May 11th COVID-19 Update

May 11, 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.

As you’ll see, there’s a lot to report on today.  Anticipating a gruesome revenue forecast on May 20 (right now it looks to be around $3 billion short), the Governor has directed state agencies to start preparing for a 17% reduction in their budgets for the fiscal year of July 2020 through June 2021. This includes funding to schools, colleges, universities, and various local governments. Cuts of this magnitude will obviously make it difficult for them to perform their core functions.  Hopefully, we will not have to go that far.  Here is the Governor’s press release with the direction.

I appreciate the Governor’s prudence in making this request, and it makes good sense for the agencies to do the necessary planning, but I hope that cuts of this magnitude won’t need to be made in the end. In a time of growing public need due to the pandemic and its effect on the economy, this is obviously not a time a time to be adding holes to the social safety net.   

We’re still hoping that Congress will be able to overcome the current stalemate in the Senate and produce a funding package that will help Oregon and other state and local governments make up some of the enormous shortfalls that they are all facing. (More on that further down in the newsletter.) The Legislature has done a good job of prudently building up reserves to mitigate the effects of the next financial downturn. (According to a recent Moody’s analysis, we’ve done so better than most other states.) But those reserves may have to last us for quite some time, so we’ll need to be dipping into them with great caution.  Stay tuned for many difficult discussions over the coming month.

TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

• Positive Cases: OHA has reported that 51 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 3,222.
• Total Tests: The total number of tests in Oregon now stands at 77,542. That’s an increase of 2,092 tests.
• Ratio:  The percentage of positive results for today has dropped to 2.4%. That’s still lower than today’s 4.5% national percentage, which has come down dramatically in the last week.  See below for a graph showing Oregon’s daily ratio changes over the last 14 days.
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report 3 deaths due to the virus today. That brings the total number of deaths in Oregon at 130.   
• Hospitalized: The number of Oregonians who have been hospitalized with symptoms, and who have also tested positive for the disease, is now at 673. This is an increase of just 3 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 7, with the total at 64.
• Other Hospital Information:
  • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 163 (a decrease of 1 from yesterday). Of those, 59 have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 265 (an increase of 25 from yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 1927 (an increase of 14 from yesterday)
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 40 (5 fewer than yesterday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 23 (1 more than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 786 (7 fewer than yesterday).
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 9,382,235 (up 394,711 from yesterday).
  • Positive Tests: 1,340,412 (up 17,605 from yesterday).
  • Deaths: 75,107 (up 837 from yesterday).
  • These national numbers come from the COVID Tracking Project. You can follow their updated numbers for each, state and the nation as a whole here.
• PPE:
  • In the last 24 hours the Emergency Coordination Center has received another 2,500 gowns and 24,000 face shields.
  • Some bad news to report: You may remember that earlier in the crisis the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization to fast-track importation of Asian versions of N95 respirators, called KN95s, for use by U.S. healthcare workers. On Thursday, the FDA revoked that authorization for more than 65 of the 80 authorized manufacturers, citing poor quality. Unfortunately, many states, including Oregon, went ahead and purchased many thousands of these respirators.  We are trying to cancel many of these orders, but some cannot be canceled.  The state is looking at alternative uses for them in non-medical settings.  Here is the OHA press release on this unfortunate development.
• Other Brief Updates:
  • Governor Brown, Speaker Tina Kotek, and President Peter Courtney joined the leaders of four other Western states in a letter calling on Congressional leaders to create a funding package that will send $1 trillion to state and local governments reeling from the effects of the crisis and economic downturn.
  • Attorney-General Ellen Rosenblum is holding a Tele-Town Hall Tuesday morning at 10 with information on how people can protect themselves from COVID scams. She’ll be joined by the U.S. Attorney for Oregon and a representative of Oregon Consumer Justice.  You’ll find information on how to watch it live (it will also be recorded for later viewing) here.
  • The latest numbers from the Department of Corrections shows an increase of 18 adults in custody and 2 staff from last week. The totals are now 69 adults in custody and 23 staff.  The hot spots continue to be the Oregon State Prison in Salem with 13 staff and 36 AICs and Shutter Creek Correctional Institution in Coos Bay with 2 staff and 25 AICs.
  • Tri-Met is awaiting further guidance from the Governor’s Office regarding guidelines for transit as businesses starting to reopen. That should be coming out this week. For now, though, the rules issued early in April remain in force.  TriMet is urging people to save the seats for those who must ride. That includes those who use transit to travel to and from essential jobs and services and are transit-dependent. TriMet buses are limited to no more than 10 individuals, or up to 15 if people are riding together (such as couples or parents with children).  Here is a full update from Tri-Met that legislators received today.
  • If you’ve had difficulty enrolling for Medicare during the pandemic, we’ve just received word that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is being flexible with its deadlines.  Here is an FAQ with information about enrollment deadline extensions for the program.
  • With each passing day, we’re getting a better understanding of the COVID virus and the way it spreads. Obviously, there’s going to be much more to learn in the days ahead. For now, I would recommend this recent post by an immunologist at UMass.  I think you’ll find it helpful.

Protecting Oregon’s Agricultural Supply and Essential Agricultural Workers

Oregon’s agricultural regions are in or are entering a period of intense activity.  They need to be able to do the necessary planting and harvesting, and they need to have the workers to do that.  But we are in the middle of a pandemic that is proving to be especially dangerous for agricultural workers.  How do we keep workers safe while getting the work done?

