Gov. Kate Brown will require school staff to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Schools should cancel or curtail some extracurricular activities to help Oregon maintain what appears to be the beginning of a decline from record high numbers of COVID-19 infections, Gov. Kate Brown said.

Multiple forecasts over the past week showed a peak in the two-month surge of infections driven by the highly contagious delta variant.

Hospitals remain nearly full and virus case reports are still 12 times what they were in early July.

The fragile ebb in the worst of the crisis will be challenged by the flood of students returning to class.

“It is with mixed emotions that we are welcoming our kids back to school at this time,” Brown said during a Tuesday morning press call.

Brown was joined by health and education officials to announce additional, voluntary efforts to go along with the mandatory vaccination of school employees and mask mandates for students and staff.

The state will issue school health advisories on a regular basis. The first one, announced Tuesday, asks schools to cancel or curtail extracurricular activities through a least Oct. 1.

Back-to-school events should be done online, if possible.

Schools should hold as much activity outdoors as possible, including school meals and physical education classes.

“The safety protocols put in place by your school not only make it safer for everyone, but they also help ensure that our kids actually get to stay in school,” said Colt Gill, the director of the Oregon Department of Education.

While children can get ill from COVID-19, they rarely get severely sick, Gill said. But they can bring the infections home with them and spread it to at-risk people such as the elderly and immunocompromised.

Brown confirmed her order for mandatory vaccinations, saying that school staff who are not fully vaccinated cannot have contact with students or other school employees.

Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the state’s epidemiologist, said the Oregon Health Authority was looking into an 8.8% increase in the number of new COVID-19 infections in Marion County.

The uptick comes as the Oregon State Fair in Salem has just concluded. Brown had ordered that crowded outdoor events have mandatory masking rules, but television reports from the fair showed the majority of those inside were not wearing masks.

The rules are also in place for the Pendleton Round-Up, which begins Saturday in Umatilla County. The governor said she hoped attendees will wear masks and be aware of social distancing and other ways to prevent getting or spreading the virus.

“Let ‘er buck,’” Brown said, using the Round-Up’s signature saying.

Brown has attended the Round-Up in prior years and even rode a horse in the parade. She did not go to the state fair and will not be in Pendleton this weekend out of concern over the spread of the virus.

Major public health forecasts indicated for the first time last week that the top of the spike may have been reached.

The growth in infections may have peaked as early as Aug. 25 in Oregon, according to the widely followed COVID-19 monitoring and forecasting of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

The Oregon Health & Science University forecast last week estimated that hospitalizations for COVID-19 were expected to peak by Labor Day.