Washington County Can Begin Reopening Bars and Restaurants June 1

Gov. Kate Brown has approved Washington County’s application to begin phase-one reopening. Starting June 1, Washington County restaurants and bars can start serving customers onsite, as long as they follow certain protocols — tables need to be spaced six feet apart, no food or drink can be served after 10 p.m., and all employees have to wear face coverings.

The way reopening works in Oregon is more intricate than other states: Individual counties apply to reopen, sending applications and reopening plans to Brown to review. The counties have to meet certain criteria to be considered: They need to have a consistent decline in the number of cases, a certain number of contract tracers, the ability to test a certain number of people, and the capacity to accommodate a spike in terms of hospital beds and vacancy.

Washington County is one of the last counties in the greater Portland area to reopen, excluding the county that houses Portland proper: Multnomah County will be the only county left in Oregon to begin the reopening process. Multnomah County officials say they will file their application to begin phase one reopening on June 5, hoping to open the county on June 12. However, Multnomah County isn’t in the best position to begin reopening, considering a recent COVID-19 outbreak at a Portland-area fruit company and the number of contact tracers in the county. Nonetheless, Portland’s westside suburbs are still all-clear to reopen on Monday.

• Oregon county reopening status [Official]
• Multnomah County compliance dashboard [Official]
• Portland Could Reopen Bars and Restaurants As Early As June 12 [EPDX]
• Coronavirus outbreak hits Townsend Farms in Fairview [Oregonian]