The balancing act of keeping people safe while reopening the economy will be difficult, while consumer confidence in going back outside will play a key role in its' success.
Linn county is hoping to reopen parts of their economy to breathe some life into an area that has seen skyrocketing unemployment.
Kezi 9 news reporter andrew haubner is live in the studio to show us what needs to be done to accomplish that.
There is a delicate balancing act to trying to reopen the economy while keeping people safe...and county commisioner roger nyquist believes that there are structures in place in linn county to move in that direction...even as they've been battling some outspots in the area for the last month.
Roger nyquist: mostly, they're scrambling, trying to do what they can to get ahead of this and do things in a proactive way.
It's been as difficult a time as linn county commissioner roger nyquist can remember in his time leading local government.
But the next challenge may be tougher: establishing testing and tracing measures that will lead to reopening the economy.
Roger nyquist: the tracing in itself when you get a positive case and where were they and who have they ocntact with and how many people do we need to contact?
That's a formidable challenge.
Linn county public health has added 20 peoples to conduct contact tracing in the county with the hopes of reopening the economy, but oregon health authority spokesman jonathan modie says people staying home is more about risk mitigation.
Jonathan modie: that is all a way of encouraging people to not get into situations where they might get into close contact with other people outside their household.
But nyquist believes the decisions should be made by individual counties instead of the regions that governor brown's office has divided oregon into.
The argument being that smaller counties with less cases and more hospital capacities should be able to reopen if they meet the oha criteria.
Nyquist: i think it's proving to be a difficult task than the governors office thought it would be because you'vegot 36 counties.
This is a diverse place the state of oregon and you've got multiple economies and how you do all that that gives people a chance to get up and going.
It is important to note that counties need to submit plans to governor brown's office to enter phase 1 of reopening if they follow these criteria...a 14 day declining prevalence of covid-19...a minimum testing regimen...a contact tracing program...isolation facilities...statewide sector guidelines...sufficien t hospital capacity and suffcient ppe.
Nyquist believes linn has all these things...but the balancing act of economic recovery and public safety ultimately comes down to the consumer confidence in thinking it's safe to go back outside.
In the studio...andrew haubner...kezi 9 news.
Gov. Wolf says the state is making progress in the fight against COVID-19.
