oregon's stay home save lives order.

We have stayed physically distant from our friends and our families, postponed weddings, messed out on concerts and canceled graduation parties.

My heart goes out to the class of 2020.

As businesses close their doors to protect their customers, so many oregonians have lost their jobs and also income.

This is extraordinarily difficult for all of us but it is saving lives.

Already these sacrifices have prevented as many as 70,000 covid-19 infections and 1500 hospitalizations in oregon.

Our success this far gives me confidence as we take the next steps towards our reopening process.

Yesterday, we released new statewide guidance for childcare.

Soon, we will provide statewide guidance for public tran set operations and youth summer camps and summer school programs and on the operation of gyms in phase one counties.

Full details shall available on our website, coronavirus.oregon.gov.

Last week we issued updated guidance for retail businesses around the state.

Most retail businesses were never required to close, but many did.

Thank you.

Many retailers are gradually reopening under safe physical distancing protocols.

This includes main street shops, furniture stores and be other retailers that can implement physical distancing.

One other note about statewide rules.

People who usually work in an office and have been working from home during the pandemic must continue to work from home.

This is incredible criminal incredibly important tolimit th.

Thank you for following these very important rules north america let's talk about oregon's regional approach phase one reopening.

Three counties have not yet' pleaed for reopening.

They are multnomah, washington and clackamas.

We received applications from 33 counties seeking to enter phase one reopening.

We reviewed these applications for completeness, posts them on line right away and forwarded them to the oregon health authority for their review.

Oha's team of medical and public health experts reviewed each application in some cases, we asked for clarifying information.

After thorough and detailed review, i have approved 28 of these applications.

In each of these counties, we will continue to monitor testing rates, effectiveness agent contact tracing and isolation of new cases, hospitalization rates and other metrics that are required to remain open during phase one.

The counties that have been approved for phase oncement one are baker, benton.

Clatsop, columbia, cruise, crook, curry, deschutes, douglas, gillum, grant, harney, hood river, jackson, josephine, clam math, lake, lane, lincoln, lynn, malher, they are monday, tillamook, union, walala, wasco, wheeler and yamhill.

This is good news.

I also have to announce that at this time there are two counties that applied for but do not currently meet the criteria for phase one reopening.

These are marion and polk counties.

We will revisit that.

Dr. suedlinger and oha director pat allen can face marion and polk counties.

I want oregonians to know, we will continue to work closely with local public health and elected officials in these communities to address the spread of the virus.

I'm committed to reevaluating their applications each week in the hopes that each of these counties can meet the criteria for phase one reopening very soon.

The applications of three counties, jefferson, umati lla and mo morrow are still under review.

They're working closely with us in providing information.

We will make any decisions public as soon as possible.

It is really, really important to emphasize in all of these cases the county leaders submitted very detailed applications.

They advocated for their counties to be reopened, but my job is to make hard decisions, even when they are unpopular.

When it comes to the health and safety of oregonians, the buck stops right here.

Over all, i was incredibly impress bid work that counties put into their applications.

The prprerequisites laid out, we all much better prepared now than before this exercise.

Reviewing these applications, reinforce the fact that these were the right requirements and that we must remain vigilant in the coming weeks.

Starting tomorrow, counties that are approved to enter phase one can begin the limited reopening of the following seconds under specific safety guidelines.

So, restaurants and bars in these counties will be allowed to open for sit down service as long as they maintain six feet distance between parties, limit parties to a maximum of 10 people, require all employees to wear face covers and end on-site consumption by 10:00 p.m.

Personal care businesses, including barbers and salons, may open in these counties as long as they screen clients prior to service, limit visits to scheduled appointments, record their client list, maintain physical distance between clients and require providers to wear face cove coverings.

Gyms in these counties may open in a limited capacity, so long as they can maintain a physical distance of six feet between gym users, close all showers and pools, and have very strong cleaning protocols in place.

Finally, and these counties we will be allowing in-person gatherings of up to 25 people for any purpose, so long as physical distancing is maintained.

Now, let me be clear.

Some people will hear these rules and see the list much of counties entering phase one and say we are being too restrengthtive.

Others will hear the exact same information and say we are moving too quickly to reopening the economy.

I've been in this job long enough to know that i am not here to make everyone happy, and if i try to please everyone, well, then nothing would get done.

I'm focused on protecting the health and safety of oregonians while understanding that job losses have a negative impact on public health, both physical and emotional health.

The shared goals of good public health and a strong economy are intimately connected and it is not an either/or scenario.

