Governor Brown's office talks about the County reopening application process

All of southern Oregon's counties are currently under review by the Oregon Health Authority for approval.

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Approval process could take.

Alicia says: thank you again for taking the time to talk to me and kind of walk through all of this.

We're talking specifically about the applications that counties have submitted in order to get approval to start phase one of reopening.

Can you please explain how that process works when they submit an application?

Where does that go?

What?

What does that go through in order to be either rejected or accepted?

Nik says: yes, so we received quite a few applications last friday and then through the weekend.

Uh, initially our staff did a just a screen to make sure that they addressed all the requirements of the application.

And if they didn't, we would send an email back saying, hey, can you make a couple changes?

Or you miss something.

In many cases, we then, if they were to be complete, we told people, your application is complete.

We immediately posted it online, uh, so people could see it.

And then we forwarded it to the oregon health authority to have their medical experts review each of the parts of it.

Alicia says: okay.

So how long is that expected to take?

Cause i see some of the applications, jackson county specifically, has been under reviewed for a few days now.

Nik says: yeah.

Um, it's, it's imminent, but i couldn't give you a specific timeframe.

We know that we need to let people know by friday.

Uh, and this is the first time we've done this.

So we're, we're honestly going through everything really carefully.

I think the main thing i want people to understand and the governor wants him to understand is.

Lifting restrictions and reopening really comes with risks.

We expect that there will be increased cases because there'll be increased transmission, and we just want to make sure every, everybody, every county is really well prepared for that, uh, weekly increase.

Alicia says: so if it was to be rejected, the county would be notified the same way as if it was accepted.

Nik says: yes.

Alicia says: okay.

And how is that?

Is that just in contact with commissioners or who is the main point?

Nik says: i think in most cases we got, uh, that we received the application from the county commissioners or their, their executive office.

So we would probably reply to the people that respond that submitted the application in the first place.

Alicia says: okay.

And there are a number and a growing number that are under review.

Is it going in order of who was submitted first or is it going by county size?

Is there a distinction for that order?

Nik says: it's going, it's just going in the order that we received it, but we expect to be able to get through all of them and making a determination on all the ones we've received.

And i think we've received 32 counties worth approximately at the same time.

So even if you've got, if yours wasn't posted as being "under review" until a little bit later, we expect to get through all of them at roughly the same time.

Alicia says: okay.

So at the latest, we would know by friday whether or not people can reopen, and once they get that notification that it was accepted, let's say, then they can immediately begin to reopen.

Nik says: yeah.

So it's, it's laid out what's in phase one?

I think you probably familiar with that there's restaurants can begin to have dining service.

Uh, personal care businesses, like gyms, like salons can begin to in a limited way, have customers.

So, uh, yes, as soon as friday, they could begin to do that following the phase one guidelines.

Be sure to stay with us, coming up tonight on newswatch 12 at 5 and 6 the governor's at 5 and 6 the newswatch 12 tonight on coming up stay with us,