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May 28, 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.
I’m afraid that today’s report is not good. Instead of finally going four days without losing an Oregonian to the COVID disease, we learned that three additional Oregonians have lost their lives to it. The statewide hospitalization rate has also gone up. A big outbreak among agricultural workers at Townsend Farms has been identified. In short, we’re not out of the woods yet.
You’ll find a variety of news items in today’s newsletter, along with some useful resources for anyone interested in the subject of contact tracing.
Hope you can stay cool!
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA has reported that 47 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 3,994.
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Total Tests: The total number of tests in Oregon now stands at 119,555. That’s an increase of 2,654 tests.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive results for today is 1.8%. Today’s national percentage is 5.1%. See below for a graph showing Oregon’s daily percentage changes over the last 14 days.
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 3 additional deaths due to the coronavirus. The total number of deaths in Oregon is now at 151.
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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 9, and is now at 768.
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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 2, and the total of presumptive cases is now at 92.
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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): 149 (3 more than yesterday). Of those, 53 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 201 (3 more than yesterday).
- Other Available Beds: 1,072 (53 more than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 32 (3 fewer than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 17 (1 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 790 (7 fewer than yesterday).
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Dashboards:
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Today’s National Numbers:
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PPE:
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Other Brief Updates
- Yesterday I mentioned that OHA is investigating a large outbreak at a Portland-area company. We now know that the outbreak is at Townsend Farms in Fairview (East Multnomah County) and Cornelius (Washington County).
- As I mentioned yesterday, Washington County has applied to begin Phase One reopening on June 1. The Governor just announced that the application has been approved. If you are interested in seeing the proposal, here it is.
- Yesterday I provided the link to a YouTube video of a presentation that Multnomah County leaders gave to the Portland City Council last week regarding their reopening planning process. Here is the PowerPoint from that presentation.
- The OHA COVID-19 webpage now includes FAQs for all the sectors that have reopening guidances articulated for them (i.e., for retail store; children’s day camps; personal services, such as hair salons and massage; restaurants and bars; shopping centers and malls; and fitness related organizations, such as gyms and dance studios). Go to the website and scroll down to “OHA Guidance and Signs.”
- I also mentioned yesterday that we would be getting further information about Phase Two tomorrow or early next week. We’ve just learned that the counties and legislators will in fact be briefed on it tomorrow. Stay tuned for details in tomorrow’s newsletter.
- As a result of the influx of Oregonians who now need and qualify for the Oregon Health Plan members due to COVID-19, OHA has taken steps to make it easier for individuals to sign up. OHA’s webpage for new OHP members now includes a quick start guide (in eight language so far), as well as advice on how new members can find their local Coordinated Care Organization (CCO), find a primary care provider, and make their first appointment.
- It’s obviously too soon to know the long-term economic effects of the pandemic and the long-term structural changes this downturn will create in our economy and workforce. But making projections for the future is what economists do, right? Our state Office of Economic Analysis has just released an interesting blog post with a particular eye on short- and long-term regional effects. It’s worth checking out.
DMV Offices Reopening
Legislators just received an email advisory from ODOT, letting us know that DMV offices will begin face-to-face transactions in offices around the state starting June 3. Initially, these will be by appointment only, and you can begin scheduling an appointment on June 1. Check out the advisory for details about the reopening, including answers to some frequently-asked questions.
Want to Learn More About Contact Tracing?
I’ve been writing about the integral role of contact tracing in our subsequent work to contain the spread of the virus and have mentioned that it involves a combination of efforts, some medical, some social, some employment-related, some cultural in nature. I’ve received questions from people who would like to work in this field, or who want to volunteer in some way, or who simply want to know more about what it entails.
Well, if you’re really serious about learning more about contact tracing, and more specifically how it relates to COVID-19 suppression, I have an opportunity for you! Johns Hopkins University is offering a free, 5-hour online course, “COVID-19 Contact Tracing,” taught by Dr. Emily Gurley of the Dept. of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The reviews make it sound very promising. You can read about it, check out the syllabus, and sign up here.
For those of you who don’t have five hours to spend, I’d recommend a recent episode of an excellent podcast focused on COVID-19, not surprisingly called Podcast-19. The episode in question is called "Why it's not too late for contract tracing." It features an epidemiologist at the University of California-San Francisco, who is training an army of contact tracers in San Francisco.
Again, for those of you interested in finding work as a contact tracer, you can indicate your interest to the OHA here, and they’ll send your info to your local county health agency.
House Business and Labor Takes Up Unemployment Insurance Problems Again on Saturday
Yesterday I reported on the presentation that the Oregon Employment Department gave to House Business and Labor. The committee unfortunately ran out of time, and members were unable to pose questions or make comments to the agency personnel. As you can imagine, there was a good amount of frustration around that (as there is around everything related to Unemployment Insurance benefits). As a result, the House has scheduled a special additional committee meeting this Saturday at 9:00 to get answers to committee members’ questions. You’ll find the link to the meeting in the committee calendar below.
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 29
House Education Committee, 11:30 am
House Water Committee, 3:00 pm
May 30
House Committee on Business and Labor, 9:00 a.m.
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:
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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