June 2nd COVID-19 Update

June 2, 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 28 additional Oregonians tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, putting the total at 4,220.
• Total Tests: The total number of tests in Oregon now stands at 134,094. That’s an increase of 2,586 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 sorry to report 3 additional deaths due to the coronavirus.  The total number of deaths in Oregon is now at 157.  
• 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 795.
• 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, and the total of presumptive cases is now at 115.
• Other Hospital Information:
  • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 102 (6 fewer than yesterday). Of those, 46 have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 203 (65 fewer than yesterday).
  • Other Available Beds: 1,062 (137 fewer than yesterday).
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 29 (3 fewer than yesterday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 15 (two fewer than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 788 (4 fewer than yesterday).
• Dashboards:
  • Oregon (OHA)
  • Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, & Yamhill Counties
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 17,741,645 (up 400,963 from yesterday).
  • Positive Tests: 1,821,581 (up 21,820 from yesterday).
  • Deaths: 100,177 (up 1,172 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 not received any additional Personal Protective Equipment. You can track the history of incoming and outgoing PPE shipments here.
• Additional Brief Updates:
  • In another instance of a COVID outbreak at a food-processing facility, OHA has reported an outbreak of 13 cases at Bob’s Red Mill in Clackamas County. County and state public health officials are working to understand and contain the outbreak, which began on May 27.  Like many of you, I’ve very much dependent on Bob’s high-quality grains and flours, and I hope they’re able to keep the facility going while keeping their workers safe.
  • The Governor will be announcing more information about Phase Two in a press conference with her medical advisors Wednesday morning at 11 am. Twenty-six counties have already submitted Phase Two proposals.  You can see them here.  You can view the press conference here.
  • Yesterday I shared a press release from the Legislature’s People of Color Caucus regarding the response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. Today they issued another press release, this one focused on necessary legislative steps in pursuit of anti-racist justice reform.  You can read it here. I agree with these legislators 100% and look forward to supporting them however I can. 

Where Are the New Cases?

If we put together the positive test results and new “presumptive” cases reported today, the overall number of new cases is 33.  Here are the counties in which they appear: 

Benton (1)

Hood River (4)

Lincoln (2)

Linn (1)

Marion (8),

Multnomah (10)

Umatilla (1)

Wasco (2)

Washington (4)

And the Deaths

Here is OHA’s description of those we’ve most recently lost:

Oregon’s 155th COVID-19 death is a 36-year-old woman in Multnomah County, who tested positive on May 31 and died the same day at Adventist Hospital. [She is our first Oregonian under 40 to have died of COVID.]

Oregon’s 156th COVID-19 death is a 66-year-old woman in Multnomah County, who tested positive on April 1 and died on May 22 at her residence.

Oregon’s 157th COVID-19 death is an 81-year-old woman in Washington County, who tested positive on April 6 and died on May 26 at her residence.

All three were reported to have had underlying medical issues of some sort.

Again:  Upcoming Legislative Committee Hearings

This week’s committee hearings are all on the Senate side.  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 once they’re posted.

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. 

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