Be as i said last week, he was reopen parts of our economy, we know and expect that there may be an uptick in new coronavirus cases.

Reopening any part of our state comes with risk.

The virus is still very dangerous and until there is a reliable treatment may be at risk of resurge earns and may need additional assistance.

The county lacked the capacity to identify, mop ter new cases or evidence of community spread.

For example, are 30% of new cases not able to be traced to a new case.

Evidence of people getting sick with covid-19 is evidenced by results and hospitalizations.

When we reviewed the 33 applications we received, we found every county but two met the criteria.

The two counties that messed the mark on the reopening criteria were marion county where hospitalizations have increased over the most recent period.

In addition there was significant increase in cases in early may.

Nearly 40% of new cases couldn't be tracked to a known source.

And polk county, where hospitalizations also increased.

We found a high percentage of new cases that couldn't be traced to an identified source.

We will monitor these counties for the next seven-days.

If trends improve, they can be considered to move on to phase one.

Finally, we did see a rise in cases in clatsop county in early may, however that county was approved to move forward because they were able to trace their out break to a specific facility which gave us confidence they could contain the spread of covid-19 there.

Let me be clear, we will continue to monitor every county's trends each week.

If we see red flags in the percentage of positive cases and contact tracing data, we will evaluate whether additional action is needed.

Do we need to intervene in an out break in a plant or dial back the practice met parameterf what is open.

Covid-19 is not going away any time soon.

To keep oregon safe and strong, we need to continue to work together to suppress the virus in our state.

We've done it so far, we can continue to do it as we take the next cautious steps towards a safe, faced in reopening.

>> we're ready for questions.

>> just a quick reminder, please press zero if you would like to get in the question queue.

If you can today, please repeat your name and outlet so the microphones can pick up who is asking the question.

We're going to start first with sara from kbtv.

>> hello, this is sara, a reporter with kptv, channel 12 in portland.

My question is about counties that are reopening and what that means for, let's say, residents who are living in counties that have not reopened.

Is there a guides and that governor's office has -- guidance that the governor's office has for folks that say i can't get to a barbershop or service in my county, can i travel to one that has reopened.

And also, with tourism, as well.

I know there are some of these counties granted to reopen that are hot tourist spots.

What kind of advice do you have to folks who might want to travel and make plans in that regard?

>> sara's question is whether folks that are in counties like clackamas, washington and multnomah can travel to other counties either for services or for tourism.

And i guess, i know this is really hard, i know many of us are really wanting to get our hair done, get our haircut, whatever you need to do, but we are asking folks in the metro area to be thought 68 of their fellow oregonians and to stay home and limit their travel to essential need.

I know this is hard, but we obviously don't want to overwhem the rest of oregon.

>> reopening is a team sport.

It is not going to work if some people follow the rules and others don't and if people decide to travel, tourist destinations or others to get services, we need to take this slowly, one step at a time and we need everybody on the team to do their part.

>> katu news here.

Hi.

My question was, marion county has been unable to conduct contact tracing for 40% of its cases system oha going to step in to assist at all in helping them conduct that contact?

And my other question was about the gyms and youth activities and camps.

No guidance has been issued for those areas, but they're included and able to start, you know, reopening tomorrow.

And, why was that made if no guidance has been issued?

>> thank you, lisa.

I'm going to turn that over to director allen.

>> i'll take the first part of that regarding contact tracing in marion county.

The statistic is they're doing quite a bit higher percentage than just 40 of the contract tracing.

What the statistic refers to is about 40% of their cases couldn't be traced to another case so that is a warning seib there is a broad degree of community spread in the community.

Nonetheless, we're helping them with open deem logical consultations, employs 20 oregonian health staff, case investigators are contact tracers to work with the county to increase their capacity, we've provided additional test collection supplies.

We announce the i think the day before yesterday, we've deployed a number of the rapid test machine bees to marion county, focusing on communities that are particularly at risk.

Regarding the guidance, i don't know that i can answer that one.

>> lisa, your second question was regarding gyms and when will the guidance be available, is that correct?

>> yes, that's correct and this is lashay with katu news.

>> sorry.

It will be available as soon as possible.

>> we are working on getting that guidance up on the seconds, hopefully tomorrow.

We hope the business in those seconds hold off on opening up until they see the full guidance, it is going to focus on some physical distancing and some other broad parameters governor brown laid out and we will have that up as soon be as it is fully developed.

>> before the next question, i misspoke earlier talking about testing numbers.

