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April 17, 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’m about to head out for a little walk on this lovely, lovely day. It looks as if we’ll be getting some rain this week, which I know I should also be looking forward to. We do need it. Just got off a call where one of the topics was concern around the upcoming fire season. In addition to higher temperatures and increased dryness, COVID-19 is already becoming an issue of concern in the realm of firefighting as well. The usual training for fire season has already been affected, and creating new protocols for social distancing in fire camps and other operations is definitely going to be yet another challenge over the coming weeks and months.
It’s now looking certain that the Legislature’s Emergency Board is going to be meeting next week, likely around the middle of the week, to make some necessary disbursements from the $50 million remaining in our emergency fund. I expect that the full $50 million is not going to be expended right away. It’s doubtful that more than $30 million will be disbursed in this first phase.
You’ll be interested to know that the meeting will be done remotely, so none of the E-Board members will need to risk their or their family’s health by traveling to Salem to do this important work.
The plans for the disbursements haven’t been finalized, but I would expect to see funding going into emergency housing needs (e.g., farmworker housing, some rent relief, and vouchers for houseless individuals who need to be quarantined in hotels); support for workers who have been left out of the federal CARES package (e.g., those doing vital work but whose immigration status excludes them); support for small businesses not included in federal support; funding to deal with instances of domestic violence that we’re unfortunately seeing as a result of the stay-at-home order; and funding to enhance training and testing of workers at long-term-care facilities that are being designated as COVID-19 facilities (to help stem the tide of infections and care for those infected at our congregate-care facilities). These are all priorities that I support, and I do hope this is where the E-Board lands.
We had hoped to get more guidance today from our federal partners about how the CARES Act funding that is going to states and local governments can be spent. That’s going to be really important for the E-Board to know before they finalize their decisions (we want to reserve these precious state funds for things that won’t be covered by the feds). Now we’re hoping that this guidance will come Monday. In any case, another thing that the E-Board will need to do next week is give permission to the agencies to spend the federal dollars that are already coming in to support medical care, childcare, and other needs.
I’ll of course let you know when a date for the E-Board meeting has been finalized, and how you can tune in if you’d like.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
***Please notice that I’m now using an exponential scale for the Y axis on this graph. Doing it this way allows for a more realistic sense of the upward curves of these three data points (positive cases, hospitalizations, and deaths).
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Positive Cases: OHA has reported that 49 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 1,785.
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Total Tests: Today’s reported testing numbers reflect an increase of 1,383 test results from yesterday, bringing the total test results so far to 36,321.
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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 (now over 19%).
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report that yesterday’s death total has again hit the high mark of 6, bringing the total number of deaths in Oregon to 70.
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Hospitalized: The number of Oregonians who have been hospitalized with symptoms, and who have also tested positive for the disease, is now at 427. This is an increase of 13 from yesterday.
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Other Hospital Information:
- Available ICU Beds: 274 (a decrease of 13 from yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 2,012 (a decrease of 151 from yesterday)
- Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 301 (a decrease of 6 from yesterday). Of those, 125 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): 69 (20 fewer than yesterday)
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 41 (2 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 800 (32 more than yesterday)
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Today’s National Numbers:
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PPE:
- The Emergency Coordination Center received 40,400 pairs of gloves in the last 24 hours.
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Testing:
Update to the Model
Legislators just received an update to the model that OHA has been using to gauge the effectiveness of state actions and plan for the eventual relaxation of restrictions. You can read it here.
Based on observations of data in this country and internationally, the modeling by the Institute for Disease Modeling assumes that for every positive test (1600 as of April 10), 4.75 Oregonians have actually been infected (7,600 as of April 10) but have not been tested. The model suggests that the Stay Home, Save Lives policy has resulted in a 60% reduction of the number of infections.
They do conclude the report with some recommendations that touch on the eventual relaxation of restrictions. As you’ll see, they are very consistent with what we’ve been hearing from the OHA and the Governor:
Finally, we emphasize the urgent need for enormously increased testing capacity. It will not be possible to relax social distancing measures and avoid an epidemic rebound without significantly increased testing. Increased testing must be coupled with detailed contact tracing, asymptomatic testing of at-risk individuals, and likely the quarantining of infected individuals away from households, where significant transmission occurs. Additional vigilance to reduce the risk of reintroduction if travel restrictions were relaxed would also require substantial testing capacities.
What Is Meant by “Underlying Medical Conditions”?
You’ve probably noticed that when information is given about someone who has died from COVID-19, the individual nearly always seems to have had an “underlying medical condition.” You may find that a hopelessly vague term and wish there were more specificity. For confidentiality reasons, that level of detail can’t be given for each patient, but in her presentation to legislators today, the OHA Director of Public Health told us that it’s nearly always one of the following chronic conditions: diabetes (especially when combined with obesity, a BMI over 40), chronic kidney disease (especially for patients on dialysis), chronic lung disease, asthma, serious heart disease, and individuals who are immunocompromised. Individuals with these conditions aren’t necessarily more susceptible to catching the disease, but they are more susceptible to the extreme damages of the disease.
Director Lillian Shirley also told us that our infection/hospitalization/death numbers remain in a “plateau.”
Update from Department of Corrections
Legislators also heard an update from DOC Director Colette Peters, informing us of the steps being taken to deal with the current “unprecedented” state of affairs in our correctional institutions. If you read my report in last Sunday's newsletter of the Judiciary Committees’ meeting with Director Peters, you’ll see pretty much what the remainder of my colleagues were able to hear today. But there are a couple of updates.
Fortunately, the number of infected adults in custody has not increased in the last week; the number of positive tests remains at 5. Unfortunately, three additional staff members have tested positive, bringing the number from 7 to 10. All staff members (as well as AICs) who test positive have their tests processed at the state lab, which allows for a quicker turnaround time (though not yet “rapid testing”).
You’ve probably heard that a group of adults in custody filed a lawsuit against the department recently, seeking improvements in conditions within the institutions. Without being able to go into details for legal reasons, Director Peters let us know that the plaintiffs and the department are currently in expedited settlement discussions seeking to resolve the concerns expressed in the lawsuit.
Finally, she did also let us know that the inmate workers who have been producing cloth utility masks for AICs and staff have hit their target of 10,000 masks per day, and the masks will become available for people outside of DOC.
On a related note, I was able to have a conversation today with the DOC Deputy Director about education, training, and treatment programs at the facilities. As I mentioned last week, nearly all of them have been suspended for now, since it is too dangerous to have outside teachers, volunteers, and other contractors coming into the facilities right now. That’s understandable, but it is creating real hardships for those both on the inside and the outside. I can safely say that DOC leadership wants to get these programs back as soon as it’s safe to do so. We talked about plans to restore them and a timetable for doing so. I’ll give you more details when these plans are closer to being finalized.
Want to See Past Newsletters?
If there was COVID-related information in a past newsletter that you want to go back to, but find you’ve deleted it, you can always go to my legislative website (www.senatordembrow.com), click on “News and Information,” and you’ll find them all there.
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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