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March 26, 2020
Dear Neighbors and Friends:
I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well, staying healthy, and looking out for your neighbors and friends.
As you’ve probably heard, the U.S. Senate did pass the $2 billion rescue package late last night, and the House is on track to pass it on Friday. That’s great news. The sooner we can get this relief out to people, the sooner they’ll be able to cope with the financial impacts of being out of work or seeing their businesses shut down.
Here again is a synopsis of the major provisions of the legislation. The New York Times has just published a nice Q&A about its treatment of stimulus checks, unemployment benefits, student loans, retirement accounts, charitable contributions, and other features of the bill.
Our legislative staffers and our Office of Economic Analysis have been working non-stop today to understand the details of what’s in the bill and analyze what it means for Oregon. This will be needed for us legislators to know what immediate state actions are going to be needed.
As I’ve mentioned, the Governor will likely be calling legislators into a special session to pass legislation allowing us to take these actions sometime in the near future. It may be as early as next week. The Governor correctly wants to wait until we really understand the details of the federal relief package and how quickly its provisions will be able to be implemented. We’re meeting with her (virtually) tomorrow, and I may have a better sense of the timing of the special session after that.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
- OHA has reported that 50 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID-19, an increase of 57, putting our total numbers at 316.
- The number of test results continues to rise significantly. Today’s numbers reflect an increase of 1,527 test results from the day before, bringing the total test results so far to 7,269.
- The number of Oregonians who have been hospitalized with symptoms is now at 90, an increase of 15. That means that the number of hospitalizations has more than doubled since the number reported on Sunday (43).
- The number of deaths in Oregon now stands at 11. That’s an increase of 3 from the day before, more than double the number of deaths reported on Sunday.
- We are now getting reports on hospital bed availability on a daily basis. This will be a useful thing to follow as the number of cases increases:
- 362 ICU beds are available statewide (reduction of 32).
- 2193 non-ICU beds are available statewide (increase of 165).
- 684 ventilators are available statewide (increase of 76).
- Oregon has just received a large shipment of testing swabs. That’s good news, as lack of swabs was becoming one of the “pinch-points” limiting testing.
- The Governor has made a Major Disaster Declaration for Oregon as part of a request for FEMA resources. (Virtually every other state has done or will do the same.) If the request is approved, we would be eligible for disaster relief funding at a 75%/25% cost share. We are hoping that the federal government will grant waivers of the 25% state matches. While we hope that the waivers will be granted, the Governor and Legislature will need to prepare for the eventuality that they are not.
- I’ve heard concerns from constituents that the impending federal support payments ($1200 per adult, $500 per child) may temporarily push up their income and disqualify them for medical insurance coverage under the Oregon Health Plan or their children under the CHIP program. It will not. The federal legislation anticipates this problem and specifically protects them from disqualification.
- I’ve also been receiving a number of emails from constituents who are self-employed, including workers in the so-called “Gig Economy” (e.g., drivers, artists, and musicians). They generally don’t pay for unemployment insurance and aren’t entitled to benefits. Under the new federal legislation, however, they will be eligible for unemployment benefits, in addition to the direct payments. I know that will be a real relief for many.
Modeling Report Released
As promised, today we received the modeling report from the Institute for Disease Modeling. Entitled "Working paper: Projected COVID-19 epidemic trends and health system needs for Oregon," it looks at what we know about Coronavirus trends in other states and countries that are ahead of us in exposure to the virus, and creates a model to give us guidance for our planning. It looks at three scenarios for the distribution of the disease in Oregon between now and May 8: (1) “Business As Usual,” assuming that the state had not taken any social-distancing actions; (2) We follow our initial social-distancing requirements (i.e., school closures, closure of restaurants and bars for on-site consumption); (3) The more rigorous requirements of the Governor’s March 23 Executive Order are rigorously followed.
It finds that the initial Scenario 2 interventions are making a difference. They “appear to be keeping current numbers of active infections constant or growing relatively slowly.” The surge expected to come between mid-April and early May will be a challenge, but should be manageable. We will be able to avoid most of these challenges if people truly follow the Scenario 3 (Stay Home Save Lives) requirements. If we revert to Business As Usual prematurely, the number of cases will exceed our resources.
Our current level of hospitalizations don’t yet reflect the effects of the March 23 executive order, and won’t for another week or so. It’s going to be crucial that people follow the order. Given that we’ve seen a doubling of hospitalizations since Sunday, if we don’t see positive effects from the EO, and see a slowing down of that rate of increase, we’re going to be facing some real challenges.
Update on the Structure of Our Emergency Response
This afternoon legislators were briefed on the coordinated statewide effort to combat the coronavirus. Working off of existing emergency-response protocols, the statewide effort is gradually coming together. In his briefing, Andrew Phelps (Director, Oregon Office of Emergency Management) called the current response effort “the biggest logistics operation this state has ever done.”
Here is an up-to-the-minute description of the coordinated response structure, including some of the specific work that they’re doing.
Let me know if you have any questions about any of these efforts.
AND FINALLY,
Here again are some resources that you will find useful:
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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