I may have said 14,000 tests, yesterday was 4,000 tests which is still a record number of tests in a day for us.

>> thank you, director allen, for correcting.

>> the missing element of schools.

At this point what do you expect about opening schools.

We've heard the state will leave it up to the counties to follow the new guidance, we heard the state is planning to open all schools at the same time.

So what's the status on that.

>> thank you for your question, les and your question is whether or not there is guidance available in terms of school districts across the state.

The answer is not yet.

One of the reason why is we're reopening summer programs and summer camps for children gradually over the next several weekings is we want to make sure our children cross the state have the educational opportunities and can participate safely through the summer months.

But, obviously, a focus of my administration is to make sure we can get our children back into school at the outset of next school year.

Obviously, education is the game changer for our families across the state and we want to make sure that every child in this state has the opportunity to achieve their full potential.

And be so the director of the department of education is working with teachers, with superintendents with educators across the state to develop a plan for safe reopening of our schools in the fall of 2020.

I think the challenge is, it might look a little different than we're used to in our precovid life, but i think it is so important and i think, as a state, we have to make the education of our children a priority even through this covid-19 pandemic.

>> if i may follow-up, governor.

Is the intention now to issue a statewide decision on schools, or is there consideration as you've done be today to allow schools by region to open up?

>> les in terms of the plan moving forward, it would obviously be my hope the entire state would be ready to reopen in the fall.

But, as we, as dr. fauci has said multiple teams, the disease controls the timing, we don't control the timing.

So obviously i would hope for the entire state to open at once, but i do think we're going to have to be more nimble and more flexible with regards to our school year moving forward.

And we're going to have to come up with plans to adapt to out breaks of covid-19 around the state and its impact on education.

I do know in other states, for example, when there has been a bad flu bug, a certain portion of students are second or educators are sick, they will ended up closing a school or a school direct to slow the transmission of the flu virus.

I think the data, and i'll let dr. sidelinger speak about the data with children is still not clear regarding transmission of covid-19.

>> thank you, governor brown.

We are still lucky that children are relatively spared in this outbreak, as we've heard recently and even announced here in oregon.

We have one child hospitalized with an inflammatory syndrome associated with covid-19, and our thoughts go out to that family that child and we hope for a safe recovery.

With the new illnesses being identified, children are relatively spared.

Children with you would lying medical conditions may be at risks for complications and some teachers and staff in the schools may be at risk due to age or underlying conditions.

We want to take a thought afl-cio proach working with the oregon health authority, school boards, staff and family, members in schools to put guidelines in place that can assure the safety of children as they return to school, assure the safety of staff as they return to school and it is not going to look like it did last fall.

It will look different.

How do we doll that in a way that allows children to get back to getting an education there may be some hybrid learning with distant learning and in person learning and we know the education is incredibly important to children and families and we want to get them back into school as safely as we can and we will look at that and develop guidelines for that.

>> hi, opd here.

I want to ask about contact tracing requirements in deschutes county, the number of tracers in the plantronics falls county fall wellbelow, and whatr counties that don't have the current staffing levels.

>> i'll take that question.

We looked at the number of cases there are today in the county air their success over the last seven-days, and also over a longer period in meeting the threshold of successfully contacting cases within 24-hours, 95% of the time family they were doing that, rather than require them to basically hire people who wouldn't have a lot to do right now, we wanted to know they had a solid plan for how to be able to ramp up that capacity quickly.

And so it was a combination of what is their success today, their load of cases and their ability to add to those tracers.

>> does the state have a plan to help counties, especially the east side of the cascades, it to ramp up contact.

>> there are 20 out of a pool of 100 we've identified here in the staff of oha who are available to be able to fill in gaps.

I work with surges, those kinds of issues these occur around the state.

We're also then providing direct resources to most counties to be able to add to their own staff, contract with other organizations, work community health workers, those kinds of things, to add to that capacity.

>> in a county that is near and dear to my heart, w walala coun, there is a close partnership there.

>hello, governor.

You said salons can reopen if they screen clients.

Is there uniformity in a baseline body temperature.

>> thank you for the questions, what are the details for salons, personal services.

He will turn that over to dr. sidelinger.

I want to emphasize we are nhl this together and it is really important we protect one another.

>> director allen says, if you're second, stay home different matter if you have covid-19 or a really bad case of the flu or bad cough, we want you to stay home because that's how you prevent transmission and that's how you protect your neighbors or your hair dresser in this particular case so dr. sidelinger.

