May 8th COVID-19 Update

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin at 05/08/2020 07:35 PM PDT
Michael Dembrow

May 8, 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.

You’ll notice a slight change in some of the graphs I’m including below.  Since the reopening decisions will largely be focused on how we’re doing over a 14-day period, you’ll see most of the information focused on the last 14 days.  I’m also adding a graph showing the rate of new hospitalizations, another metric that will be used to determine our readiness to begin and continue the reopening process.

Today’s legislative briefing was with the Employment Department, and you’ll see a detailed report on that below.

Hope you’ll be able to find some time to get out and enjoy the warm weather this weekend.  If you’re an essential worker who has to work this weekend, many thanks for the work that you’re doing. 

Speaking of which, I know that some local restaurants (including a great one near me, Verdigris) are offering free meals to frontline workers, as well as to people who are short on food these days.  I’d like to suggest something helpful (and fun) that you can do this weekend to help support them in that effort.  The Oregon Hospitality Foundation is hosting a screening of an Oregon movie from last year called Phoenix Oregon.  You can purchase a ticket, maybe get some takeout, stream the film, and support this great cause that is benefiting local restaurants, frontline workers, and those who are food insecure right now.  Read all about it and the film in this Oregonian article.

Enjoy!

TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

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***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).

  • Positive Cases: OHA has reported that 75 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 3,032.
  • Total Tests: The total number of tests in Oregon now stands at 72,657. That’s an increase of 2,231 tests.
  • Ratio:  The percentage of positive results for today is at 3.4%. That remains lower than the national percentage for today, which is now at 9.2%.  See below for a graph showing Oregon’s daily ratio changes over the last month.
  • Deaths: I’m afraid that I have to report 3 more deaths due to the virus as of today. That brings the total number of deaths in Oregon to 124.         
  • Hospitalized: The number of Oregonians who have been hospitalized with symptoms, and who have also tested positive for the disease, is now at 659. This is an increase of 14 from yesterday.
  • 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 5, with the total at 36.
  • Other Hospital Information:
    • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 159 (a decrease of 12 from yesterday). Of those, 75 have already received a positive test back.
    • Available ICU Beds: 241 (a decrease of 4 from yesterday)
    • Other Available Beds: 1,899 (an increase of 4 from yesterday)
    • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 42 (6 fewer than yesterday).
    • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 18 (5 fewer than yesterday).
    • Available Ventilators: 792 (5 fewer than yesterday).
  • Today’s National Numbers:
  • PPE:
    • In the last 24 hours the Emergency Coordination Center has received another 101,450 surgical masks, 2,500 gowns, 30,600 face shields, and 5,000 pairs of gloves.
  • Other Brief Updates:
    • A new Harvard study finds that most states that are starting to reopen businesses and social gatherings do not have the testing capacity to do so. Only nine states currently do. Read here to find out which they are. (Hint: our Senate district is in one of them.)
    • In case you missed it yesterday, here is the PowerPoint overview of the latest version of Reopening Oregon.
    • As of this writing, five counties have already applied to begin Phase One reopening next Friday: Deschutes, Linn, Grant, Wallowa and Jackson counties. I’m sure there will be others applying soon.
    • In the week since hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers were first allowed to resume non-emergency procedures after submitting attestations that they could meet the guidelines regarding PPE and other requirements, OHA has received attestations from 27 hospitals and 37 ambulatory surgical centers statewide.
    • The Department of Corrections is now reporting that 51 adults in custody and 21 corrections staff have tested positive for the virus (with a total of 247 AICs having been tested so far). The largest outbreak is at the Shutter Creek Corrections Institution in Coos Bay (with 2 staff and 25 AICs).  The numbers are unfortunately also rising quickly at the Oregon State Penitentiary (with 11 staff and 18 AICs).  You can see all the numbers in the DOC daily tracker.
    • I’m happy to report that there are still no positive test results for youth in custody.

