December 2, 2020 4:15 a.m.
25 Oregon counties, including Douglas, are at extreme risk for COVID-19 under the state’s new framework for reducing transmissions and protecting residents from the virus, under final details announced by Governor Kate Brown’s office on Tuesday.
A release said the framework uses four different risk levels based on COVID-19 spread: extreme, high, moderate and low, and assigns health and safety measures for each level.
The framework is in effect starting Thursday and continuing through December 17th. 5 counties will be at high risk, 2 counties will be at moderate risk, and 4 counties will be at low risk. A complete list of counties and their associated risk level is available at this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WGEdXoWTGf61Azj9_mh1zMY99FU_uPHE/view
Brown said counties that are facing extreme risk of virus spread will need to continue with strict health and safety measures, similar to the Two-Week Freeze. Brown said until COVID-19 vaccines are widely available and there is high participation, health and safety precautions will remain in place so that schools, businesses, and communities can reopen and stay open. Brown said, “The best way to protect those closest to you is by maintaining physical distance from others, avoiding gatherings, wear a face covering, staying home when sick, and keeping up with good hand hygiene”.
The release said the Oregon Health Authority will examine and publish county data weekly. County risk levels will be reassigned every two weeks. The first week’s data will provide a “warning week” to prepare counties for possible risk level changes.
Updates to Warning Week data and county risk levels will be posted at: https://govstatus.egov.com/or-covid-19/