November 11, 2020 3:40 a.m.

On Monday. Governor Kate Brown announced the addition of four counties to the Two-Week Pause on social activities, to help stop the rapid spread of COVID-19.

Starting Wednesday, Baker, Clackamas, Union and Washington counties join Jackson, Malheur, Marion, Multnomah and Umatilla counties in the pause, which will run through November 25th.

Brown said, “As we continue to see alarmingly high case rates reflective of sporadic community spread, now is the time to implement measures to further reduce gatherings, and curb human contact”.

Two-Week Pause measures include:

*Urging all businesses to mandate work from home to the greatest extent possible.

*Pausing long-term care facility visits that take place indoors to protect staff and residents.

*Reducing maximum restaurant capacity to 50 people for indoor dining, including customers and staff, with a maximum party size of six.

*Reducing the maximum capacity for other indoor activities to 50 people.

*Limiting social gatherings to one’s own household, or no more than six people if the gathering includes those from outside the household. Reducing the frequency of these gatherings significantly in a two-week period and keeping the same six people in a social gathering circle.

The Two-Week Pause is being instituted in counties with a case rate above 200 per 100,000 people over a two-week period, or more than 60 cases over a two-week period for counties with less than 30,000. The measures replace the County Watch List process, which Governor Brown instituted in July.