Additional Daily Graphs:

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Another Update from Unemployment

Legislators receiving another briefing from David Gerstenfeld of the Unemployment Department this afternoon.  He reported that we’re starting to see a downturn in the number of new claims for regular unemployment insurance.  Last week it was just under 20,000 new claims, which is still very much above the pre-pandemic norm of 2700 per week, but a big reduction from the numbers we were seeing in March and April. They are also starting to make good progress in reducing the backlog of cases still in the queue.  83% of the 380,000 claims they’ve received since mid-March have been processed. 

That does mean there are still 65,000 workers still waiting to get their regular unemployment claims processed.  And that doesn’t include the tens of thousands of people who are now applying for the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. 

Part of the problem early on has been the lack of experienced claims processers.  They now have 700 people processing claims.  That’s a big increase from the 100 that they had at the beginning of this.  But obviously it also means that 600 of the people doing this work are brand new and are having to learn on the job. The more complex claims were sitting around longer.  They’re now doing a better job of triaging the claims and sending those that have complications or need some research to people with more experience.  They’re also now working seven days a week and next week will be opening a new claims processing center in Wilsonville.

They are working on a new application and weekly filing form for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program that should be easier to use and should speed up processing.  That will help. The initial application is working, but it’s very much a manual process both for the applicant and the processer.  PUA payments are going out, but most of these newly-eligible workers and self-employed business owners will be waiting a while still. Here are a couple of items related specifically to PUA:

  • The PUA claims system does not give the applicant any acknowledgment of the claim having been received. Not having received an acknowledgment doesn’t mean your claim hasn’t been received.  It’s likely in the queue.
  • PUA applicants should file their initial and weekly claims in the PUA system, not the UI system.
  • The PUA system currently requires an applicant’s signature. This can be a problem for people who don’t have a printer, scanner, or a lot of computer literacy.  David reassured us that applicants do not need to print and sign; they can use an electronic signature or just make sure that their full name is included on the application.  That will suffice.

Here are some additional pieces of advice/information:

  • Many of you are still receiving messages telling you that you have no claim when you file your weekly claim, even though you received a confirmation number when you first applied. Your natural reaction is justifiably to freak out.  In fact, it just means that you’re in the queue for processing.  Until your claim is processed, the computer system doesn’t know you exist.
  • Some people are unsure of how to answer the question of whether or not they’re available for work and looking for work during the pandemic. At this point in the pandemic, we’ve been advised that the correct answer should automatically be yes.
  • If you receive a request to contact an office, your best bet is to call your local WorkSource Employment Office. Even though they aren’t doing Unemployment Insurance work there, they may be able to help you or to get your issue directed to someone who can.
  • People who were already on UI when the pandemic hit are close to running out of benefits and obviously it’s going to be hard for them to find a job right now. That’s why Congress created new Pandemic Unemployment Extension programs and has just given the states the guidelines for establishing them.  Our department has been working on computer programming for the new programs and are currently testing them.  The extension programs should be operational within the next two weeks.
  • We are experiencing a big increase in demand for Work Share, the program that allows people to continue to work part-time and still receive partial benefits to make up the difference in lost income. Applications for this program must come from the employer, and they are very time-intensive to process.  Additional hiring and training just for this program is going on now.
  • You can find more information about Work Share at its website.
  • On a related subject, some workers are finding themselves being called back to work for less than full time. If you are, know that you will still be eligible for benefits according to a formula, and likely the $600-per-week federal bonus as well.
  • Finally, for those of you wondering about the viability of Oregon’s Unemployment Trust Fund (some other states are running low on funds and are obliged to borrow from the federal government), David reported that this is something they are watching all the time. The trust fund remains solid, and there is no indication that any changes are needed or that employer rates will need to be raised.

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.  Also, if someone forwarded you this newsletter and you’d like to get it directly, you can sign up for it 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,

dembrow signature

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