April 7th COVID-19 Update

April 7, 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.

I have a variety of things to report on today.  Hope you find it useful.

TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

• Positive Cases: OHA has reported that 49 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 1,181.
• Total Tests: Today’s reported testing numbers reflect an increase of 1,206 test results from yesterday, bringing the total test results so far to 23,007.
• Ratio:  Though the overall numbers are increasing, our ratio of positive results still remains right around 5%.  That’s much lower than the national average (currently over 19%).
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report that four more Oregonians died from the disease yesterday, bringing the total number of deaths in Oregon to 33.
• Hospitalized: The number of Oregonians who have been hospitalized with symptoms, and who have also tested positive for the disease, is now at 329. This is a decrease of 75 from yesterday. This doesn’t not actually reflect a drop in admissions, however.  Rather, it’s a function of the ongoing effort to correct errors in the previous hospital reporting system. 
• Other Hospital Information:
  • Available ICU Beds: 303 (an increase of 6 from yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 2,130 (a decrease of 111 from yesterday)
  • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms: 464 (an increase of 64 from yesterday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 69 (a decrease of 13 from yesterday)
  • Available Ventilators: 816 (an increase of 83 from yesterday)
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 2,054,462 (137,367 up from yesterday)
  • Positive Tests: 392,594 (up 31,263 from yesterday)
  • Hospitalizations: Data not reliable. Apparently, Oregon is not the only state to have had difficulty getting consistent numbers from hospitals.  The national tracking project has put this item on hold for now.
  • Deaths: 12,621 (up 1,941 from yesterday)
  • These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can follow their updated numbers for each state and the nation as a whole here.
• The Governor issued a press release today encouraging people to wear homemade masks when they go out in order to help prevent the disease from spreading. The CDC now believes that these masks can help to some extent, but are of course no substitute for people staying at home.
• The Governor also issued two new Executive Orders today, modifying orders she has previously issued.  Executive Order 20-14 modifies EO 20-07.  That was the executive order ordering the closure of restaurants and bars, and limiting large gatherings.  It had a projected end date of April 14.  The end-date for the order has been changed to be “until further notice.”
• Similarly Executive Order 20-15 modifies EO 20-06, the order prohibiting hoarding, price gouging, and market manipulation. It too was set to expire mid-April and has been extended until further notice.
• I’ve already mentioned that Adults in Custody are starting to make non-medical masks. They are hoping to obtain medical-grade materials and begin to produce medical masks as well.  They also hope to manufacture hand sanitizer.  In addition, 11 AICs at Snake River are staffing a 211 call center to disseminate information about COVID-19.
• Tomorrow is opening day for Prosper Portland’s direct loans to small businesses. You can find details here.
• We’ve been hearing complaints that workers in the construction industry are being asked to work in circumstances and environments that put them at risk of catching the disease. Oregon OSHA, the Construction Contractors Board, and the Home Builders Association have put out a joint letter to contractors advising them of the recommended practices they should be following.
• The OHA has created a handy Dashboard on its COVID-19 website . Just scroll down and click on OHA COVID-19 Dashboard.  They will be gradually adding more features to it, including age, ethnicity, and other information.

PPE Update:

Legislators received a status update today on PPE from people in the Governor’s Office, the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) and Business Oregon.  We also learned that the Emergency Coordination Center has revised its process and priorities for allocating PPE to counties around the state.  You can read all about the new policy here.

DAS has been lining up orders for Personal Protective Equipment with their usual suppliers and also with new suppliers.  They have recently put in orders for

• 6 million K95 respirator masks (the Asian version of the N95), with an additional 2 to 3 million orders going out today
• 5 million surgical masks
• 175,000 face shields

The cost of this equipment amounts to $21.6 million. 

In addition, they have ordered $1 million worth of hand sanitizer (131,000 bottles and 50,000 gallon containers).

They’ve been working largely with seven national providers, with whom they already have a relationship, which means that they don’t have to pre-pay (unlike for orders from foreign countries), the ordering process is more streamlined, and they are more likely to have their requests move up higher on the priority list.  Of course, those national product distributors are facing a barrage of orders from all directions.

DAS has also been working directly with manufacturers who have reached out to them via the ECC website or via legislators, including a number of companies that are in-state and believe they can retool to help meet our PPE needs. Not surprisingly, these offers need to be seriously vetted.  DAS has been receiving 100 or more email offers each day. Some of those lack credibility, are bad actors, or clearly don’t have the capacity to do what is needed.  Business Oregon has been helping with the vetting.

They have successfully approved some in-state manufacturers, but those manufacturers still face challenges with retooling in a way that meets FDA specifications and uses the proper medical-grade materials.  They also need to be able to test their products, either internally or via an external lab.  But Business Oregon believes that a number of them will be able to come through for us.  Some may at least be able to provide equipment locally and regionally, benefiting their local economies as well as helping us meet local medical needs.

Senators Wyden and Merkley Introduce Legislation to Protect Immigrant Families

I’ve already written about the special challenges faced by immigrant families in the midst of the pandemic, particularly those where one or more parents lack documentation.  In the long run, it’s essential that Congress enacts comprehensive immigration reform to address these workers, but for now it’s essential that Congress addresses their immediate needs. 

I’m pleased to see that Oregon’s senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, are introducing legislation in the Senate, the Coronavirus Immigrant Families Protection Act, to do just that.  You can read a press release on the bill from Senator Wyden’s office here.