>> thank you, governor brown.

Building on asking people stay home when they're sick, this is what our screening would entail.

If you're going to one of these salons or other personal services, we ask that the owner or the person that you're going to see screen you, asks you some questions about how you're feeling, make sure you're not sick.

If you are showing any symptoms is that you not come in for that appointment and reschedule it for a time when you're not sick.

Some businesses may choose to take temperatures of folks as they enter in and that is an augmentation to the screening and questions they ask but that is not something we require.

We really want to have that dialogue ahead of time so people can be' sured they don't have symptoms and can reschedule that appointment for when they are feeling better, if they are showing some symptoms. >> hi there.

Portland tribune.

Governor, i wonder if you've seen the may 7 report from the institute of disease modeling.

If you read the assumption, it seems to indicate general relaxation of social distancing could lead to between 30 and 08 additional deaths over the coming 30-days.

Governor, do you agree with those estimates?

Do you think they're relevant to what you are doing today?

>> thank you, nick, for the question.

And the question is i have read that particular study and am i aware that we're likely to see more cases and more deaths as we begin to reopen.

I believe i said in my remarks, and i know this that as we begin reopening, we're going to see more cases of covid-19 across the state.

As i've said before, this is like walking out on to the ice.

We have to make sure that the ice is solid.

If it is, we can on it move forward, but if it is not, you need to move back.

And i know that the approach that we have taken in oregon has saved lives apple prevented the transmission of covid-19,.

I think we have the opportunity to begin rebuilding a safe and strong oregon because we're on track to meet the goals that doctors and epidemiologists have laid out for us.

We certainly flattened the curve with physical distancing.

We know that reopen willing likely i increase tran mission.

I'll turn it over to dr. sidelinger.

>> thank you, governor brown.

I think the data and report that its institute for disease modeling have been providing to oregon are very important.

With the briefings with the governor and staff we include that data for planning as well as what we're seeing from the location come counties, local public health partners, tribal partners.

If we relax the measures we have in place we will see increased cases.

They also show if we maintain some physical distancing, use face coverings to protect those around us and have an aggressive public health surveillance system to test, tri-state and isolate individuals who are sick that can minimize the in crease in cases in oregon, can minimize the hospitalizations and also lower the number of deaths we will see from this infection.

>> howard here with the east oregonian.

My question was specifically with umatilla and morrow counties and their application.

What help will the state give and what timeline is the state looking for when they would like toannounce the status of te application nice want oregonians to know that county leaders across the state have done an enormous job, we lace out extensive prerequisites for the first opening in phase one and we will continue to remain vigilant in the coming weeks and on it protect the health and safety of oregonians.

Director allen.

>> thank you.

We're looking for working with the county and having more conversations with them today, both counties, to gather data about contract tracing.

We want to make sure we have the appropriate data to make an informed decision and we will make that decision as quickly as we can.

>> just to a reminder to folks online, press zero for a question.

We have people lined up already.

Next question is for the oregonian.

>> yes, i have two questions.

The stay at home order that you issued, governor, on march 23, is that still in effect?

The portion that says that we're tonight leave our homes for essential tasks?

And maybe you could distinguish if it is not in effect everywhere, just in effect of those counties you didn't approve for reopening.

>> you could repeat the question, please?

>> i'm sorry.

So i'm wondering if the portion of your stay at home order from march 23 is still in effect, the portion that says that we're tonight leave home for essential tasks.

Or, is it in effect in the portland metro area and counties that haven't been approved for reopening, but it is not in effect, people can leave their home for non-essential tasks in counties that have been approved for reopening?

>> we're issuing a new executive order very soon, and the requirements in the order will be very, very clear, but, as you know, we opened up, for example, some limited recreational opportunities, and in the order it specifies that oregonians can travel for those specific recreational opportunities.

Again, we're asking oregonians to be considerate and thoughtful to neighbors and be smart.

>> well, i guess that didn't answer may first question, am i living in portland supposed to only leave home for essential tasks?

>> yes, we're asking people to stay home in the metropolitan area for essential tasks.

Obviously, we have opened up parts of the state for recreation for limited experiences, and the new order will ensure that folks can travel safely to those recreational opportunities.

Again, we're asking oregonians in the metropolitan area to be thoughtful and consider i ate ef their neighbors.

>> so the cdc guid guidance wheo begin the reopening is a documented cases in a 14-day period or downward positive testing, what makes you and other health officials here confident you have a better approach than the cdc on reopening.

