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March 16, 2020
Dear Neighbors and Friends:
I hope that you’re remaining healthy and taking good care of others by doing what you can to slow the progress of COVID-19. You’re probably feeling overwhelmed by the repeated messages related to “social distancing” and the need to “flatten the contagion curve,” but I have to say it again. The most important thing we can do right now is to stay away from other people as much as possible.
This disease is very easily transmitted and can be active in an individual without creating clear symptoms. If the disease is then passed on to someone with compromised breathing or other conditions, the results can be deadly. We simply do not have the number of hospital beds or medical equipment to handle the potential numbers of critical cases that we are facing if everyone gets sick at the same time. The longer we can spread out the number of those needing hospitalization, the more likely we will be able to keep our vulnerable friends, relatives, and neighbors alive.
We’re truly all in this together. We all need to do our parts.
And that requires us as elected leaders and as individuals to take steps that would have seemed extreme just a few days ago. The health professionals are telling us that if it seems too extreme today, it’s probably just about right. In any case, when we look back on this down the road, we’ll want to feel that we went a little too far rather than regret that we didn’t do enough.
And that brings me to today’s news. By the time you get this newsletter, the media will have been informed about some new steps that are being taken by Governor Brown to address the crisis. We in Oregon are not alone—a number of other states are taking similar steps to control the virus. This information was shared with legislators and local leaders earlier today.
I know that these decisions were not made easily, and the financial consequences are going to fall hardest on those who are living paycheck to paycheck. It’s going to be crucial that we find ways to get financial support to those who need it. More on that below.
New Directives for Businesses
As of tomorrow, and for the next four weeks, all of Oregon’s food-service businesses (e.g., restaurants, coffee shops, bars) will be limited to take-out and delivery services (doesn’t include food service at hospitals).
For now, the Governor is urging all other non-essential businesses to look at their operations and see if they can do something similar to takeout—i.e., minimizing in-person customer contact. We’re being asked to have as many of our meetings and other work done via phone or internet wherever possible. Theaters and gyms are not being asked to close at this time, as long as they can maintain cleansing and social distance standards, but I won’t be surprised if that changes soon.
New Limit for Mass Gatherings
Last week the Governor announced that mass gatherings would need to be limited to 250, based on recommendations from the CDC. The CDC has just lowered that number to 50, but it seems clear that that number will go down. Therefore, the Governor has decided to put the new limit for mass gatherings at 25.
New Way of Organizing Hospitals to Address the Emergency
The projection right now is that we will need an additional 1000 hospital beds and 400 ICU beds by mid-April just to deal with the Corona virus (with the health professionals needed to staff them). This assumes that the number of cases will double every 6.5 days. If we can slow down the transmission of the virus, that number will go down, but for now that is the projected need. To meet that need, we will need to expand capacity quickly and becoming much more efficient.
Starting with the Portland Metro area, all of the area hospitals will be organized by a planning team to operate as one health system for dealing with COVID-19 patients, including testing, allocation of beds and medical equipment, and release plans. Hospitals will cancel non-elective surgical procedures in an effort to free up beds. Special strategies will need to be developed for the unsheltered and others who don’t have home environments where they can recover.
This emergency will create an enormous strain on our healthcare and first-responder workforce (including those providing at-home care for the sick and vulnerable). We need to do what we can to support and nurture them, making sure they have the necessary personal protection equipment, making sure they have the family supports that they need to be able to do their jobs. A number of retired health professionals are stepping up to do low-risk work to free up younger colleagues to provide more front-line support.
Tests Slowly Becoming Available
Availability of tests from the national CDC, state public labs, and commercial labs has been a real problem nation-wide. This is improving, but slowly. Part of the problem is test materials themselves (the chemicals needed to do the tests and even the swabs needed to take samples.) The procedure itself takes time, and if the test is done by a commercial lab, Public Health needs to track down the demographic information (age, gender, location, underlying medical condition), which also takes time.
Eight people were just reported to have tested positive yesterday, the largest single-day increase in Oregon (and one new county: Yamhill).
The Governor was told this morning during a national call that commercial labs will be able to do 1 million tests nationwide this week, 2 million tests next week, and 5 million tests the week after. If those numbers bear out, primary care providers, urgent care centers, and public health centers should be able to order tests for their patients if they believe they may be infected or have come into contact with someone who is.
Here in Oregon, the capacity is only now approaching 1,000 tests a day.
New Emergency Command Structure
The Governor announced today that she has created a state emergency response team with a command structure designed to address a Cascadia Earthquake level of response. This is the kind of structure that state and local leaders have been practicing for years. The command team will be led by Andrew Phelps, Dir of Emergency Management; Dave Baden, senior emergency leader at the Oregon Health Authority, who previously worked on H1N1 virus response at the CDC; and Mike Harryman, the Governor’s Emergency Management Advisor, who previously had that job at the OHA.
A Coronavirus Coordinated Emergency Center has been established in Salem, staffed by members of a number of agencies. It will soon be operating around the clock.
Addressing Impacts on Employment and Households
The new directives (and those yet to come) will definitely create additional burdens on workers and their families. The Governor announced today that she is convening an Economic Recovery Council to come up with recommendations for actions the state can take to support businesses and workers that will be struggling.
In my last newsletter I mentioned that utilities have pledged to keep services going for customers who cannot afford to pay their bills. There is talk of moratoria on mortgage, rent, and other payments.
The new legislative Task Force on Coronavirus will have its first meeting on Wednesday and will be discussing a number of actions that the state and local governments, as well as private industry, can take in the coming weeks.
Here is a media advisory about the new task force, which just went out.
Which leads to the following:
Legislative Special Session to Address Coronavirus
It was just announced that the Legislature will be coming back for a brief special session specifically to address the pandemic. We don’t have the ability to hold legislative sessions other than in person, so the logistics of how we actually do this will need to be weighed and worked out carefully, given the current situation.
Here’s the announcement from Democratic and Republican leadership mere moments ago:
“We recognize the urgent and wide-ranging needs facing Oregonians as the worldwide coronavirus pandemic continues to develop. The Legislature will return for a special session as soon as we have an emergency response package that will address the statewide impacts on families, workers and businesses. The Special Joint Committee on Coronavirus Response will hold its first meeting on Wednesday.”
I’ll let you know when I know more.
What Do I Do If I Have Symptoms?
According to today’s briefing, please do not go to the Emergency Room unless you are experiencing emergency symptoms (e.g., severe breathing problems). Call your primary care provider if you have one, or an urgent care center or local public health clinic if you don’t, and describe your symptoms. They will tell you if you should come in or not.
As I mentioned in an earlier newsletter, you can also call the 211/OHA coronavirus hot line: at https://www.211info.org/corona-virus.
And If I Don’t Have Symptoms?
Act as if you may have the virus:
- Practice social distancing. (Stay at least 6 feet away from people if you must go out.)
- Cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze to prevent the spread of droplets.
- Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
- Keep your hands away from your eyes, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.
- Regularly wash your hands.
- Be helpful to others however you can.
And Finally,
Here again are some resources that you will find useful:
Finally, if the above links are not providing you with answers to your questions or directing you to the help that you need, please consider me and my office to be a resource. We’ll do our best to assist you or steer you in the right direction.
Best,
 Senator Michael Dembrow
District 23
email: Sen.MichaelDembrow@oregonlegislature.gov
web: www.senatordembrow.com
phone: 503-986-1723
mail: 900 Court St NE, S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
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