PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Multnomah County officials gave an update on Tuesday about what needs to happen in order for the county to reopen.
The three areas that the county still needs to see improvement in are contact tracing, support for communities of color and having enough personal protective equipment for first responders.
For contact tracing, Multnomah County needs 15 contact tracers per 100,000 people. Currently, there are 34 case investigators who conduct contact tracing. The counties are working on getting contact tracers in various communities who are especially impacted by COVID-19, like the latinx and black communities.
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Another thing county officials say they are working on is tracing 95% of new cases within the first 24 hours.
“We do want to be able to measure if are we able to follow up in a timely fashion,” said Public Health Director Rachael Banks. “We want to know we have at least half of the workforce before reopening.”
In order to meet the states requirements to enter Phase 1, Multnomah County says it has already met them. The county says hospitals have adequate PPE, there are shelter locations for those who cannot self-quarantine and there’s been a 14 day decline in hospital admissions.
One health official said she is confident with where they are right now. However, we did not get a date as to when they expect to submit a plan to the governor.