PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – While states across the country are lifting COVID-19 restrictions, Oregon is poised to pull in the opposite direction – and many residents are fucking about it.
A health official is considering extending indefinite rules requiring masks and social distance in all businesses in the state.
The proposal keeps the rules in place until it is “no longer necessary to address the effects of the pandemic in the workplace.”
Michael Wood, administrator of the Department of Occupational Safety and Health, said the move was necessary to address a technical aspect of state law that requires a “permanent” rule to prevent the current restrictions from expiring.
“We are not out of the woods yet,” he said.
But the idea has led to a flood of angry reactions, with everyone, from parents to teachers to business owners and employees calling for government supremacy.
Wood’s agency received a record number of public comments, mostly critical, and nearly 60,000 residents signed a petition against the proposal.
Opponents are also upset government officials will not say how low COVID-19 case numbers should be in Oregon, or how many people should be vaccinated to get the requirements lifted in a state that already has some of the country’s strictest security measures do not have.
‘When will masks be unnecessary? On what scientific studies are these mandates based, especially now that the vaccine is available to everyone for days? “Said State Senator Kim Thatcher, a Republican from Emperor, near the state capital. ‘Businesses had to play a better machine man’ for a better part of a year. They deserve certainty about when they will no longer be threatened with fines. ”
Wood said he is reviewing all the feedback to see if changes are needed before making a final decision by May 4, when the current rules expire.
Oregon, a blue state, was among those with the strictest COVID-19 restrictions in the country and now contrasts with much of the rest of the country as the vaccines become more available.
At least six states – Alabama, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota and Texas – have lifted mask mandates, and some have never enforced them. In Texas, businesses reopened last month with 100% capacity.
In January, Virginia became the first in the country to introduce permanent COVID-19 rules for safety and health at work.
“While the end of this pandemic is finally in sight, the virus is still spreading – and now is not the time to drop the preventative measures,” Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam said in the wake of the announcement.
In addition to the requirements for masking and distancing, Oregon’s proposal contains more harsh workplace rules regarding airflow, ventilation, notification of employees in the event of an outbreak, and sanitation protocols.
This is in line with separate actions issued by Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, with a state of emergency, requiring masks in public in the country – and even beyond 1.83 meters distance can not be maintained – and care for strict, provincial border thresholds for business closures or capacity reductions when the number of cases rises above certain levels.
More than a third of Oregon’s counties are currently restricted to indoor social gatherings of six people, and the maximum occupancy for dining, indoor entertainment, and gyms is 25% or 50 people, whichever is less. And many schools reopen just after a year of learning online.
The workplace rule is “driven by the pandemic, and it will be repealed,” Wood said.
“But it may not be necessary to be lifted at exactly the same time as the state of emergency,” he said, referring to Brown’s executive orders.
Amid frustration and lack of pandemic, the case received a lot of attention. A petition on change.org opposing the rule received nearly 60,000 signatures and spread on social media, drawing even more interest in the proposal. More than 5,000 public comments were sent to the agency, breaking the previous record of 1,100.
“Most comments were merely hostile to the idea of COVID-19 restrictions,” Wood said. ‘The vast majority of the comments were in the context of’ You never have to do anything. ‘
Justin Spaulding, a physician at the Cataract & Laser Institute in Southern Oregon, is among those who have expressed public concern about the proposal.
“I do not understand these new guidelines for business. If we implement it, we will only continue to slow down the recent decline in business, ”he wrote. “We have a large number of patients who do not want to be (or) hostile to current guidelines, and making it permanent will only make it worse.”
For Thatcher, the GOP legislature, the OSHA’s lack of clarity is the key issue on repealing the rules.
Officials said they intend to repeal the rule, and that the decision will be made based on a complex mix of factors, including the number of cases, vaccination rates, seriousness of the case and Oregon Health Authority advice.
“It would be a complicated assessment if we did, and I would say it’s impossible to do in advance,” Wood said.
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