Coronavirus Update: Support for Oregonians on the Front Line

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House Speaker Tina Kotek

Coronavirus Update: Support for Oregonians on the Front Line

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

I don’t particularly like to use wartime analogies, but right now, we do have a common enemy and doing battle with it and being on the front line of the attack does seem an appropriate way to talk about it.

There have been countless shining examples of first responders, frontline workers, and good Samaritans who have taken great efforts to support their family, friends and neighbors in need. It’s important to remember that those of you who have been doing amazing work to help others can also need help as well.

Lines for Life has created a Virtual Wellness Room to offer support to helpers, mental health professionals, first responders, social workers and anyone considered an essential worker during the coronavirus pandemic in Oregon. Each check-in call will have a facilitator to guide the conversation.

The meetings are held using Zoom conference calls from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at this link: https://zoom.us/j/4848426773. Please share this invite with anyone in your network of Oregon helpers.


Emergency Board Meets Tomorrow

As a reminder, the legislative Joint Emergency Board will meet virtually tomorrow at 10 a.m. to allocate more than $30 million in emergency funds and take other actions to fill some gaps in coronavirus relief not covered by federal assistance. I covered this in my newsletter yesterday, which can be found here.

The agenda is here and all specific details on each item is available here. You’ll be able to livestream the meeting on the committee webpage, and legislative staff will upload the video of the meeting afterward in case you are unable to watch it live.


The Latest News

  • The City of Portland has established an Emergency Household Stabilization Fund to provide limited direct cash assistance to at least 2,000 households to help cover urgent needs like groceries, rent, utilities, and medical expenses. These funds are supposed to be available starting on Monday, April 27 at 10 am. Households can apply for $250 in emergency assistance by contacting 2-1-1 or going to https://www.211info.org/covid19. Applications from eligible households will be processed on a first-come-first-served basis. Applicants will need to include documentation of the COVID-related hardship they are experiencing with their application, such as a letter from an employer, clients or customers, a health care provider, or school citing COVID-19 as a reason for reduced hours, termination, loss of business, school closure, loss of childcare, or inability to work.
  • The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) announced 57 more diagnosed cases of coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 2,059. I’m glad to report that there were no more deaths reported today. Thus far, 78 people in Oregon have died from the virus.

OHA COVID-19 Update 4-22-2020

OHA Hospital Capacity 4-22-2020

New Data on Recovering from Coronavirus

The OHA released new data about how many Oregonians have recovered after contracting the coronavirus. A person is considered recovered once they are free of fever (without the use of fever-reducing medication), cough, and shortness of breath for 72 hours.

Based on the most recent data, when there were 1,853 survivors of COVID-19, 595 (32.1%) are considered recovered and 682 (36.9%) are not yet recovered. OHA is still assessing recovery status for 576 (31.1%) of the COVID-19 cases. The median time to recovery for all individuals who had symptoms is 14 days. The median time to recovery for individuals who were hospitalized and had symptoms is 16 days.


Symptoms to Watch Out For

The OHA also updated its data on reported signs and symptoms for all people in Oregon diagnosed with coronavirus. Here are the top five symptoms: (1) cough; (2) fever over 100 degrees; (3) muscle aches; (4) shortness of breath; and (5) headache.

OHA Signs and Symptoms 4-22-2020

Information on Long-Term Care Facilities

Here are the latest available figures from OHA on long-term care facilities that have been particularly hard hid by coronavirus:

OHA Care Facilities 4-22-2020

New State Coronavirus Website

The state’s Emergency Coordination Center and the Oregon Office of Emergency Management launched a new coronavirus response website, COVID-19 RESPONSE, which can be found here. This is a centralized source of information related to the pandemic where you can connect to local, state and federal resources, as well as view daily case diagnosis information and learn how to donate or sign-up to volunteer for response efforts. There are FAQs based on questions from constituents, data on shipments of personal protective equipment (PPE), and much more. Check it out!


To read past newsletters, you can go to this link. For up to date information, please check this link to the Oregon Health Authority where regular updates are posted: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ERD/Pages/News-Releases.aspx

Please email me at Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov if you have specific concerns that have not been addressed by the OHA. Our office will do all we can to help and protect all Oregonians.

Thank you for reading! We will get through this together.

Best,

Tina

Tina Kotek

State Representative
House District 44
Speaker of the House

email: Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1200
address: 900 Court St NE, H-269, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kotek