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June 13, 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 hope you’re having a nice, restful weekend. Since it’s the weekend, today’s newsletter will be a little different. OHA are no longer issuing full data reports on Saturdays and Sundays. But I’m still able to get you a lot of useful info regarding current infection rates.
As a result of the modified reporting, you’ll notice a couple of changes in today’s report. No information regarding hospitalizations and no specific breakout for positive test results (positive tests are combined with “presumptive positive” cases for today’s total positive cases.). Monday’s report will incorporate the additional positive test results and hospitalization information.
As I do on Saturdays, I also am including a county-by-county lookback on number of new cases, number of tests, the percentage of tests that are positive, and deaths. My goal is to help you see at a glance the trends that we are seeing in the individual counties.
As you’ll see, large increases in the number of new tests are revealing many more new infections. Remember, the modelers have been telling us that for every positive test, there are likely 4-5 Oregonians out there who are carrying the COVID virus (and contagious). The more we are testing asymptomatic people and (as a result of contact tracing) testing people that we know have been in close contact with those who have tested positive, the more positive cases will be revealed.
You’ll see from the tables below that the state’s infection rate—including for Multnomah County—is actually continuing to go down slightly. None of the counties now in Phase Two saw much of an increase, if any, in their rates as a result of their initial reopening time in Phase One.
Let’s hope that remains the case.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA reports that 158 additional Oregonians have tested positive or have been presumed positive for COVID-19. The cumulative total is now 5,535.
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Total Tests: The total number of tests in Oregon now stands at 170,479. That’s an increase of 4,469 tests from yesterday.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive results for today is 3.5%. (This includes the new presumptive positives, so the test ratio alone is likely a little lower.) Today’s national percentage is 5.0%. 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 1 additional death due to the coronavirus today. The total number of deaths in Oregon is now at 174.
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Hospitalized: No new hospitalization numbers today, so the total remains 875.
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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’s number of new presumed cases is 11, and the total number of those presumed positive is 170.
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Other Hospital Information: Below are Friday’s numbers. They’ll be updated on Monday.
- Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 130 (3 more than yesterday). Of those, 69 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 158 (31 fewer than yesterday).
- Other Available Beds: 882 (22 fewer than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 47 (8 more than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 15 (4 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 792 (6 more than yesterday).
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Dashboards:
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Today’s National Numbers:
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PPE:
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Additional Brief Updates:
- Some encouraging news out of Missouri. Business Insider reports that the local public health authority learned that two hair stylists in a Springfield hair salon tested positive for COVID after the state reopened for personal care. To their surprise and relief, NONE of the 140 clients that were potentially exposed turned out to be positive for COVID. Why is that? Authorities belief that much of it was due to the store’s careful adherence to social distancing and especially to its requirement that both stylists and clients wear face coverings. It’s the face covering requirement that seems to have been most effective, as it greatly reduces the chance of transmission. In addition, the store kept careful records of clients and their addresses, so that contact tracers were quickly able to contact everyone who was exposed. Several lessons to be learned here.
Unemployment Benefits Update
Staff at the Employment Department are slowly making their way through the enormous backlog of unemployment claims. Here is a link to the Claims Progress Dashboard, which shows where they are as of yesterday. You’ll see that they have been able to get through nearly all of last week’s backlog of 38,000 remaining regular unemployment claims. Those whose claims have been approved should be receiving their payments soon. The exceptions are those who have some kind of problem with their claim and those who will receive benefits under the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program. The new program (for the self-employed, independent contractors, and those without enough hours to qualify for regular unemployment) takes much longer to process. Federal law prohibits PUA from being paid to anyone who might be eligible for regular UI, so claimants must first be deemed ineligible for UI before they can even apply for PUA. And then the subsequent processing of the PUA claim is itself more time-consuming than a regular unemployment claim. The good news is that nearly everyone who is ineligible for regular UI will eventually be paid through PUA.
Logan tells me that he has heard from some claimants that they have just given up on weekly filing, especially if they’re called back to work. That’s a mistake. If you were eligible for unemployment benefits, then you are owed that back-pay. You should restart your claim and continue filing for those weeks that you were off work.
The communications component of the effort is starting to improve. Last week the department added 138 additional lines to the call center system, and more are coming. The average call wait time for is “down” to 102 minutes, which is actually real progress. If you are waiting for a call back from the department, do answer any calls that you receive, even if you don’t recognize the number, which may appear to be from out of state. Legislative staff, staff from other agencies, and even the National Guard are now making calls in order to check in with claimants.
As I mentioned, even if a claim may have been processed, there may be a problem with it that requires more work. Some of the common problems are an incorrectly filled form, or a work history that includes work in multiple state. (If you have worked in another state, you definitely need to mention it; failure to do so could keep you from getting benefits.) In some cases it might require your case to be adjudicated by an administrative law judge, a routine and necessary—but potentially time-consuming—step. Here is some more information about that from a Q&A I just received:
I received notice that my claim was denied. Can I make an appeal?
Any time OED reduces or denies your benefits, they will send you a notice, called an administrative decision. If you don't agree with the decision, you have the right to appeal it by requesting a hearing. The notice includes a form you can use to request a hearing, and instructions for filing an appeal.
Most administrative decisions become final 20 days after OED mails them, so don't wait to file an appeal if you want a hearing. If you don’t file an appeal within 20 days, you will lose your chance to change the decision. If you appeal an administrative decision, keep filing for benefits each week. If you don't claim each week while your appeal is pending, you may not be paid for those weeks if the appeal is decided in your favor.
Hearings are held by phone and are conducted by an independent Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). The ALJ will review your case and make a decision based on the available information. Individuals are welcome to present their evidence to the ALJ.
What’s Going On In the Counties?
Each Saturday I’m tracking how individual counties are doing now that nearly all are either in Phase One or Phase Two and we are seeing a number of relaxations statewide as well. The key metrics that OHA will be watching as counties apply for or are in Phase Two are the number of positive test results and the percentage of positive test results among all tests administered; the latter will be the more important way for us to see if the infection rate is increasing as a result of reopening and increased testing.
You’ll see some significant increases this week in the numbers in some counties, but remember that the increases seem more striking when the overall numbers in the county are very low to begin with. The percentages of positive test results are going down overall, which is what we want. The exceptions are in a few counties (Hood River, Lincoln), which have experienced outbreaks that have been contact traced.
Despite concerns over the increased case counts, which in part led to the decision not to move Multnomah County into Phase One, you’ll see that the percentage of positives in Multnomah County have steadily decreased each week, as has been the case for the state as a whole.
In order to give you a better sense of the increases in testing, I’ve decided to show the percent increase in tests given each week. They will help you see how higher case counts can at least in part be explained by increased testing.
The tables include cumulative numbers as of Friday.
Where Are Today’s New Cases?
If we put together the positive test results and new “presumptive” cases reported today, the overall number of new cases is 158. Here is the breakdown by county for today:
Clackamas (17)
Columbia (1)
Hood River (10)
Jackson (3)
Jefferson (2)
Lane (3)
Lincoln (14)
Linn (1)
Malheur (1)
Marion (21)
Morrow (1)
Multnomah (47)
Polk (7)
Umatilla (13)
Union (2)
Wasco (1)
Washington (14)
The OHA had this to say about the individual we most recently lost to COVID-19:
Oregon’s 174th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old man in Umatilla County, who tested positive on May 30 and died on June 11, at St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton. He had underlying medical conditions.
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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