When Will Washington County Open?
When Will Washington County enter Phase one and Start Re-opening?
Our neighbors, Yamhill County, has been approved by the governor to start re-opening along with 27 other counties. Every county in Oregon except for the three metro counties have submitted there plans to the state. Meanwhile, Washington County has not applied and said it wouldn't be ready until early to mid-June.
The only criteria that Washington county has not met is hiring contact tracers. The county was not addressing this early in the pandemic when they already had contact tracers working in early March.
The requirement for additional contact tracers was identified in mid-April. Many cities, including Sherwood, offered to provide staff to conduct contact tracing while the county worked on hiring additional staff. Washington County received 104 million in CARES funding in April for this purpose, so money has not been an issue when it comes to contact tracing.
Other counties and states have gotten very creative to solve for contact tracing. For example, Washington State re-deployed 390 Department of Licensing staff (DMV) and 351 national guard members to jump-start contact tracing. Other Counties are leveraging non-profits in their region to get the ball rolling.
We have collectively said since this began, that "The Virus will dictate how fast we re-open." The virus has spoken. By the county's admission, we have met all virus-driven criteria defined by the state. The last hurdle is contact tracing; this criterion is about creativity, planning, and execution.
Washington County is the economic engine of Oregon; we must get the economy moving again and people back in their jobs providing for their families.