SALEM — Oregon could see a second wave of initial unemployment claims as counties are being rolled back after spikes in COVID-19 cases.

The stay-home order was reinstated for Umatilla County on July 31 by Gov. Kate Brown and neighboring Morrow County was rolled back to the first phase after rises in the number of infections and deaths.

With bars and other businesses forced to close again, new unemployment claims are likely to increase.

And with more populated counties, such as Marion, Multnomah and Hood River being added to the state’s watchlist last week, some of Oregon’s largest businesses are in danger of laying off employees — this time without a safety net of expanded federal benefits.

“We’re seeing fluctuations and it’s quite likely that as local areas have to tighten measures to prevent further spread of the coronavirus that we will see additional claims being filed,” Oregon Employment Department Acting Director David Gerstenfeld said. “In Oregon and nationally we’re seeing some of what were temporary layoffs turning into permanent layoffs, and that can kind of change the work that we’re doing.”

A second wave of initial unemployment claims has hit states as they have rolled back their openings due to spikes in COVID-19 cases.

According to Trading Academics, an academic data tracking company, there were 1.43 million initial unemployment claims the week of July 19 to 25, up from 1.3 million the week of July 5 to 11.

In Oregon, there have been 650,000 claims for regular benefits between March 15 and Aug. 1, according to Gerstenfeld.

Oregon saw record numbers of initial unemployment claims in March and early April as businesses shut down after Brown’s stay-home orders.

There were a record 100,700 claims the week of March 29 through April 4 and 92,700 and 76,000 the previous two weeks.

For the week of July 19 to 25, there were 9,417 initial claims in Oregon, though that is likely to rise.

“We’re anticipating that there may well be some small spikes, the spikes that we see we’re not anticipating to be anywhere near the types of increases that we saw as this pandemic began,” Gerstenfeld said.

Gerstenfeld took the helm of the Oregon Employment Department on May 31.

It took months for the Oregon Employment Department to deal with the staggering number of initial claims from March and early April with some people waiting months to receive unemployment.

Gerstenfeld said the department currently has about 1,000 claims, all of them less than two weeks old, yet to be processed.

“Even as we’ve seen small increases in the number of claims filed, we’re still seeing well, well below where we were at the peak of the filing and we’ve increased the staffing and changed our processes and gained experience so much that it would really take a massive increase in new claims to kind of derail the progress that we’re making,” Gerstenfeld said.

“We’re working through those claims so much more quickly now that even regional fluctuations or even statewide minor fluctuations wouldn’t have too much impact on our ability to keep processing claims.”

This article was originally published by the Salem Statesman Journal, one of more than a dozen news organizations throughout the state sharing their coverage of the novel coronavirus outbreak to help inform Oregonians about this evolving heath issue.