Oregon’s economy won’t re-open until the state has the capacity to test at least 15,000 people for COVID-19 per week, Gov. Kate Brown said at a press conference Tuesday.

The new target—currently, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is reporting between 7,000 and 8,000 tests per week—is one of several prerequisites for ending the governor’s stay-at-home order. Brown said they were goals agreed upon by her, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, as part of their newly formed Western States Pact for dealing with the coronavirus.

Brown declined to give a specific date for reopening the economy, saying that “the disease controls the timing.”

“We have to be cautious, or it will backfire,” she added. “If we move too quickly, we will see a spike in cases that will lead to an overwhelmed hospital system and unnecessary deaths.”

Brown’s prerequisites for reopening the economy include:

• Slowing the growth of new COVID-19 infections across the state. Brown did not give a hard number, saying that it “will be informed by metrics and by data.”

• Obtaining an “adequate amount” of personal protective gear (PPE), such as masks and gloves, for essential workers. Brown did not identify an exact amount.

• Establishing a “robust public health framework” for responding to COVID-19, including the increased testing capacity, and the ability to aggressively “contact trace,” or track who each person who tests positive for COVID-19 has come into contact with to limit its spread. This framework would also include a system for quarantining those who test positive but don’t require hospitalization.

When asked whether the OHA would need to hire more people to assist with ramped-up contact tracing, State Health Officer Dean Sidelinger said that “we have ideas of what the need is there” and that the agency was determining a plan that would include hiring more public health workers.

As the Mercury has reported, people incarcerated at Oregon state prisons have complained about low cleanliness standards and limited access to medical care during the pandemic, and filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that Oregon prisons aren't doing enough to protect high-risk inmates. However, Brown said Tuesday that she was not planning to release large numbers of low-risk inmates as part of the state’s effort to slow the virus’ spread.

Brown also fielded a question about Donald Trump’s recent false assertion that he has “total authority” over when states reopen. Brown answered that state governors “were the folks who had to make the tough decisions to shutter parts of our economy," and would be the ones to reopen them.

“We are all in this together,” she added, “and the states are truly on the frontlines.”