Brown: States on Frontline
Governor Kate Brown gave little information on when Oregon as a state may reopen. In her press conference at 11 am yesterday she talked about the planning and discussions that still need to take place before there can be any easing of restrictions that were placed by her executive orders. During a question and answer period following her statement Brown was asked about the war of words between west coast governors and the White House regarding who has the authority to reopen states. Without referencing the White House Brown responded.
“Those of us who are co-located regionally that we work together that we align our efforts as we work to make this hard task of reopening our economy, we do it together.”
Brown said it was the states that are on the front line of the coronavirus and it will take concerted efforts to get back to normalcy. The Governor was unable to give specifics about a timeline, only that it will take some time and a lot of health and public safety information before she feels that Oregonians can safely return to business and social activities.
One New COVID-19 Case for Lane County
It may not be indicative of a flattening of the curve, but Lane County has only reported one new case in the last 36 hours. The number of COVID-19 cases increased to 44 late yesterday as a man in his 50’s was hospitalized. Statewide the numbers grew by 50 cases and the virus claimed two more lives. The first reported death yesterday was a 71 year old man from Multnomah County and the second was an 88 year old woman from Benton County. There are currently 1,633 known cases of COVID-19 in the state with 32,363 tests administered and 30,730 negative results.
Demand at Record Low
We reported gas prices were down yesterday, partly due to storage reserves and low demand. Marie Dodds from AAA Oregon said in her weekly update that demand is at a 52 year low. The last time demand was this low was in the spring of 1968. Last year at this time the U.S. was consuming about 9.5 million barrels a day. As of yesterday that number is 5 million barrels. Oregon is still .69 cents a gallon above the national average though prices are at the lowest point since February of 2017.
Merkley: WHO Decision Bad for U.S.
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley says Trumps decision to pull funding from the World Health Organization will likely guarantee that China will have a greater influence moving forward. He says pulling away from the table now will inflict great damage on not only the United States, but the international community. Merkley says global pandemics will require global responses and it is doomed to be repeated if we don’t work at building a global health system.