Last week I reported on a new temporary rule from Oregon OSHA that addressed safety measures in the fields and in housing.  While most of Oregon agriculture agreed on the need for these rules, legislators and the Governor have received pushback from many growers about the cost of implementing them.  As a result, the Governor’s Office and the Department of Agriculture have been working on a plan to use some of the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund to help provide funding for these needed steps.

The result is a draft proposal called Protecting Oregon’s Agricultural Supply and Essential Agricultural Workers.  Legislators received a briefing on it this afternoon.

The proposal envisions using the federal funding in combination with money that the Legislative Emergency Board allocated for ag worker housing in order to meet the demand for high-peak harvesting while mitigating the spread of the virus and ensuring worker safety.  The total cost of the proposal is currently projected to be $29.5 million. It will address the following needs:

1. Housing for temporary workers that allows for both good quality and proper distancing. In some cases it will include vouchers for local hotels/motels.
2. Proper Sanitation: procurement of handwashing stations, portable toilets, and other sanitation materials. Providing additional vehicles to get workers to the fields without crowding.
3. Preventing COVID Outbreaks: Provide workers with educational materials about the disease and best practices in their own languages in partnership with community-based organizations; make it easier for them to seek and obtain health care; make sure that they have the protective equipment and coverings that they need.
4. Isolation/Quarantine: If workers do contract the disease, providing the means for them (and those in close contact with them) to quarantine safely and with pay.

Oregon OSHA has decided to postpone enforcement of its temporary rule until June 1 to give growers more time to comply and for the new state aid plan to be finalized.  Here is a press release about that decision. 

When the plan is finalized, I’ll make sure to include a link to it.

Additional Counties Apply for Reopening

In yesterday’s newsletter, I listed the 20 counties that had applied for Phase One reopening and were listed as being under consideration on the Governor's COVID website as of 6pm.  As of today’s writing, an additional four counties are under consideration.  Two-thirds of Oregon’s 36 counties are thus now under consideration.  The OHA is hoping to have recommendations to the Governor by the end of Tuesday for those that have come in so far.  In some cases, we may see the approval conditioned upon specified changes and/or additions.

The new counties are in boldface:

1. Baker County
2. Crook County
3. Curry County
4. Deschutes County
5. Douglas County
6. Gilliam County
7. Grant County
8. Harney County
9. Hood River County
10. Jackson County
11. Jefferson County
12. Josephine County
13. Klamath County
14. Lake County
15. Lane County
16. Linn County
17. Malheur County
18. Morrow County
19. Sherman County
20. Tillamook County
21. Umatilla County
22. Union County
23. Wallowa County
24. Wheeler County

Here’s a link to Saturday's newsletter, where I included the current metrics on each of the counties.

Business Oregon Announces New Small Business Assistance Program

The Legislature’s Emergency Board recently allocated $5 million to be joined by $5 million from Business Oregon and directed Business Oregon to create a program that would assist small businesses that had not been aided by the federal small business programs. Business Oregon has decided to use existing local organizations to distribute these funds.  Many communities throughout Oregon are already providing local assistance to small businesses either through local government, local economic development offices, or non-profits.  Business Oregon will use the first $2.5 million to create a 1:1 match to augment these community-level assistance programs.

To fill gaps not reached by other programs, these state funds are directed to adversely affected businesses with 25 or fewer employees, and only those that have been unable to receive federal CARES Act funding, including the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan Emergency Advance program, or other federal programs for emergency pandemic funding to date. Businesses may use the proceeds for any business related operating expenses, particularly to support businesses that were closed as they move into the first phase of statewide reopening.

The deadline for community programs to apply for the match is May 18.  You can read all about it here.  Business Oregon is currently working on plans for how best to distribute the next round of funds.

How Are Oregon’s Natural Resource Agencies Responding to the COVID Crisis?

In order to help those of us who serve as chairs of natural resource committees perform our oversight role during the pandemic, our crack team of committee analysts (the incomparable Laura Kentnesse, Beth Patrino, and Beth Reiley) has been hard at work surveying the 13 natural resource agencies on what they’ve been doing in response to the crisis.  Each agency was asked to report on whether it has:

1. Adopted or suspended any administrative rules?
2. Changed any permitting requirements or application deadlines, etc.?
3. Changed any fee due dates or amounts?
4. Changed existing facility or property management?
5. Revised timelines or priorities for policy development initiatives?
6. Assisted directly or indirectly with COVID-19 related efforts?

The full report was finalized and sent to committee members this afternoon.  It’s full of useful information for those working in the natural resource areas.  Thanks very much to the agencies and especially to Laura and the Beths (who always make us look good) for getting us this valuable information.

Additional Graphs:

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:

• Here is the OHA’s coronavirus page, with links to a number of resources. 
• Oregon's Office of Emergency Management now has a website for information about COVID-19.
• You can sign up here for regular coronavirus updates from OHA.
• Multnomah County has an excellent website with lots of really important advice and guidance.
• Here’s one from the Governor’s Office.
• The Employment Department has put together a webpage with Q&A’s on a number of employment issues related to COVID-19 (e.g., eligibility for Unemployment Insurance benefits).
• The Oregon Education Department has a new site for COVID-19 updates.
• The Department of Corrections has a COVID tracking website.

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