Oakridge-Westfir chamber joins Lane County in asking for COVID-19 guidance review

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The chambers of commerce in Oakridge-Westfir, Eugene, Springfield, Florence and Cottage Grove co-signed a letter Tuesday that the Lane County Board of Commissioners sent to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in response to the county being moved to the “extreme risk” level for COVID-19 hospitalizations.

The letter outlines four requests that Lane County believes will help continue to protect the public health of our communities while balancing the well-being of our business community.

“We know that it is difficult to balance protecting state hospital capacity and protecting the fragile recovery now under way across the state,” said Commissioner Chair Joe Berney. “While the news that the COVID-19 risk framework may no longer be needed by the end of June is encouraging, many of our small businesses are still struggling to survive day-to-day after facing the uncertainties created by the pandemic. The future prosperity and economic welfare of our community beyond the pandemic relies on businesses surviving and being in a position to thrive post-pandemic.”

The four requests included in the letter are:

Increase the number of vaccines allotted to Lane County;
Direct the Oregon Health Authority to review all current Sector Guidance for High and Extreme Risk categories against the current trends in case transmission with an eye toward ensuring that restrictions to commerce are aligned to where transmission is occurring;
Provide as much advance notice to counties about risk metrics framework movement as possible; and
Expedite the revision of the current county risk metrics framework as soon as possible.

Lane County Public Health will continue to do its part to ensure the vaccinations provided to us by Oregon Health Authority are administered as quickly as possible in our communities. Commissioners understand that statewide reopening is tied directly to widespread vaccination. As of today, Lane County has administered 276,177 COVID-19 vaccines, which represents over 52 percent of eligible adults and 44 percent of our full population.

Doug Bates

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