Benton County appears to be the first in Oregon to require outdoor masking to blunt coronavirus spread, passing legislation this week requiring tens of thousands of fans to mask inside Reser Stadium when the Oregon State Beavers’ football season opens in September.
In fact, the rules approved Tuesday require anyone 5 and older to wear facial coverings in any outdoor public setting where a physical distance of at least six feet cannot be maintained.
The move by Benton County’s Board of Commissioners comes after Gov. Kate Brown last week reinstated a statewide mask mandate for indoor public places but left outdoor restrictions up to local counties. While outdoor transmission was thought to be almost nonexistent earlier in the pandemic, the highly contagious delta variant is shattering records and rewriting the rules, with state officials already announcing spread tied to an outdoor concert in eastern Oregon.
Benton appears to be the first Oregon county to act on an outdoor masking requirement in advance of big upcoming events. The statewide summer schedule includes some 500,000 people expected at college football home openers, the Pendleton Round-Up and the Oregon State Fair.
Charles Boyle, a spokesperson for Brown, said the governor is encouraged by Benton County’s decision and is urging county commissioners, local leaders and business owners across the state to “take action now to protect their communities.”
“At this point of the pandemic, we are not taking any options off the table but, if we all do our part, vaccines and masks will save lives and help keep our schools, businesses and communities open,” Boyle said Wednesday in an email.
But, so far, no other counties with upcoming big-ticket events have indicated that they’ll follow Benton County’s lead.
Umatilla County Commissioner George Murdock said the Board of Commissioners met Wednesday morning and discussed Benton County’s decision to require masks outdoors, but haven’t chosen “one way or another” whether to require outdoor masking.
“We are deeply concerned about the skyrocketing hospitalizations, new deaths in the county, and the fact that 44% of our residents over the age of 12 are not vaccinated,” Murdock said in an email Wednesday to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The Pendleton Round-Up returns Sept. 11 and is expected to draw up to 60,000 attendees. No outdoor mask mandate is currently in place in Umatilla County, and event organizers have not said they will be requiring masks or proof of vaccination upon entry.
The county first got a taste of what large outdoor gatherings could do when health officials traced back at least 66 coronavirus cases the Pendleton Whisky Music Fest on July 10, one of the first mass outdoor gatherings to take place in Oregon after the governor lifted all capacity limits June 30. Positive tests exploded nearly seven-fold just three weeks after the festival, far outpacing rates across the rest of the state, Umatilla County Public Health Director Joseph Fiamura previously told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Benton County officials are hopeful their outdoor mask mandate will prevent this type of spread from happening in their county and keep local hospitals from being overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, said county spokesperson Alyssa Rash. As of Wednesday, the hospital region that includes Benton County was operating at 98% capacity, with none of the 93 staffed intensive care beds open, according to state data.
The outdoor mask requirement is set to expire Sept. 30, but commissioners have the opportunity to extend it if necessary. Oregon State is set to host Hawaii on Sept. 11 and Idaho on Sept. 18, with a stadium capacity in Corvallis of about 45,000.
According to Rash, the original draft of the rules required masks outdoors only in gatherings of more than 300 people where physical distance wasn’t possible. After hearing from public health experts, Rash said, the commissioners decided to remove the number and “take a more conservative approach.”
The response from Benton County residents to their decision has thus far been largely positive, Rash said.
“Most of those we have heard from in Benton County are in support of this order,” Rash said. “We heard from several community members who wanted Benton County to enact a face covering mandate to keep those in our community safe and preserve our hospital capacity.”
Oregon State University officials are “very supportive” of the county’s outdoor masking requirement, said Steve Clark, a university spokesperson. Officials are also exploring the possibility of requiring proof of vaccination at Reser Stadium, but don’t believe there is a need to set capacity limits if all health measures are followed, Clark said.
Meanwhile, Marion, Lane and Multnomah counties similarly have large outdoor events in the weeks ahead.
Marion County, home of the Oregon State Fair, is preparing for up to 350,000 people to descend upon the Oregon State Fairgrounds over 11 days starting next week.
According to Marion County Commissioner Kevin Cameron, the county is partnering with Salem Health and the Oregon Health Authority to offer vaccinations on the fairgrounds throughout the length of the event. Attendees will also be required to wear masks inside buildings and enclosed areas, and will be encouraged to wear masks in crowded outdoor spaces and to practice social distancing, Cameron said.
Beyond those efforts, Marion County is following state and federal mandates and has “no plans to implement further county restrictions,” Cameron said.
“People from all around the state will attend the fair, not just citizens of Marion County, so we believe it is important that we stay consistent with state and federal guidelines and mandates,” Cameron said in an email Wednesday.
In Lane County, the University of Oregon opens its football season in Eugene Sept. 4, with a capacity at Autzen Stadium of about 54,000. Officials in Lane County did not respond Wednesday to questions about their plans.
Officials in Multnomah County didn’t respond to questions Wednesday, either. The Portland Timbers and Portland Thorns play soccer games at Providence Park, which has a seating capacity of about 25,000. Beginning Aug. 25, fans will be required to show proof of vaccination status to attend games.
For officials in Benton County, requiring masks outdoors is part of their effort to help the entire state slow the surge of coronavirus, with average daily cases and hospitalizations now at all-time highs.
“We are all in this together,” Rash said. “Reducing spread of COVID-19 and protecting the health of Oregonians is a collective effort.”
-- Catalina Gaitán; @catalinagaitan_
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