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May 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.
The big news for today is the latest set of guidelines and plans for reopening that came out today. In the newsletter you’ll find an overview of the changes and links to the details around what’s included in Phase One for the counties that will be approved for the first wave, as early as a week from tomorrow. It’s unlikely that Multnomah County will be one of those early entrants, but as you’ll see, some other changes will be coming to all of Oregon on May 15 as well.
I’m still looking over the details myself, and I encourage you to do the same. Please let me know your thoughts.
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 70 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 2,957.
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Total Tests: The total number of tests in Oregon now stands at 70,426. That’s an increase of 2,479 tests.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive results for today remains at 2.8%. That remains lower than the national percentage for today, which at 8.8% is continuing to decline. See below for a graph showing Oregon’s daily ratio changes over the last month.
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Deaths: I’m afraid that I have to report that 6 deaths due to the virus in Oregon were reported today. That brings the total number of deaths in Oregon to 121.
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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 645. This is an increase of 4 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. Today the number of new presumptive cases is 3, with the total at 32.
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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): 171 (a decrease of 20 from yesterday). Of those, 76 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 245 (a decrease of 18 from yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 1,895 (an increase of 23 from yesterday)
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 48 (1 more than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 23 (3 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 797 (18 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 has received another 7,000 face shields.
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Other Brief Updates:
- The Employment Department issued a press release this morning with the latest numbers as of May 2. According to the release, 80% of all initial claims that have come in since March 15 have been processed. That means that 312,710 claims have been processed, while 62,408 remain in the queue for processing. There are currently 635 employees working unemployment claims, with more hiring underway and a new contact center opening next week. Claims processing continues seven days per week.
- OHA has created a set of FAQs regarding non-emergency medical procedures. You can find it here.
- Also, the guidelines for veterinary practices are now also on the OHA website here.
- The first results of the TRACE study from OSU are in! Remember, this is a project that is randomly testing residents of Corvallis over a series of weekends. The first weekend results are in, and the number of individuals testing positive allowed the analysts to calculate an infection rate of two per thousand. (Corvallis has a population of 58,641.) You can read all about it here.
Additional Daily Graphs:
 Governor Brown Provides More Details to the Reopening Plan
Governor Brown held a press conference this morning to provide more details on the coming steps for Reopening Oregon, confirming that some counties will likely be entering Phase One on May 15. In addition, the state as a whole will see a relaxing of certain restrictions on that date. Legislators received a briefing this afternoon with more details.
Here is an updated version of the Reopening Oregon PowerPoint that I shared with you a couple of weeks ago. It provides a simple overview of the new changes. The detailed executive order authorizing the changes is still being drafted and should be out early next week.
As reported last week, the Governor and her medical advisors have created a series of detailed prerequisities that a county and the state as a whole must meet in order to move into Phase One. They involve a declining number of infections, adequate testing capacity, ability to initiate contact tracing/tracking/isolating, adequate hospital capacity, adequate Personal Protective Equipment, and a plan for resuming restrictions if the infection rate begins to spike.
The Governor announced today that she will begin accepting applications tomorrow from counties that want to be part of the first wave of Phase One reopening. Decisions will be made within a few days, and the first counties will likely be able to begin a week from tomorrow, i.e., May 15.
We’ve always suspected that the first counties would generally be the most rural with the smallest populations and limited to no infections to date. We learned today that there are some medium-sized counties that may well meet the eligibility criteria as well. And there are some (I would guess my own) that will clearly still need to wait a while. I’ll be sure to share the start dates for the counties as soon as we know them, and I know they’ll also be posted on the Governor’s website and the OHA website. (You’ll find those addresses at the end of the newsletter.)
We also received details of how various industries could safely reopen in Phase One. The Governor convened groups of industry representatives to meet with her medical advisors and local county health officials to talk about what could be done in their work settings to meet safety standards. Those guidelines were released along with the press conference.
Here are the various detailed guidelines regarding reopening, for the general public and for specific industries under Phase One. (They are also posted on the OHA COVID website under OHA Guidance and Rules.):
The upside to doing this work through separate work groups is a higher level of industry specificity, expertise, and practicality. The downside is that in some cases the guidances differ from industry to industry, potentially leading to a sense that different sectors are being held to different standards. We did hear concerns about that in the meeting with legislators this afternoon, and I expect we’ll hear more.
In those counties that begin Phase One we’ll be able to see small, local gatherings of up to 25 people. That would include religious services, meetings, small celebrations, small celebrations of life. There’s a desire to keep these gatherings local during this phase, so that if unfortunately there is transmission of the disease, it can easily be traced and contained. To the extent possible, we don’t want people from higher-infection areas traveling to areas with lower rates of infection and potentially bringing the virus with them. That shouldn’t happen until Phase Two at the earliest (more on that below).
During Phase One, workers are still encouraged to work from home where possible, and seniors and others particularly vulnerable to the effects of the virus should stay home and stay safe as much as possible. People are still encouraged to wear face coverings in public, and businesses are encouraged to require that that their customers have face coverings or provide them. Employers are still required to make sure that their employees can stay six feet apart and maintain proper hygiene, and they’re encouraged to stagger shifts where possible.
The Governor also announced this morning that some existing restrictions will be relaxed for the entire state on May 15, including in counties that are not yet ready for Phase One. These include some stand-alone retail stores that are currently closed (e.g., furniture, jewelry, art galleries, and clothing boutiques), but the medical advisors believe can be done in a safe way, in line with the above guidelines for retail. In addition, next week we will see some new statewide guidelines for childcare, as well as specific guidelines for opening summer school, summer camps, and youth programs in a limited form.
I’m sure you’re wondering what it then takes for a county to move into Phase Two. A county that has gone three weeks without an increase in cases, that has continued to meet all the necessary metrics, can apply to enter Phase Two. The details of the further relaxations occurring in Phase Two have not yet been worked out, but will likely involve larger gatherings, farther travel, and the opportunity for contact with people living in congregate settings.
So, ideally, we could see some counties entering Phase Two by mid-June.
On the other hand, if any of the metrics start going the wrong way in a county, if disease hot spots emerge, OHA will call an immediate meeting with local public health officials for further discussion and evaluation.
Even in Phase Two, unfortunately, large gatherings and sporting and conventions cannot be held. The Governor advised organizers of conventions, fairs, rodeos, and other large events to plan to cancel or significantly modify events scheduled to take place before the end of September. She added that it may be that we cannot allow those large events, which experience has shown to be potential virus hot spots, to resume until we have a vaccine or treatment protocols that clearly work. In other words, according to the medical experts, Phase Three may well be many months away.
I know that this is a lot to digest, and I’ve just skimmed the surface of the information that was released today. If you’re so inclined, I encourage you to dive into the PowerPoint and the specific guidances, and do let me know if you have any questions or reactions. I’m sure you’ll find elements you agree with and elements you think should be different. My own initial reaction is that this is a thoughtful and careful approach to a very difficult, serious situation, but if changes are warranted, they should be made. I look forward to your feedback
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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