County remains open to serve residents

OREGON CITY, Ore. – Nov. 25, 2020 – Clackamas County will comply with Governor Kate Brown’s announcement today of a more risk-driven approach to reduce the spread of the deadly disease across Oregon. The Governor’s announced metrics now directly tie allowed activities to clear measures of risk —based on COVID-19 case data—helping businesses and the county plan ahead for reopening.

“It has been a long year for Clackamas County residents with COVID-19 and the recent wildfires. Thank you to everyone for your patience and continuing efforts to stay safe,” said Gary Schmidt, Clackamas County Administrator. “Most Clackamas County buildings will remain open to the public from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, as has been the case for the past several months.  Please check the county website to confirm office hours before visiting and consider setting up an appointment before visiting and using services through the telephone, email, webpages or other electronic means.”

Using state data available as of Wednesday, Nov. 25, a total of 5,574 Clackamas County residents have contracted COVID-19 this year; 77 county residents have died from the disease. County health officials warn the recent large weekly increases in new presumed cases is alarming.

“To give some perspective, this summer, Clackamas County averaged 100-150 positive COVID-19 tests per week. In October, it jumped to 200 per week. Last week – in just one week – we hit 811 cases,” said Philip Mason-Joyner, Clackamas County Public Health Director. “That means we have more than tripled our number of county residents infected with COVID-19 in just a few weeks.”

The data-driven framework take effect Thursday Dec. 3. The risk metrics mirror current school metrics by monitoring COVID-19 case rates (the number of cases per 100,000 population in large counties such as Clackamas) and percentage of test positivity. The Oregon Health Authority will use the latest data to update the metrics every week; since the metrics use the latest two weeks of data, counties can potentially move between risk categories—and change limitations on activities—every two weeks. The latest available data on these metrics shows Clackamas County would be in the “Extreme risk” category.

Clackamas County: Risk-driven metrics continue to worsen

                            Cases/100,000 population

                                       Percentage test positivity

11/8 through 11/21  339.9  7.4% (latest data)

11/1 through 11/14  284.8  6.4%

10/25 through 11/7  193.9  5.3%

(source: Oregon Health Authority school metrics data, https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/DISEASESCONDITIONS/DISEASESAZ/Emerging%20Respitory%20Infections/Weekly-County-Metrics.pdf)

Visit https://govstatus.egov.com/or-covid-19/ to learn more.