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May 4, 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.
Legislators learned today from the Governor’s Office and the OHA that by the end of this week we will hear details about what will be included in Phase One of the Reopening Oregon plan. By then we’ll also have a good idea of which counties will be the first to begin Phase One and when.
So I’m happy to report that someone from the Governor’s Office will be joining Representatives Keny-Guyer and Smith Warner and I this Thursday evening for another Zoom Town Hall. She’ll be providing answers to the questions that you submit in advance, as well as those that come up during the town hall itself. And the Reps and I will be providing additional updates on a variety of issues. You’ll find details on how to sign up in the body of the newsletter.
While our COVID infections have gone back up somewhat, I’m extremely happy to tell you that for the second day in a row there were no reported deaths from the disease. It’s another welcome relief.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
***Please notice that I’m using an exponential scale for the Y axis on this graph. Doing it this way allows me to keep all three in a single graph and allows for a more realistic sense of the upward curves of the three data points (positive cases, hospitalizations, and deaths).
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Positive Cases: OHA has reported that 65 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 2,745.
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Total Tests: The total number of tests in Oregon now stands at 63,443. That’s an increase of 1,389 tests.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive results for today has risen somewhat to 4.7%. Still, that remains much lower than the national percentage for today, which at 8.9% is continuing to decline significantly. See below for a graph showing the daily ratio changes over the last month.
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Deaths: I’m happy to be able to report again that 0 deaths due to the virus in Oregon were reported today. The total number of deaths in Oregon remains at 109.
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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 598. This is an increase of 3 from yesterday.
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Presumptive Cases: OHA is now including “presumptive COVID-19 cases” in its daily reports, consistent with recently amended guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A presumptive case is someone who does not yet have a positive PCR test result but is showing symptoms and has had close contact with a confirmed case. If they later test positive by PCR, those will be recategorized as confirmed cases.
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Other Hospital Information:
- Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 207 (an increase of 2 from yesterday). Of those, 90 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 276 (a decrease of 19 from yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 1,912 (a decrease of 23 from yesterday)
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 41 (5 fewer than yesterday)
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 17 (4 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 804 (4 more than yesterday)
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Today’s National Numbers:
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PPE:
- In the last 24 hours the Emergency Coordination Center received another 79,160 face shields.
- We have heard that a number of smaller hospitals are having difficulty finding the PPE that they need. In many cases they are being outbid by other larger systems, states, and even the federal government. The state is developing regional purchasing consortia that will allow the ability for local businesses, medical providers, and counties to partner with each other and with the state to increase their purchasing power.
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Other Brief Updates:
- The state as a whole finished last week with 13,000 test results, with 2.8% of those tests results positive for the infection. That’s a very promising number.
- The Governor has begun meeting with groups of counties, their hospital directors, and their local health authorities to discuss their disease levels and their readiness for reopening. She is starting with the very rural parts of the state, and by the end of this week will have met with the urban areas as well. Counties may apply and qualify individually or in combination with others in their region. We’ll know more about the first wave by the end of this week.
- Consumers around the country have had difficulty getting refunds for flights or services that they have cancelled as a result of the pandemic, and they’re looking to their states’ attorneys-general for help. Oregon is no exception, as you’ll see in this news item from Pew's State Information Center, which includes efforts by Oregon AG Ellen Rosenblum.
- Oregon small businesses have received another $3 billion in Paycheck Protections Payments from the Small Business Association.
- You’ve probably heard about the big COVID outbreaks in large meat processing plants, and I’ve mentioned one at an Oregon food processing plant. Now we have to add seafood processing to that unfortunate list. It was just reported that at least 13 workers out of 35 at the Bornstein Seafood plant in Astoria have tested positive for the virus. The plant is now closed.
Additional Daily Graphs:
Zoom Town Hall: Thursday
I hope you'll join for our latest Zoom Town Hall edition, this Thursday (5/7) at 5pm. You can pre-register for the town hall here, and include any questions or topics that you want to see covered. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm thankful we will have someone from the Governor's office on hand to answer questions and give us the latest updates on the reopening plans.
For Those Interested in Becoming Contact Tracers
I’ve been approached by a number of people interested in work as a contact tracer and wondering how to go about applying. That question came up during today’s legislative briefing, and the OHA Director had this to say:
- The hiring plan should be out later this week.
- The initial 100 or so people doing this work are being reassigned from other state and local public health work.
- The current state employees will focus on hot spots and provide capacity for rural areas to do their initial tracing.
- The state itself will not be hiring most of the additional 500 or so tracers. Rather, they will be hired at the local public health level.
- They will be a combination of existing county employees, community health workers, members of local community organizations, and additional applicants
- The state will be using its federal CARES Act money to pay for these local employees, as well as for the expenses of those needing to be isolated.
- The local health authority (generally the county) will be managing its own application process, and applicants can go directly to them for information. In addition, the OHA web site will soon include a referral form that will allow potential applicants to be referred to their local health authority. I’ll let you know when that goes live.
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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