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May 14, 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.
Today the Governor announced the 31 counties that are authorized to begin the Reopening Oregon process tomorrow, May 15. You can read all about it below, along with some updates from the Employment Department.
One of the points made by the Governor that I share is that the executive orders themselves have only partially been responsible for the success that we’ve had as a state in keeping infections relatively low. Many businesses that could have remained open under the order were closed by their owners out of concern for their workers’ safety. Individuals who could have gone out every day to shop at their local groceries did not out in order to minimize contacts that would jeopardize themselves and others. Individuals have been wearing masks in order to protect others even though there is not an actual requirement to do so. Individuals have been staying close to home even though there are not roadblocks or traffic stops out there. Oregonians have found creative ways to remain close to one another even when physically apart.
That is admirable and something we can feel proud about. It’s a mindset that will need to continue for a while, even in the counties that are entering Phase One. Can individuals from a county like mine travel to a Phase One county in order to get a haircut or hang out in a bar or go to a distant state park? Yes we can, technically, but it would be better if we did not for a while longer. We need to give those counties that are reopening a chance to keep themselves safe and easily do the local contact tracing that will be necessary to keep the infection-rate low.
I look forward to your thoughts and your observations about this process.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA has reported that 69 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 3,407.
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Total Tests: The total number of tests in Oregon now stands at 86,679. That’s an increase of 2,770 tests, another large increase.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive results for today is 2.5%. Today’s national percentage is 6.9%. See below for a graph showing Oregon’s daily percentage changes over the last 14 days.
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Deaths: I’m afraid I have to report 3 additional deaths due to the virus. All three were men in their 60s. The total number of deaths in Oregon is now at 137.
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Hospitalized: The number of Oregonians who have been hospitalized with symptoms, and who have also tested positive for the disease, increased by 7, and is now at 685.
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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 0, with the total at 72.
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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): 163 (an increase of 1 from yesterday). Of those, 59 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 191 (a decrease of 18 from yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 1,706 (a decrease of 81 from yesterday)
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 38 (same as yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 17 (same as yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 784 (8 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 315,000 additional surgical masks and 130,360 face masks.
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Other Brief Updates:
- Again, tomorrow the Legislature’s Emergency Board will be meeting (virtually, of course) at 1 pm. You can now find a number of supporting documents regarding allocations to counties on the E-Board meeting page. Click on “Meeting Materials.”
- SAIF, Oregon’s public corporation for Workers Compensation, has a great page with resources to help employers prepare for reopening. Check it out here.
- The OHA guidance for gyms reopening in phase one has just been released.
- The OHA revised its guidance today for hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. Under the order that allowed them to reopen for non-emergency procedures on May 1, they needed to keep their initial utilization at no more than 50% of their normal volume. Beginning June 1, 2020, a hospital or ASC may expand beyond this volume so long as it can continue to meet all the criteria laid out in the order.
- The OHA has also just released its revised guidelines for transit.
- OHA is working to increase the numbers of healthcare professionals willing to volunteer to be part of SERV-OR (the State Emergency Registry of Volunteers in Oregon). You can read more about their efforts here. To volunteer, or to find out more about SERV-OR, go to serv-or.org.
- The Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs has developed a new online tool to help guide veterans and their families in the wake of the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 and to inform them of any changes to their earned benefits. The veteran resource navigator is designed to assist veterans in finding the federal, state and local resources that are most needed for their unique circumstances in 2020. Veterans can also access additional assistance, by calling an ODVA Veteran Resource Navigator at 800-692-9666.
31 Counties Approved for Phase One Reopening Tomorrow
This morning the Governor announced the counties that met the criteria for reopening on May 15. On her list were 28 of the 33 counties that have applied. Two (Marion and Polk) were turned down and three (Jefferson, Morrow, and Umatilla) needed additional information, information that they were subsequently able to produce and have now been approved. Here is the complete list:
- Baker County
- Benton County
- Clatsop County
- Columbia County
- Coos County
- Crook County
- Curry County
- Deschutes County
- Douglas County
- Gilliam County
- Grant County
- Harney County
- Hood River County
- Jackson County
- Jefferson County
- Josephine County
- Klamath County
- Lake County
- Lane County
- Lincoln County
- Linn County
- Malheur County
- Morrow County
- Sherman County
- Tillamook County
- Umatilla County
- Union County
- Wallowa County
- Wasco County
- Wheeler County
- Yamhill County
Here’s a map of Oregon with the counties approved for reopening in yellow. These counties comprise 1.77 million residents, around 42% of Oregon’s total population.
