May 26th COVID-19 Update

May 26, 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’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

• Positive Cases: OHA has reported that 18 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 3,879.
• Total Tests: The total number of tests in Oregon now stands at 113,770 115,450. That’s an increase of 1,680 tests.
• Ratio: The percentage of positive results for today is 1.1%. Today’s national percentage is 5.4%.  See below for a graph showing Oregon’s daily percentage changes over the last 14 days.
• Deaths: I’m happy again to report 0 additional deaths due to the coronavirus.  The total number of deaths in Oregon remains at 148 for the second day in a row.   
• Hospitalized: The number of Oregonians who have been hospitalized with symptoms, and who have also tested positive for the disease, increased by 5, and is now at 752.
• 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 1, and the total of presumptive cases is now at 88.
• Other Hospital Information:
  • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 149 (21 more than yesterday). Of those, 53 have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 196 (51 fewer than yesterday).
  • Other Available Beds: 1,671 (244 fewer than yesterday).
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 40 (5 more than yesterday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 17 (6 fewer than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 798 (14 more than yesterday).
• Dashboards:
  • Oregon (OHA)
  • Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, & Yamhill Counties
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 14,907,041 (up 302,099 from yesterday).
  • Positive Tests: 1,671,035 (up 16,206 from yesterday).
  • Deaths: 93,093 (up 629 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 hour s the Emergency Coordination Center has received 1,300,000 surgical masks and 10,000 face shields. You can track the history of incoming and outgoing PPE shipments here.
• Other Brief Updates
  • As expected, Baker County Judge Matthew Shirtcliff has chosen to stand by his attempted injunction against Governor Brown’s emergency executive orders last week. That means that the Oregon Supreme Court will continue to receive briefs on the case, with a deadline of June 2 for all briefs to come in. In the meantime, the various emergency orders remain in effect. 
  • The results for the third weekend of the OSU TRACE study in Corvallis are in, and they again show a very low infection rate among residents. The study projects the infection rate to be one person in a thousand. The news release goes into detail on the methodology and the implications of the study.  Next weekend’s testing will be in Bend, and the next round in Corvallis won’t be until June, with the goal of seeing if Benton County’s reopening has made a difference in the infection rate.
  • Speaking of testing, OPB’s Erin Ross has produced an in-depth look at the problem of COVID false negatives, with a thorough look at how dependent COVID tests are on rapid turnaround and proper testing technique. The underlying conclusion appears to be that the infection rate is likely higher than testing is suggesting.  You can read her piece here.
  • As I mentioned last week, the Governor has directed approximately 1 million KN95 masks and 5,000 gallons of hand sanitizer for farmworkers and agricultural producers free of charge. They will be going out starting tomorrow for Clackamas and Washington Counties, with Multnomah County’s distribution on Thursday.  For pickup details, and to see the dates for other counties, here is a flyer with that information.
  • The Governor’s Office reports that we should have more details within a week about Phase Two reopenings, including what will be required for a county to move to Phase Two and what will be allowable under Phase Two.
  • Legislators learned today that the limits on the number of people gathering in groups, such as for meetings and religious activities (25 for counties in Phase One and 10 for counties not yet in Phase One) have been clarified somewhat. Multiple groups can gather within a single facility or on the same grounds as long as they can be kept completely separate: i.e., separate entrances/exits, separate bathrooms, and separate handwashing facilities.  There can be no mixing between the groups.  This is especially important if there is an infection and contact tracing needs to be done to determine who was in contact with the infected person.
  • Finally, we also learned that plans are underway for how to manage fire season during the pandemic. Some other states have already begun their fire seasons and we have been learning from them.  It will be too dangerous for us to have the big fire camps of times past or fire crews that might change from day to day.  The Senate Wildfire Committee will be hearing a report on this planning.  See below for details about that hearing. 

Testing Is Being Extended at Long-Term Care Facilities

Legislators heard from OHA today that in order to contain COVID outbreaks at long-term senior care facilities, the green light has been given to test all staff and residents of facilities where there has been at least on COVID case, whether the staff member or resident is showing symptoms or not. It’s not clear at this point just how automatic this testing will be, however.  If you have concerns about a facility where you work or live, or where someone you know works and lives, and that facility is on the list, check with the facility or with your county health department to see if broad testing is occurring there.

In the long run, the goal is to test even more broadly in congregate care facilities as a diagnostic/prophylactic measure, even in settings without any known infections.  However, that will require us to have much more access to testing supplies and reagents than we currently do.

Again:  Upcoming Legislative Committee Hearings

Here again, a reminder that the remaining House committees will be meeting for the rest of this week.  Then, the Senate committees will convene during the first week of June.

Most of the hearings will be COVID-focused, but most will also include briefings, updates, and reports on a number of other issues, and in many cases will include topics likely to be the subject of legislation next session. 

We now have the Senate agendas posted, along with the House. (My own committees are Senate Environment and Natural Resources, Judiciary, and Rules.) I’m listing them all below in order of appearance.  You can click on them to see their agendas, and you can use the same links if you want to watch the hearings (either live or after the fact) or get to the meeting materials.

May 26

House Rules Committee, 9:00 am  

House Behavioral Health Committee, 11:30 am 

House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, 3:00 pm 

May 27

House Veterans and Emergency Preparedness Committee, 8:00 am 

House Business and Labor Committee, 11:30 am 

House Human Services Committee, 3:00 pm 

May 28

House Natural Resources Committee, 8:00 am 

House Energy and Environment Committee, 11:30 am 

House Judiciary Committee, 3:00 pm  

May 29

House Education Committee, 11:30 am 

House Water Committee, 3:00 pm 

June 1

Senate Labor and Business Committee, 8:00 am 

Senate Health Care Committee, 12:00 pm

June 2

Senate Committee on Mental Health, 8:00 am 

Senate Education Committee, 12:00 pm

June 3

Senate Judiciary Committee, 8:00 am  

Senate Human Services Committee, 12:00 pm 

June 4

Senate General Government and Emergency Preparedness Committee, 8:00 am

Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, 12:00 pm

June 5

Senate Committee on Wildfire and Recovery, 8:00 am 

Senate Housing and Development, 12:00 pm 

June 10

Senate Rules and Executive Appointments, 12:00 pm (No agenda posted yet.  The meeting will be for the purpose of confirming executive appointments.)

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:

• Multnomah County has a status report on reopening.
• You can view the reopening status of all 36 counties here.
• 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