Masks will be required indoors for all Multnomah County residents 5 years and older starting Friday, August 13. The mandate is in response to the dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases over the past month due to the more contagious Delta variant and is expected to last until January 2022.

The mask mandate will be enforced similar to how the county enforces tobacco regulations: a complaint-driven process with reprimands starting with education and leading up to a $1,000 fine. The county will announce details on how to make a complaint on Wednesday.

“With the emergence of the Delta variant, we are at risk of losing the gains that we've made together,” Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury said during a press conference Monday. “We would rather not issue fines, we would rather not have people self-policing their neighbors, but we want to be clear. We need people to wear their masks indoors, regardless of whether they're vaccinated or not.”

Oregon’s latest surge of COVID cases is one of the largest since the start of the pandemic. In mid-July, the state was averaging 100 new cases per week. Now, Oregon is reporting nearly 1,000 new COVID cases weekly, most of which are the Delta variant.

According to Multnomah County Health Officer Jennifer Vines, the Delta variant is three times more contagious than the original virus, which is why it’s also infecting those who’ve been vaccinated against COVID.

“I want to be really clear that the vaccine is outstanding,” Vines said. “It does its job in preventing severe disease and hospitalization, but we're learning that in the setting of the Delta variant, it will not permit all infections, so a vaccinated person may still get a mild infection and therefor may still be contagious which is why we are asking everyone to wear a mask indoors.”

Vines also encouraged people to wear masks in large social settings outdoors when the vaccine status of the group is unknown.

In addition to slowing the spread of the virus, the mask mandate is also intended to provide a more consistent message throughout the county, according to Kafoury. The county health department and Oregon Health Authority began recommending everyone wear masks indoors in late July after the Delta variant started causing an increase in COVID cases across the state.

Kafoury noted that there has been a call from businesses to have a more clear leadership from the county or state about masking protocols.

“We've heard from a lot of individual businesses that having a clear, consistent, concise message is what is most important, and that it was very difficult for them to enforce these rules on their own,” Kafoury said. “They wanted the state, preferably, and at least at the county level to have a consistent message so that's what we're doing today.”

After Oregon’s lifting of most COVID safety precautions at the end of June, Governor Kate Brown has left COVID safety decisions to each individual county. Kafoury said Brown is supportive of Multnomah County’s decision to require masks.

Brown released a statement following Multnomah County's announcement thanking Kafoury for taking "bold action" against the spread of the Delta variant and urging other counties to do the same.

"I am calling on local leaders to take action now to institute mask requirements," Brown said. "At this point in the pandemic, local leaders are in a unique position to help deliver the message to members of their communities about effective safety measures like vaccination and masks."

Kafoury also noted that she asked Brown to expand the recent healthcare vaccine requirement to people who work in corrections and law enforcement.

Representatives from the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and Kaiser Permanente described long emergency room waiting times and weary healthcare workers during the press conference, stressing the strain that COVID cases place on the overall healthcare system.

Renee Edwards of OHSU also said that because of Oregon’s previously low case rates and current vaccination rates, the state overall has a low immunity level, putting Oregon as the sixth highest risk state in the nation for new infections.

“But, if we all mask now, we will lower the number of people who need to be hospitalized and that will give those who still need to be vaccinated time to get their immunity through vaccination,” Edwards said.

Vines said that the county is still determining what level of the population needs to be vaccinated in order to repeal the mask mandate. But, with each new, more contagious variant, the level of community immunity needed to slow the spread of the virus increases.

“As immunity levels go up—hopefully through vaccination and not through infection—then we may be able to peel back this mandate before January,” Vines said. “But, I think this is an example of how we need to stay really flexible and really alert to how the virus is behaving globally and anticipating what we're going to need to put in place to keep our local communities healthy.”