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June 21, 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.
First of all, I want to wish a happy Father’s Day to all my fellow fathers out there. I was able to spend a very happy day myself in this strange new world of coronavirus: socially-distanced, outdoors time with one of my children, remote zoom time with the other. It was great, really, but I definitely hope we’re able to have more physical proximity long before next year’s Father’s Day. We’ll see.
Since it’s the weekend, once again today’s newsletter will not include all of the reporting metrics that are included during the week, particularly with respect to hospitalizations.
As a result of the modified reporting, you’ll again 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.
You’ll see another high case count today, along with a higher infection rate. Tomorrow, I’ll be able to give you more details, particularly around new COVID hospitalizations, which are most concerning as we look at the effects of these higher case counts. And perhaps an explanation of what’s going on in Multnomah County, where 84 new cases were reported today. With only 815 new tests reported today for Multnomah County, that’s a positive ratio of over 10% for the county, more than double the overall rate for the state and the nation. (No, it’s not due to the County’s entering Phase One, as that just happened yesterday.)
As I do on Sundays, I’m also including a breakdown by age. You’ll see that many younger Oregonians are catching the virus, but the more severe consequences are to be found among those who are over the age of 60. The problem of course is that those younger people are highly contagious, and if they come in close contact with their older and/or medically vulnerable neighbors, the results can be deadly.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA reports that 190 additional Oregonians have tested positive or have been presumed positive for COVID-19. The cumulative total for both those testing positive and those presumed positive is now 6,937.
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Total Tests: The cumulative total number tests in Oregon now stands at 202,611. That’s an increase of 3,675 tests.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive results for today is 5.2%. (This includes the new presumptive positives, so the test ratio alone is likely a little lower.) Today’s national percentage is 5.3%. 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 190.
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Hospitalized: : No new hospitalization numbers today, so the total remains 946.
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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.
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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): 154 (13 more than yesterday). Of those, 92 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 159 (25 fewer than yesterday).
- Other Available Beds: 840 (13 more than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 50 (4 more than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 29 (1 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 792 (2 fewer than yesterday).
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Dashboards:
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Today’s National Numbers:
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PPE:
Another Legislative Concept for This Week
In addition to the concepts below, we’ve received another that will be introduced this week:
LC 68: Directs the Department of Consumer and Business Services to adopt temporary rules establishing an emergency standard for infectious disease by August 1, 2020. This will create presumptions for employees and Workers Compensation and particular requirements for Personal Protection Equipment.
I know that there are others being drafted. We’ll see if they are ultimately introduced or not. I do know that there will be some additional technical/procedural LCs that are simply needed to manage the running of the special session.
More On Special Session and Potential Bills
Again, the Special Session Joint Committee will be meeting on Monday afternoon in order to organize itself and begin taking testimony. Here's Monday's agenda. You can click on Meeting Materials for testimony. You’ll also see instructions for submitting written testimony or scheduling the opportunity to be able to provide remote audio/visual testimony.
Anticipating that there will be extensive testimony, they have also scheduled a meeting for Tuesday, beginning at 9:30. Here's the agenda.
The actual session will begin in Salem on Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. It’s impossible at this time to say how long it will last.
Given the short timeline, and in order to make the process as transparent as possible, I want to share with you in advance the Legislative Concepts that we have received so far. Again, they fall into three categories: Police Accountability, COVID Response, and Urgent Holdovers from the February session. Please remember that these are preliminary drafts and very much in flux. I’m sure most of them will see changes before the session actually begins. Let me also say that at this point I’m supportive of most of them (in concept) but not all.
Police Accountability
LC 49: Prohibits an arbitrator from reinstating an officer judged to have committed misconduct, where the employer followed the guidelines agreed upon through collective bargaining.
LC 78: Creates a statewide database of police officer disciplinary proceedings, so that problem officers can be identified and prevented from being hired elsewhere in the state.
LC 79: Requires that instances of death or serious injury caused by police officers to be investigated and potentially prosecuted by the state Department of Justice.
LC 80: Creates rules requiring police officers to intervene to stop another officer from engaging in an act that is illegal, unethical, or violates rules or policy.
LC 81: Prohibits law enforcement from using tear gas, long range acoustic devices, or sound cannons
LC 83: Prohibits police officers from using force that limits the ability of a person to breathe, including but not limited to choke holds.
COVID Emergency Issues
LC 33: Prohibits commercial evictions during the pandemic.
LC 37: Temporarily extends timelines for judicial proceedings during the pandemic.
LC 39: Expands access to broadband via a service charge on cell phone plans.
LC 66: Extends for one year small school district grants and school district funding for foreign exchange students.
LC 68: Directs the Department of Consumer and Business Services to adopt temporary rules establishing an emergency standard for infectious disease by August 1, 2020. This will create presumptions for employees and Workers Compensation and particular requirements for Personal Protection Equipment.
LC 74: Creates state meat processing inspection program to address disruptions due to outbreaks in very large national meat processing plants.
LC 76: Increases for one year the percentage of district students who can be enrolled in an outside virtual charter school from 3% to 8%.
LC 84: This is an omnibus bill covering multiple elements of coronavirus response.
LC 85: Creates temporary limitations on the ability of lenders to enforce foreclosures during the pandemic.
LC 90: Prohibits residential and commercial evictions up to 90 days after the emergency period has ended.
Holdover Issues
LC 7: Memorializes an agreement between environmental organizations and timber companies creating restrictions on and notification of pesticide use.
LC 43: Fixes problems with existing allocation system for transit services, including for seniors and people with disabilities.
LC 51: A number of fixes related to foster youth placements, including out-of-state placements.
LC 53: Technical fixes to the Corporate Activities Tax passed last year.
LC 56: Expands dental procedures that a dental hygienist can do.
LC 62: Grant/Loan Program for Eastern Oregon workforce development/economic development.
Looking at Age Metrics
Each Sunday I’ve been providing you with this week’s statewide case, hospitalization, and death metrics by age. If you look at the age breakdown in previous newsletters, you’ll see that more younger people are in the category of new cases each week. Hospitalizations and deaths continue to be dominated by those above the age of 60.
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 190. Here is the breakdown by county for today:
Clackamas (12)
Deschutes (1)
Jackson (3)
Klamath (4)
Lane (7)
Lincoln (2)
Linn (1)
Malheur (2)
Marion (7)
Morrow (3)
Multnomah (84)
Polk (1)
Umatilla (34)
Union (3)
Wallowa (1)
Wasco (1)
Washington (22)
Yamhill (2)
And the Death:
The OHA had this to say about the person we most recently lost to COVID-19:
Oregon’s 190th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on June 6 and died on June 20 in her residence. She had underlying medical conditions.
Additional Graphs:
 ZOOM Town Hall June 23
A reminder that Alissa, Barbara, and I will be holding a pre-Special Session Zoom town next Tuesday evening, June 23, 5-6:30 p.m. Register in advance for the meeting here. After registering, you’ll receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
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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