The Governor’s Office has put up a county status website that will allow us to track where each county is as they proceed through the 3-Phase process. It also is an easy way to see just what is expected of the counties in the different phases, as well as those things that have been reopened statewide. Good work by the Governor’s Office on this.
Remember that starting tomorrow all retail stores everywhere in the state will be able to reopen, as long as they meet the guidelines.
In her press conference the Governor praised the County Commissioners for the thoroughness of their plans and the vigor with which they pressed their counties’ cases. The reason that she could not approve Marion County and Polk County at this time is due to the fact that their hospitalization rates are not declining. As I’ve mentioned, sections of those two counties include some of the troubling hot spots for the virus right now. The OHA will review the numbers for the two counties on a weekly basis, and once their metrics hit the required threshold, they will be approved.
The Governor and OHA acknowledged that with reopening we will see an increase in infections. The question will be whether or not we can contain and minimize them. All 31 counties will be closely monitored on an ongoing basis to see if there are any upticks in COVID hospitalizations and the percentage of positive test results. Also, those doing the contact tracing will need to be able to trace at least 70% of all positive test results to a previously-known infected person. If they cannot, then the virus is in an uncontrolled “community spread” state, and that’s a real problem.
Keeping the spread contained will depend on those with the virus being able and willing to work with the contact tracers to help them find those with whom they’ve had close contact and are at risk. That’s also why it’s important that the contact tracers be skilled, knowledgeable, diplomatic, and conversant with the communities with whom they’re working.
Fortunately, the metrics that will be monitored all come automatically to local public health and to the OHA. I and my fellow legislators are also insisting that the information be publicly available and posted. If it’s necessary for a county to slow down or pull back on the reopening process (hopefully it won’t be necessary), that decision will need to be clear and defensible. I’ll be communicating as much of this information as possible either directly in the daily newsletter or through links to available dashboards.
Do remember, though, that we won’t be seeing the effects of reopening overnight. An individual can have COVID-19 for two weeks before showing symptoms and may never show symptoms but still be transmitting the disease. The overall trend over the next three weeks is more important than what is happening on a daily basis.
Needless to say, there will be some who will say that this plan is overly cautious. My colleagues in the Senate Republican Office believe that Oregon is ready now to move directly to Phase Two of the reopening. I would ask for a little more patience as we go down this road. Oregon is indeed in a better position than most states to pull this off, given our relatively low per-capita infection rate and our overall willingness so far to be very careful in how we respond to this virus. But our chances of success will be heightened if we take this one step at a time. The last thing we want for our economy is to have to pull back again for medical reasons.
Residents of Senate District 23 will be wondering where Multnomah County is in terms of the numbers and the process. Here is a just-released summary of where the county is on each of the metrics. It’s a very helpful resource that will be updated weekly.
We’re still waiting for the final legal language of the Reopening Executive Order. It will probably come out the minute I press the “SEND” arrow. No, actually, I was able to delay finishing this long enough! Here it is.
Two Items from the Employment Department
As you can imagine, Logan and I have been spending a lot of our time these days helping constituents with their Unemployment Insurance claims. The department is gradually catching up on claims, and we’re hearing from some that they have at last received their long-awaited retroactive benefits. But many remain still in the queue, particularly those who are part of the new, expanded programs for the self-employed or who’ve had inadequate qualifying work histories to qualify for regular UI. They are being processed under the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.
According to the department, 86% of the 388,221 first-time claims for REGULAR UI filed since March 15 have been processed so far. That means 335,046 Oregonians are either already receiving what is owed them in benefits or will be very soon. Hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits are being paid out. But it also means that 14%, or 53,175, are still waiting.
And that doesn’t include those who are filing under the PUA program. I don’t know how many of these have made it through the system already. Most of those who began filing in March or April fall into this category. As I mentioned last week, the final federal rules regarding this program didn’t come to the state until the end of April, and the initial claims needed to be submitted manually. Initial claims and subsequent weekly claims can now be filed online, which should help.
Again, please know (and tell others) that even if you receive an automated message telling you that you need to do something by a certain date, those deadlines don’t actually apply any more. Just keep filing your weekly claim.
As I mentioned last week, consider emailing or calling your local WorkSource office in order to get answers to your questions. Those workers are not themselves working on claims, but I’m told that they’ve been able to help many workers with their questions. Here’s a page that provides local office contact info.
Legislators received a couple of communications from the department this afternoon that I want to share with you. The first is the department’s regular news release. It includes the latest numbers, claims by region, claims by industry, and other information. The other is an email from the Deputy Director with an explanation of the challenges that they’re facing and what they’re doing to overcome them.
Again, if you’re a constituent and you’re still having problems, please send us an email and explain your situation. I promise you’ll hear back from one of us within a day or two.
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:
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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