>> thank you.

I'm going to turn over to director allen.

>> thank you.

Just very briefly, we do have a downward trajectory in the rate of positive tests.

We've been increasing the number of tests we've done over the last several weeks and i think like we've talked about all along, the more you test, the more cases you will find and that is why the number of cases is going up.

But that positivity rate has dropped substantially in the last two-weeks.

It is why those markers the cdc is looking as, hospitalizations because they kind of exist unrelated to how much testing you're doing or how many cases, they are a marker of serious cases.

If they are serious, they will show up in terms of hospitalization.

That number has also dropped significantly over the last several weeks.

>> thank you, director allen.

I think i'll just build on that.

We're looking at multiple markers to see if we're ready to reopen and we will continue to monitor those markers.

We're looking at decreases in hospitalizations which we are seeing across the state and sealing across most counties.

We're looking at the people presenting to the emergency departments with symptoms of covid and that has stayed low.

We're looking at the number of new cases and making sure the public health system is ready to test, trace and isolated individuals we pick up.

While there is an uptick in cases, some of that is due to changing definitions with a presumtive case definition that has come out and testing many more individuals.

We are seeing the individuals are having mild symptoms or sometimes no symptoms at all and they're picked up as an out break investigation.

Hospital numbers continue to decline.

Looking at all the data together we feel with our response in place already, the continued building of contact tracers and other resources to meet the needs that we are -- loosen these re instructions and appropriately control the spread of the disease and monitor it continuously going forward to keep oregonians safe.

>> i have two clarifying questions based on what i've heard from people.

The first one is, who is in charge of oregonian, ever oregon's coronavirus response?

Some states have had like a czar appointed, and that doesn't appear to be the case in oregon so who is in charge of the none oregon.

>> thank you, dick.

We did not -- i did not as governor appoint a coronavirus czar.

I, instead, empowered a panel of medical experts to advise me and assist me in decision making.

I think it is fair to say that the medical advisory panel or the map, as i fondly call, it has worked in close partnership with the oregon health authority to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in oregon.

>> dick had a second question.

>> are you still there?

If you're having some phone issues, go ahead and send me an e-mail with your question.

Next is the oregonian.

Go ahead, ted.

>> can you hear me?

>> yes.

>> okay.

I'm wondering how the state is going to monitor counties for on going compliance with the prerequisites, and is it kind of a self-reporting mechanism or is, you know, trust but verify kind of situation?

>> thank you for your question.

I'm going to turn that over to dr. sidelinger to talk about how the state is going to hold local jurisdictions accountable.

>> our public health system in or gone just that, it is a system.

We have our state public health division here at the public health authority, the local health authorities throughout state and tribal health authorities and we work every day before covid-19 and during covid-19 to stop the spread of the disease.

We have a shared system where the local public health authorities, contact tracers inbe ter information so we can create reports and look at trends.

There may be a county that is struggling with out breaks so reach out to see if there are resources that can help.

Location coal officials reach out to the state to say this is what is going on, can you help us with that.

We will work on a partnership with that and continue he was move forward and build a larger workforce.

Providing resources to counties to add contact tracers, kits out to counties and ensure they can get tests to labs to receive the results and do out break investigations.

So we are working together in the same database all the time.

We create reports that were released publicly to you and those are the same, that's the same information we use to work with counties.

We also ask that businesses on it follow the guidelines as they reopen and we've had a system in place for oregon osha to be able to work with individuals who see a business may have a complaint about a business not following guidelines and that listen to go forward.

We're all in this together, we're working together, not just business observers or public health but all oregonians to take steps to protect other oregonians and work together to get through this safely.

>> if i can build on that, part of the safeguard in the system is the data we rely on comes from a variety of different sources relatively unconnected from each other.

Labs across oregon and be other parts of the united states required by law to report positive and negative tests.

Health care providers required to report diseases like covid-19, hospitals required to provide data about hospitalizations and personal protective equipment.

Local public health entities required to provide data about the case investigations and those kinds of things.

And that multiplicity of data sources i think thing helps us to know we're getting a variety of datas sos.

If something goes out of wack, one data source looks like it is missing something or not catching a problem, we get the information we need.

>> ted, on a practical level, i'll continue connecting with legislators and county commissioners on a regular basis.

That information is helpful to me.

Sometimes i receive a text or phone call, a county commissioner notifying me they're setting up a certain program or need a particular piece of equipment.

I pass that information on to my team and it gets responded to.

We will continue to gather information through