PORTLAND, Ore. — While some businesses were disappointed in Governor Kate Brown’s announcement to halt reopening plans in Multnomah County, others said it was the right call.
OSPIRG, the Oregon consumer advocacy group with more than 40,000 citizen members, called on Brown to stop Multnomah Country from entering Phase 1 last week.
According OSPIRG, The Oregon Health Authority is tracking six public health metrics to measure progress containing COVID-19. The most recently released data, using information from up to June 7, shows Multnomah County is currently failing three of six health benchmarks due to rising hospitalizations and a large number of infections that cannot be traced to a known source. If data through today were included, the County would be failing four of six benchmarks, as new infections reported have risen over the last week.
Numi Lee Griffith, the health care advocate at OSPIRG, said the rise in hospitalizations is concerning.
"We've seen a rise in cases following Memorial day, we've seen increased hospitalizations over the last week in particular, and really all these things are signs that the virus is spreading in our community," said Lee Griffith.
Lee Griffith said while the current uptick in cases is from a few weeks ago, the current protests and demonstrations of tens of thousands of people in downtown Portland will also lead to a rise in cases.
"Any form of mass gathering, whether it's a church gathering or a protest or a music festival, all of those will cause an increase in transmission and have the risk of increasing the number of cases," said Lee Griffith.
She said they are also concerned with data related to contact tracing. In Multnomah County last week, the number of cases that could not be traced back to a known source was above 40%.
"What that's telling us is that there's 40% or more, almost half of the cases, we have no idea how the people got infected," said Lee Griffith.
When it comes to Multnomah County reopening, Lee Griffith, isn't optimistic.
"My thoughts would be is if we continue to see cases rise next week,
I don't think phase one from Multnomah County is realistic next week. If we continue to see cases rise after that, it's not realistic, then either," said Lee Griffith.