COVID-19 Update - Oregon Executive Order 20-12 Highlights

Governor Brown issued Executive Order 20-12 this morning as anticipated. It prohibits all “non-essential social and recreational gatherings of individuals outside of a home or place of residence” effective immediately, if “a distance of at least six feet between individuals cannot be maintained.” It also prohibits individuals from “patronizing businesses that are closed” pursuant to the Executive Order. Those businesses include:  

• Amusement parks

• Aquariums

• Arcades

• Art galleries (to the extent that they are open without appointment)

• Barber shops and hair salons

• Bowling alleys

• Cosmetic stores

• Dance studios

• Esthetician practices

• Fraternal organization facilities

• Furniture stores

• Gyms and fitness studios (including climbing gyms)

• Hookah bars

• Indoor and outdoor malls (i.e. all portions of a retail complex containing stores and restaurants in a single area)

• Indoor party places (including jumping gyms and laser tag)

• Jewelry shops and boutiques (unless they provide goods exclusively through pick-up or delivery service)

• Medical spas, facial spas, day spas, and non-medical massage therapy services

• Museums

• Nail and tanning salons

• Non-tribal card rooms

• Skating rinks

• Senior activity centers

• Ski resorts

• Social and private clubs

• Tattoo/piercing parlors

• Tennis clubs

• Theaters

• Yoga studios

• Youth clubs

All businesses in the above list are ordered to close effective 12:01 a.m. on March 24, 2020. All other retail businesses (except for grocery, health care, medical, or pharmacy services) may remain open if “the business designates an employee or officer to establish, implement, and enforce social distancing policies, consistent with the guidance from the Oregon Health Authority.” If they cannot or do not do so, they must also close effective 12:01 a.m. on March 24th until they can demonstrate compliance.

Additionally, businesses and non-profit entities with offices in Oregon are required to facilitate telework and work-at-home to the maximum extent possible. Work may be completed in the office if telework and work-at-home are unavailable, but the organization must “designate an employee or officer to establish, implement, and enforce social distancing policies, consistent with guidance from the Oregon Health Authority.” The policies must specifically address how the organization will “maintain social distancing protocols for business-critical visitors.” Businesses and non-profit entities that do not comply with these requirements “will be closed until they demonstrate compliance,” effective March 25, 2020.

Failure to abide by the Executive Order is a Class C Misdemeanor. The prohibitions and requirements remain in effect “until terminated by the Governor.”