Oregon Health Authority has released the county guidelines for Phase 2 opening (here). These are the requirements for the County to apply to enter into Phase 2. We do not have any guidelines as of today on Phase 2 for business nor the public. We will provide those to you as soon we receive them. You can find information on cases, county data on the OHA dashboard. For example, there have been almost 117,000 people tested, there are 4,038 cases, 1981 recovered cases, and 148 deaths as of May 27th, 2020. Under the County Indicators tab you will find specific data by county. Yamhill County has met five of the six indicators: Percent of Emerg. Dept for Covid like illness is below 1.5%, Percent of tests that result positive does not trend up in the last seven days, Covid hospital admissions declined over the last 14 days and Follow up initiated within 24 hours for 95% or more of cases in last seven days.
Phase 2 reopening draft plan (attached for you) was announced over the weekend. It will still require that cases remain low, that the hospitals continue to have adequate PPE and enough beds to accommodate a surge in cases. Phase 2 will likely last some time until there is a vaccine. There will be limited reopening of certain sectors: small venues, museums, churches, movie theatres, with occupancy limitations; indoor/outdoor Activities: Bowling, Pool, Arcades, Axe throwing, Jet boats, Batting cages, Mini golf with physical distancing and sanitization requirements; youth sports with physical distancing and shared equipment; and overnight camps with cohorts. Guidance for pools and sports courts we expect to see issued soon. The curfew placed on restaurants and bars has been change to midnight, approval to increase footprint for table space with approved outside seating and allow for partitions to curb physician distancing between booths. Gatherings are limited to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors; increased travel will be allowed; limited return to work and strongly recommending remote working.
The House of Representatives passed the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act (H.R. 6886). The bill makes several positive changes to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Among other changes, the bill extends the forgiveness period for eligible expenses from eight weeks to 24 weeks. It also adjusts the restrictions requiring that 75 percent of the loan amount goes to payroll, changing the ratio from 75/25 to 60/40. The Senate is expected to take up the bill next week. The bill is expected to remain narrowly focused on changes to the current program and it will not address expansion. The next big federal package is likely to be the next opportunity to address (c)(6) inclusion. There is an additional $100M available in the fund and recommend businesses consider applying for assistance.
Governor Brown announced on Friday a $30M investment to protect ag workers and secure the Oregon food supply chain. The Governor’s Office worked with state agencies, farmers, and farmworker advocates to develop a funding proposal to deploy rapid support and resources to Oregon’s agricultural producers to meet harvest demands and to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Governor Brown also announced over the weekend that she has replaced the director of the Oregon Department of Employment, stating “In the middle of this pandemic, the continued delays from the Oregon Employment Department in delivering unemployment insurance benefits to thousands of out-of-work Oregonians are unacceptable.”
