March 15, 2021
Right now, about 175,000 students in Oregon are attending school in person. And last week, Governor Kate Brown issued an executive order requiring all Oregon public schools to offer universal access to hybrid or full in-person instruction by the weeks of March 29 for grades K-5, and April 19 for grades 6-12.
What does this all mean for you, your student, and your school? Some key changes from the guidance:
-
There’s a simplified table (Page 15) showing how schools will use county case rates, case counts and test positivity rates to decide when to offer on-site or hybrid learning and when they might limit instruction to distance learning only.
-
The updated guidance offers more detail about how schools provide Comprehensive Distance Learning to families that request it (Page 13).
-
There are some changes to the size and design of cohorts – those are the stable peer groups that students are part of during the school day (Page 22).
-
While elementary school students will continue to be checked for symptoms of or exposure to people with COVID-19 as they enter school, the new guidance allows middle and high school students to screen themselves at home (Page 24).
This is our second St. Patrick’s Day since the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Oregon. Some people may be weary of taking precautions, but it is not yet time to relax them. While knowing that some of our most vulnerable community members are vaccinated provides hope, there are still many more of us waiting to be vaccinated in the next few months.
That means the safest way to celebrate this year is to celebrate with the people you live with, to gather virtually or to gather outside while wearing face coverings and maintaining 6 feet of physical distance.
Here are some ideas for celebrating safely:
-
Decorate your home in St. Patrick’s Day colors, shamrocks and leprechauns.
-
Celebrate by making Irish-inspired recipes.
-
Have a small outdoor St. Patrick’s Day celebration with everyone at least 6 feet apart and wearing masks.
-
Watch a virtual St. Patrick’s Day celebration.
-
And don’t forget to wear green.
Every loss to suicide is a tragedy. While preliminary data appears to show that Oregon has not seen increased deaths by suicide during the pandemic in 2020, we know many parents have concerns as students return to in-person education in the coming weeks. Join us on Facebook on Wednesday, March 17 at 11:30 a.m. to speak with our experts directly about how to help protect your child's mental health as they return to the classroom.
V-safe — one of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tools to monitor COVID-19 vaccine safety — is now available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and simplified Chinese. Get vaccinated, then participate in personalized health check-ins to let CDC know how you’re feeling and if you have any side effects.
Help keep vaccines safe and register for v-safe after your COVID-19 vaccination: https://bit.ly/3gNkdpZ.
|
There are two new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,324, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 12:01 a.m. today.
OHA also reported 178 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 159,788.
Today, OHA reported that 24,077 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 13,529 doses were administered on March 14 and 10,548 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on March 14. Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize.
Oregon has now administered a cumulative total of 1,346,090 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. To date, 1,642,505 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
These data are preliminary and subject to change. OHA's dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data, and Oregon’s dashboard has been updated today.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (1), Benton (5), Clackamas (20), Coos (13), Curry (1), Deschutes (2), Douglas (5), Harney (1), Jackson (22), Jefferson (2), Josephine (3), Klamath (11), Lane (10), Lincoln (1), Linn (1), Marion (7), Multnomah (36), Polk (4), Washington (32) and Yamhill (1).
Oregon’s 2,323rd COVID-19 death is a 69-year-old woman in Columbia County who tested positive on Feb. 19 and died on March 2. Location of death is being confirmed. She had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 2,324th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old woman in Columbia County who tested positive on Feb. 19 and died on Feb. 27. Location of death and presence of underlying conditions are being confirmed.
COVID-19 hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 118, which is 18 more than yesterday. There are 23 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is two more than yesterday. The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity. More information about hospital capacity can be found here.
Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations
To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit our webpage (English or Spanish), which has a breakdown of distribution and other information.
Did someone forward this to you? You can subscribe here.
|