April 10th COVID-19 Update

April 10, 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 lot to report, but unfortunately not a lot of time today to do so.  So I’ll give you some here, and save the rest for tomorrow. 

TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

•  Positive Cases: OHA has reported that 50 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 1,371.
• Total Tests: Today’s reported testing numbers reflect an increase of 1,597 test results from yesterday, bringing the total test results so far to 27,224.
• Ratio:  Though the overall numbers are increasing, our ratio of positive results still remains right at 5%.  That’s much lower than the national average (still over 19%).
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report that 4 more Oregonians died from the disease yesterday, bringing the total number of deaths in Oregon to 48.
• Hospitalized: The number of Oregonians who have been hospitalized with symptoms, and who have also tested positive for the disease, is now at 338. This is an increase of 12 from yesterday.
• Other Hospital Information:
  • Available ICU Beds: 296 (a decrease of 2 from yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 2,203 (a decrease of 34 from yesterday)
  • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 353 (a decrease of 87 from yesterday). Of those, 140 have already received a positive test back.
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 93 (12 fewer than yesterday)
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 56 (a decrease of 8 from yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 797 (an increase of 3 from yesterday)
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 2,528,725 (up 168,213 from yesterday)
  • Positive Tests: 492,678 (up 34,715 from yesterday)
  • Hospitalizations: Data still 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 “pending” for now.
  • Deaths: 18,461 (up 2,062 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.
• PPE:
  • WavCel, a helmet company has decided to start making PPE. They’ve made 5,000 face shields and have a contract with Legacy Health to supply them with 30,000 units.
  • Well, it’s not exactly PPE, but it is a critical supply need right now: hand sanitizers. Members of the Oregon Distillers Guild have been able to produce 5,000 gallons of hand sanitizer so far and are ramping up to produce 20,000 gallons per week.  They are able to do this with the alcohol byproduct of their distilling process.
  • Oregon received a shipment today from USAID with around 200,000 PPE items. The items are being catalogued now and will then be sent out to counties that need them.
• OHA is now producing a weekly summary of testing in Oregon. You can check out the first report here.

CARES Act Funding for Higher Education

The federal CARES Act includes $14 billion in funding to help college and university students and institutions weather the effects of the crisis.  Legislators were briefed this afternoon by Higher Education Coordinating Commission Director Ben Cannon as to how those funds will be distributed.  The allocations will be going out to individual colleges and universities (both public and private) on the basis of number of students and the socio-economic needs of those students (using federal Pell Grant eligibility numbers as the basis for that determination. 

You can see the dollars projected for each institution here.  Of the funding received by each institution, at least 50% must be used in direct support for students, with up to 50% available to the institutions to help them manage the losses that they are experiencing as a result of the COVID-19 closures.

Universities are experiencing significant losses due to loss of revenue from housing for those living on campus. Both colleges and universities are seeing big enrollment impacts for those courses that can’t really be offered online.  This is hitting community colleges particularly hard with respect to their career/technical education (CTE) courses that require hands-on contact.  Community colleges are looking at enrollment (and consequently revenue) declines of more than 20%.  Layoffs are already occurring as a result.

Oregon’s public colleges and universities are being particularly hard hit relative to other states because they are all on the quarter system (rather than the semester system). The closure thus affects one-third of their regular academic year, with many students not attending spring quarter, as opposed to semester schools, which were already beginning to wind down when the pandemic hit.  Director Cannon expressed his hope that the next round of federal support will take that into consideration and give a higher level of support to schools like ours that are on the quarter system.

There have been exceptions to the closure order for certain CTE healthcare programs whose graduates are needed to cope with the pandemic.  However, those programs are also having difficulty right now placing their students in practicums and clinicals needed for graduation.  As I reported the other day in my report on workforce development, the licensing boards are giving them some flexibility in meeting the in-person clinical hours. We’re likely going to see a lot more investment going into virtual-reality platforms and other simulations that will get them the experience that they need without exposing them to risk.

Do You Need a UI Hearing?

Some of those filing for Unemployment Insurance have received responses telling you that you need to request a hearing.  The traditional way to schedule a hearing is by phone, which of course is not working very well right now. 

Since workers cannot get through on the phones often, the Department has made it easier for people to file hearing requests electronically.  They’ve asked those who can to request hearings by sending an email to a designated email address: OED_UI_Hearingsreq@Oregon.gov. 

This means people do not have to call in to request a hearing and have more flexibility about time of day they appeal (AKA outside of business hours). Given the volume of claims, it is taking longer than usual to process hearing requests, but as long as someone emails their hearing request to that mailbox by the appeal deadline, it is considered timely. And, if circumstances beyond their control prevent them from timely filing, they can extend that time period.

Please let me know if you’re having any difficulty with this, and we’ll look into your situation right away.

Congressman Blumenauer With the Latest on Direct Payments

Next week is the start date for the $1200 per person direct payments going out to individuals who have used direct deposit for their income tax refunds in the past.  But what if you haven’t?  What if you haven’t had to file a tax return for the last couple of years?  I’m happy to report that progress has been made to rectify that problem, and Congressman Earl Blumenauer provides good information about ways in which people in that situation can speed up their payments.  Here is a communication that went out today that gives you the very latest.

Correction to Senator Merkley PPP Link

Just received the following message from Senator Merkley’s Office:  For those of you whom received the list of Paycheck Protection  Program (PPP) lenders yesterday, this email contains a corrected link.  Don’t use the link I sent yesterday because it will only point to the old lender list and this link will always direct to the latest PDF: https://www.merkley.senate.gov/download/ppp-lenders-in-oregon

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