Practice Title: Effective enforcement of COVID-19 mandatory mask requirements in indoor public places.
Department: Washington County Department of Health and Human Services
Size: Large (Population of 500,000+ people)
State: Oregon
Summary of Practice:
Washington County, Oregon has the second largest population in the State of Oregon (620,000). It is also the most culterally diverse county in the state. Many of our front line workers in the community are BIPOC and cannot work remotely.
The Oregon Governor's Office issued a mandatory mask requirement for all indoor public facilities in the summer of 2021 and the Oregon Health Authority issued temporary emergency administrative rules regarding masks in indoor public spaces. Enforcement of COVID-19 mandates are left to public health departments. However, beyond education there is no teeth to enforce state regulations. After contacting law enforcement and the district attorney's office, it was clear they would not enforce or prosecute public health mandates. Therefore we needed an alternative to protect front line workers and the public in indoor public spaces. Therefore after considerable work with our Board of Commissioners, the Board agreed to pass a Resolution and Order (sitting at the local public health authority) to enforce state public health laws and mandates through the County's code enforcement process. This authority not only applies to mask mandates, but all public health laws now and in the future.
Because the Board passed it sitting as the local public health authority, it applies not only to unincorporated Washington County, but also within all cities located in the county. We found cities are not interested in enforcing mask mandates and some cities are hostile to mask mandates. Additionally, code enforcement does not rely on law enforcement to issue citations or prosecution from the District Attorney's Office. The Health Department's code enforcement officers can issue the citations and any hearing is before a hearings officer prosecuted by our office. The maximum fine is $1000 per day per violation. We are the first, and only county in the State of Oregon to have an actual enforcement process that includes citations. Our compliance team has developed a protocol on addressing reported violations that includes education, site visits and issuing citations.
Since the Board granted code enforcement citation authority to the Health Departments in August 2021, mask compliance by businesses appears to have increased. Front line workers in small businesses have contacted the compliance team to report owners who flaunt the mask requirements and the compliance team has quickly acted. This protects not only front line workers, but the public as well. We have seen dramatic improvements in areas such as beauty saloons and bars and restaurants where we have a significant minority population of front line workers.
Even with the increase of COVID-19 cases with the Delta variant, Washington County's cases were lower than many other parts of the state that saw significant number of cases.
Effective enforcement of COVID-19 mandatory mask requirements in indoor public places.
Category
Public Health Law