April 20, 2021
This week has been emotionally difficult for people in Oregon and all over the country. Not only do we have COVID-19 exhaustion, but we are facing difficulties together as a collective. We are talking to, learning from and creating change together, but the work is tiring. We are learning to heal from the historic trauma that have hurt marginalized people. The highs and the lows of the news can feel like riding a roller coaster, and it is easy to forget that we need to pause and reflect on what we need to be well.
Here are some ways to take good care of yourself:
- Talk to someone who will listen with care.
- Play some favorite music.
- Take some deep breaths.
- Practice a hobby that you enjoy.
- Read a good book.
- Cuddle with your pet.
- Unplug for a while if you need to.
And remember that taking precautions to keep yourself and your community safe from COVID-19 is also a way to take care: wear your mask, watch your distance, limit your gatherings and wash your hands frequently.
Visit our Safe + Strong website for more resources, including how to contact the Safe + Strong Helpline and information in languages other than English.
It’s okay to give yourself this moment to believe that things can be okay.
We recently talked with Joe about COVID-19’s effects on the fishing industry, vaccination and TikTok fame. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m the captain of a commercial fishing boat here in Newport. I fish squid and crab and tuna. When we got hit with COVID it was devastating to the industry. A lot of our live crab is shipped to China and when they were shut down it was affecting our market. We got a million dollars of orders canceled overnight. We were really struggling to try to find a domestic market. It was tough. Our price dropped by more than half.
We were going to go tendering in Alaska, but we couldn’t get tender contracts because the plants had outbreaks and it was a bad scene. (Tender boats head out to sea and meet fishing boats that are full of fish. The tender boat buys the fish and takes it to sell at the nearest fish processing plant.)
Getting the vaccine is huge for business. If we keep on with COVID, I’m going to go out of business. This last year, my income has been half or less than any other normal year.
I’m a combat veteran and I have bad lungs. COVID sketched me out. If I get it there’s a fairly good chance I could die from it. I’m 38 years old and I’ve got a family, I’ve got a daughter, I’ve got people, a whole crew that depends on me. I have to go to work. I’m a food producer. I’m supporting a family and a crew. It’s something you do out of respect for humanity or mankind. Do your part to protect your neighbors.
I really hope that more people will open up to the possibility of a vaccine and see that it’s not just a certain type of person that’s getting it. There are working-class people that are getting it.
I think it’s just the responsible thing to do. I’m kind of sick of living in the COVID world. I want to be able to have BBQs with my friends and hang out. I want my daughter to be able to give my Mom a hug.
As Joe Berzerk, he calls out racism and homophobia on TikTok in language that’s not suitable for all. He’s not quite sure how he got to nearly 150,000 followers but says maybe it’s because he messes with people’s expectations: "I’m a pretty gruff guy, I’m very large, covered in tattoos. I have a beard and I’m all grizzled from fishing. If people were to look at me they may not guess where I stand politically.”
Joe Conchelos and his daughter stand atop his fishing boat.
Joe Conchelos with his family.
Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is working to make sure that communities who are significantly impacted by COVID-19 have easy access to vaccine information. OHA’s Safe + Strong campaign has developed several short, animated videos to answer some of the key questions that communities have about vaccination: Are the vaccines safe? Are they free? Do I need insurance?
The videos, called “Vaccine Answers,” include one 60-second video that addresses all the questions and several shorter videos that folks can share with their communities. The videos launched this week in English and Spanish and are being developed in several other languages in the coming weeks.
The ads can be found on OHA's YouTube channel and you can click on the image below to watch the full 60-second video. Thank you for sharing these with your friends, colleagues and communities!
Today, county risk levels under the state's public health framework to reduce transmission and protect Oregonians from COVID-19 were updated.
The framework uses four different risk levels for counties based on COVID-19 spread — Extreme, High, Moderate and Lower — and assigns health and safety measures for each level.
For counties to move to (or remain in) Extreme Risk, they must meet the county metrics for case rates and percent positivity, plus statewide hospitalization metrics: COVID-19 positive patients occupying 300 hospital beds or more, and a 15% increase in the seven-day hospitalization average over the past week.
Effective April 29 through May 6, there will be 23 counties in the High Risk level, three at Moderate Risk and 10 at Lower Risk. Three counties have been given a two-week caution. There are 11 counties that qualify for Extreme Risk based on their county metrics, but are assigned High Risk because the statewide hospitalization triggers have not been met.
As case counts and hospitalizations increase and counties qualify for higher risk levels, increased safety measures for businesses and activities will resume. A complete list of counties and their associated risk levels is available here.
Updates to Warning Week data and county risk levels will be posted to coronavirus.oregon.gov.
There is one new COVID-19 related death in Oregon, and the state’s death toll remains at 2,460 because of a data correction from a previously reported death, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 12:01 a.m. today.
Oregon Health Authority reported 580 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 176,157.
Updates to indoor sports metrics, effective April 23
Recognizing the importance of athletics for the physical and mental health of Oregon’s youth athletes and at the direction of the Governor’s Office, OHA has updated Oregon’s metrics for allowing the resumption of indoor full-contact sports. Sports organizations are required to follow health and safety measures for indoor full-contact sports to lessen the risk of COVID-19 infection. Additional guidance for indoor full-contact sports from OHA is forthcoming.
Today, OHA reported that 26,051 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 17,762 doses were administered April 19 and 8,289 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry April 19.
The seven-day running average is now 34,935 doses per day.
Oregon has now administered a total of 1,349,485 doses of Pfizer, 1,135,323 doses of Moderna and 88,696 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. As of today, 1,044,211 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series. There are 1,615,363 who have had at least one dose.
Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the state’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).
To date, 1,645,605 doses of Pfizer, 1,360,500 doses of Moderna and 215,500 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines 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.
Note: Reported case counts and electronic laboratory report (ELR) totals are lower than expected today due to unexpected downtime of Opera, Oregon’s COVID-19 case database, which occurred during business hours yesterday. This downtime paused the processing of ELRs received yesterday, and OHA expects that all delayed ELRs will be processed today. OHA anticipates case counts and ELR totals to be higher than expected tomorrow due to this delay.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Benton (20), Clackamas (47), Clatsop (1), Columbia (3), Coos (6), Crook (11), Curry (4), Deschutes (42), Douglas (8), Gilliam (1), Grant (8), Harney (7), Hood River (3), Jackson (47), Jefferson (1), Josephine (12), Klamath (47), Lake (1), Lane (67), Linn (13), Malheur (2), Marion (21), Morrow (2), Multnomah (86), Polk (7), Tillamook (1), Umatilla (15), Union (2), Wallow (1), Wasco (3), Washington (81), Wheeler (1) and Yamhill (9).
Note: On April 7, OHA reported in error Oregon’s 2,434th COVID-19 death as a 48-year-old man from Union County who tested positive on Nov 11. The man is not dead, and the number of COVID-19 deaths in Oregon has been adjusted to accommodate this error.
Oregon’s 2,460th death is an 82-year-old man from Sherman County who tested positive on Jan. 11 and died on Jan. 27 at Yuma Regional Medical Center in Yuma, Arizona. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.
COVID-19 hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 255, which is 12 more than yesterday. There are 58 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is one 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.
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