Oregon issues 'stay home' order amid intense criticism over Covid-19 response

The Oregon governor issued a sweeping “stay home, save lives” order on Monday, after facing intense criticism for not taking strong enough measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic in a state which may be poorly positioned to weather the crisis.

Kate Brown’s order mandated the closure of a range of businesses – from art galleries to yoga studios – in which “close personal contact is difficult or impossible to avoid” as well as playgrounds and basketball courts.

A ban on on-site consumption in bars, restaurants and coffee shops, made on 17 March , remained in place. Over the preceding week, state agencies had banned overnight camping in state forests, and closed especially popular trails and outdoor recreation facilities.

Monday’s order also banned “non-essential social gatherings” where physical distancing of six feet could not be maintained. Oregonians may leave their houses, and engage in exercise and outdoor recreation, but only if the same physical distancing was possible.

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Disobeying the laws will be a misdemeanor offense.

Brown had been the subject of criticism and incredulity from health authorities and other elected officials – many fellow Democrats – after she failed last week to follow the lead of states such as California and New York in enforcing strict physical distancing.

Over the weekend, when Portlanders flooded small beachside communities in warm spring weather, the criticism became even more pointed.

On Sunday, Brown was given an unprecedented ultimatum by the mayor of Portland to shut the state down.

On Twitter, the Democratic mayor, Ted Wheeler, directly addressed the governor, a fellow Democrat, writing, “we cannot delay any longer. @OregonGovBrown, we need a statewide #StayAtHome order”.

He added that if the governor did not do so, “I’m ready to act for Portland tomorrow”.

Wheeler’s challenge came after he, other elected officials, and health bodies had been urging stronger measures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wheeler and 25 Portland-area mayors, representing 40% of the state’s population, wrote to the governor on Saturday, arguing that “delaying this order puts our residents, our first responders and our health care system at extreme risk”.

On Sunday, leaders of the Portland metro area’s three counties echoed their request.

Separately, medical authorities including Oregon Health & Science University, a major hospital provider; the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems; the Oregon Public Health Association; and the Oregon chapter of the American College of Physicians had made similar calls.

These efforts followed a botched joint press conference on Friday where Brown appeared to offer details of a “shelter in place” order but refused to issue it.

The widespread concern reflects a view that Oregon’s public health resources may be inadequate for the scale of the outbreak unfolding in Seattle, New York City, and Europe.

The state has the fewest per-capita hospital beds in the US, due to adopting a model of healthcare which is optimized to avoid hospitalization.

And according to modeling last Wednesday from Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), which operates the state’s largest hospital along with three more in the Portland metro area, its 114 acute care beds are already maxed out.

“Our inpatient occupancy currently operates at 95% capacity, meaning our hospital beds are already full,” the modeling document says.

It predicts that the Covid-19 outbreak will demand 80 ICU beds from OHSU alone, so that it “would need to double its available ICU beds within a few weeks”.

As scant as facilities are in the Portland metro area, the shortages are even more pronounced in rural areas in a state whose population is scattered across a terrain broken up by mountains and forests.

Oregon had recorded 191 cases and five deaths by Monday. But there have been serious constraints on testing, with only 3,649 performed since 21 January.

This means that Oregon has carried out 1,161 tests per million residents, putting it behind other states, and well behind benchmarks like South Korea, and raising the prospect that the extent of the outbreak is far greater than current knowledge indicates.

For a period of weeks, the only testing was being done by the state medical lab, which is limited to 80 specimens a day.

The state has tapped some commercial labs for more testing, but OHSU told the Guardian in an email that they would not assist with testing until later this week at the earliest.

The state has also been accused of obfuscating the situation by not publishing all available data.

Meanwhile, Seattle, the west coast center of the outbreak, lies just a few hours north along one of America’s busiest interstate highways.

Oregon’s first case was recorded in Washington county, the apparent center of the state’s outbreak, and home to Nike’s global headquarters, and a number of campuses of the silicon chip manufacturer Intel.

That case was announced on 28 February, just two days after the CDC announced the first recorded “community transmission” in northern California.