Restaurant braces for return to extreme risk category

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    CLACKAMAS COUNTY, OR (KPTV) — Twelve counties in Oregon are on the brink of moving back to the Extreme Risk category for COVID-19. The change would mean that restaurants would be limited to only providing outdoor dining and take-out options for patrons.

For Gail Herman, the Viewpoint Restaurant and Lounge owner in Estacada, the past year and few months have been filled with uncertainty.

“With COVID, it’s just been a rollercoaster, up and down, closed, not closed, 25, 50, outdoor dining in the middle of winter,” Herman said.

Clackamas County could move to the extreme risk level as early as next week. For Herman, that means that 90 percent of her staff would be laid off.

“Everybody will have to get laid off again,” she said. “Outdoor dining is very limited; this is our outdoor dining. I can’t employ 28 employees for this amount of people.”

Beverly Goad has worked at the Viewpoint for three years. She said when the shutdown first happened, she had to use all of her savings to survive. She said she’s also been denied unemployment and will have to do odd jobs again to make ends meet.

“I clean houses, I detail vehicles, I do gardening, I mow grass, whatever has to be done,” Goad said.

She understands that her boss is in an impossible situation with the restrictions.

“When you love your employers the way we love our employers, yeah, no, it’s extremely upsetting,” Goad said.

Herman said the impact this will have on her employees is the hardest part.

“Numbers are still going up, so I don’t believe it’s this industry that’s causing this latest outbreak,” Herman said. “So why we’re being targeted again? It’s really heartbreaking.”

FOX 12 reached out to the Oregon Health Authority for specifics on transmission rates in restaurants, but the OHA said it could not pinpoint specific figures. They said in a statement:

“We see overlap between people who report attendance at social gatherings across places – in private places and bars/restaurants. Restaurants and bars poses risks because people take off their masks to eat and drink, and restaurants tend to be places where people talk more, which produces more droplets and aerosols that are potentially infectious.”

According to OHA, Clackamas County’s rate of transmission from April 4-17 was 6.8 percent.

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