By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
On Tuesday, Lincoln County residents can go to a movie, take a swim, maybe enter a library, attend an indoor event with up to 100 people, and return to work in an office building.
All with proper distancing or face coverings, of course.
That’s because Lincoln County’s rates of COVID-19 have dropped so low since mid-August that it will move into Phase 2 of Oregon’s reopening plan on Tuesday.
On Friday, Gov. Kate Brown sent county officials a letter officially letting them know they could proceed into Phase 2 on Tuesday.
Lincoln County is the last Oregon jurisdiction outside the three-county Portland area to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2. Malheur County in far eastern Oregon, which is experiencing a sustained outbreak and last week was moved back to Brown’s “watch list.”
“It is looking really good,” Lincoln County Public Health director Rebecca Austen told county commissioners Monday.
The county is currently seeing only a handful of COVID-19 cases a week, Austen said, back to what it was before the massive early June workplace outbreak at Pacific Seafood in Newport.
As of Thursday there were five cases in the past seven days and just two for the seven days before that. Lincoln County has had a total of 476 COVID-19 cases since March. Some 67 percent – or 316 — of those came from workplace outbreaks, starting with Pacific Seafood and spreading deeply throughout Newport.
There have been a few small workplace or long-term care outbreaks in Lincoln City. Eleven of the county’s 13 COVID-19 related deaths were residents of long-term care or rehabilitation centers in Newport and Lincoln City.
Rural areas of the county are nearly untouched by the virus.
County commissioners had pushed back dates for moving into Phase 2 for more than a month as positivity rates suddenly spiked in mid-August and there were questions about the impact of tourists and the Labor Day weekend. The county had also been getting unclear messages from the governor’s office and Oregon Health Authority about metrics it had to meet to move into Phase 2.
Commissioners had finally settled on a Sept. 29 date – unless last-minute COVID-19 numbers this week indicate differently.
Even if the numbers increased after fire evacuations last week, the county’s numbers are now so low it should not impact reopening, OHA director Pat Allen told commissioners Monday.
“You’re in great shape to move forward,” he said. “I don’t see anything that concerns me enough not to move forward.”
The positive rate for coronavirus tests in Lincoln County has dropped below 1 percent, from a high of more than 10 percent in mid-August. The state metric is 5 percent.
“That’s really good news,” Austen said of the positivity rate.
Phase 2 now means that dozens of types of larger venues – with proper distancing and other protocols – can open. That includes everything from movie and live theaters, amusement parks, sport activities, lighthouse tours, churches and community centers can now reopen.
After the latest coronavirus numbers are compiled Wednesday, Allen said his agency will send county officials a letter Thursday giving it permission to move to Phase 2.
Commission Chair Kaety Jacobson asked Allen to alert the county as soon as possible Wednesday if there are issues.
“All systems say go,” Jacobson said. “But we don’t want any more surprises.”
Also Monday, commissioners voted 2-1 to drop its “24-hour hold” on motel rooms and vacation rentals that requires them to sit unoccupied for a day before cleaners can legally enter. The county is the only jurisdiction requiring the longer hold; the seven cities either have 1- or 3-hour holds or none at all.
Commissioner Doug Hunt voted against the immediate end to the hold, saying there was “no compelling reason” not to wait until the regulation was scheduled to expire Tuesday when the county entered Phase 2.