Oregon Public Universities Will No Longer Require SAT/ACT for Admission

With SAT/ACT tests having to be canceled all around the country as a result of COVID-19, many high school students and their families are wondering if this will set them back on their pathway to higher education.  Given that more and more colleges and universities are choosing to no longer require standardized test results for admission, the answer is likely not.

The Presidents of Oregon’s seven public universities have just decided to join that group, as you can see in this press release.  Beginning in Fall 2021, SAT or ACT scores will no longer need to be submitted with admissions applications.  

Oregon Workforce Talent Development Board Repurposes Allocations

One of my legislative responsibilities is serving as one of the legislative liaisons to Oregon’s Workforce Investment Board, now titled the Oregon Workforce and Talent Development Board.  In a meeting yesterday, the Board decided to redirect the $750,000 it had available for local workforce development grants to focus those dollars on investments for short-term training/retraining to meet the immediate needs of the coronavirus crisis.

The remainder of the meeting focused on the particular workforce challenges among healthcare providers.  The redirected strategic investment dollars will likely go to help deal with some of these challenges.  Here are some interesting points of information:

• Much work has been done by the professional licensing boards to provide temporary waivers to allow those licensed in other states to practice here.
• Those temporary waivers will last as long as the emergency. However, we’ll want to be working on getting them permanently licensed while they’re doing that. We need to prepare for the post-emergency period as well.
• Many hospitals are working on getting nurses who normally work in non-emergency departments trained up to work in acute care.
• Around one-fourth of all nurses in hospitals are over 60, though a smaller percentage are working in acute care.
• Among the potential lessons to be learned from this emergency is the need for hospitals (and the state in its role as healthcare funder) to be more focused on cross-training and helping workers to obtain multiple certifications.
• Nurse training programs are finding it very difficult to find clinical placements for their students at this time. This has the risk of delaying graduation, and we may not have the workforce that we need if and when the virus returns in the fall.
• The Board of Nursing is committed to being flexible in helping students move both quickly and safely through their training programs.
• There is increased interest in using simulations in place of in-person clinical experiences. New technologies are out there to make that a more effective alternative where needed.  As a result of the likely increase in use of simulations, the Board of Nursing looking at requiring that all schools have someone on staff certified for simulation training to make sure they’re done well.
• There is interest in using community college faculty to provide quick skills checks on workers seeking to be cross-trained. Such workers might include EMTs who are needed to provide emergency assistance in ERs when they bring patients in.
• One real challenge that we face is with CNAs at long-term care facilities.  LTC facilities are clearly on the front lines of this pandemic, and CNAs are providing the most intimate of care with those most vulnerable. Unfortunately, facilities are losing CNAs rapidly.  The risk is high (especially given the current shortage of PPE), and the pay is low (lower than most would earn from unemployment benefits). Many are getting sick or are afraid of getting sick, and many others need to stay home to care for their own children.  It’s a big problem.

More on the Economic Forecast

Yesterday I reported on some input that we received from Mark McMullen, our State Economist, on the current thinking of the Office of Economic Analysis (OEA) regarding Oregon’s economic trajectory in the coming months.  He mentioned that they were looking at a trajectory graph that somewhat resembled (visually) the symbol for a square root. A little nerdy and maybe incomprehensible for most of us, but you know how economists can be.

Fortunately, you can find more detail around their current thinking in today's OEA blog post, where Josh Lehner breaks it down very clearly.  (By the way, if you don’t follow this blog, you should.)  It’s a very useful little synopsis of their thinking and the questions that are still out there.  So is this one that Josh did on the unemployment trends.

More on Unemployment Benefits

The UI coronavirus website now includes a VERY helpful video on applying for benefits as a result of layoff due to the pandemic.  Scroll down and select the video entitled “Filing a New Claim During the COVID-19 State of Emergency.”  It will tell you just how to answer the questions on the application form to determine your eligibility.

I again want to remind you that if you’re having problems filing for unemployment, or have questions about your eligibility, PLEASE don’t try to call the department, even if the computer-generated message tells you to (hopefully, by now that message has been changed).  My one quibble with the above video is that towards the end he gives you the number to call.  Don’t do it.  The phone system is clearly still overwhelmed.  People have had much better experiences when they’ve used the special email address:  OED_COVID19_info@oregon.gov.  I really recommend it, at least for now.

For those self-employed workers who are wondering if they should go ahead and file or wait for further guidance, the Employment Department website now has the following message on it:

Under the new federal CARES Act, Self-employed individuals are now eligible for benefits and should file an application for a benefits claim. The Employment Department is currently reviewing all the new federal legislation and will provide more information once we receive the required U.S. Department of Labor guidance so that we can carry out these changes as quickly as possible.

AND FINALLY,

Here again are some resources that you will find useful:

• Here is the OHA’s coronavirus page, with links to a number of resources. 
• Oregon's Office of Emergency Management now has a website for information about COVID-19.
• You can sign up here for regular coronavirus updates from OHA.
• Multnomah County has an excellent website with lots of really important advice and guidance.
• Here’s one from the Governor’s Office
• The Employment Department has put together a webpage with Q&A’s on a number of employment issues related to COVID-19 (e.g., eligibility for Unemployment Insurance benefits).
• The Oregon Education Department has a new site for COVID-19 updates.

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