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Multnomah County officials today released a dashboard of indicators showing its progress toward being ready to reopen.
Gov. Kate Brown has established seven prerequisites for reopening. As WW reported earlier today, 28 counties have met the initial thresholds and can begin reopening tomorrow.
But while Multnomah County has met the governor's requirements on a number of measures, including sufficient COVID-19 testing capacity, it is significantly short of the contact tracers who play a vital role identifying disease outbreaks and slowing their spread by communicating with those who are infected and the people with whom they've had contact.
Currently, according to Multnomah County health director Rachel Banks, the county has 34 contact tracers, but it needs 120.
Echoing national experts, county officials said today they expect an increase in the number of infections as counties reopen, and they want to have contact tracers in place to identify and communicate with those who are infected.
A shortage of personal protective equipment is also a problem. Chris Voss, director of Multnomah County Emergency Management, said hospital systems have adequate PPE, but first responders and a variety of organizations such as social service agencies and TriMet do not. Voss said the county has had requests for PPE from 300 organizations over the past two weeks and 33 in just the past two days.
The county will provide updates on its progress each Wednesday, but Chair Deborah Kafoury told reporters today she cannot say when the county is likely to reopen.
"We are working very hard to get the PPE and contact tracers we need," Kafoury says. "But it would be irresponsible to give a date. We don't yet know."