Coronavirus Update: Face Coverings, Latest Modeling and Housing Protections

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House Speaker Tina Kotek

Coronavirus Update: Face Coverings, Latest Modeling and Housing Protections

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

I hope you had a restful weekend. The long summer days and beautiful sunsets feel good for our spirits.

There’s no way to sugarcoat the latest news - the increasing coronavirus numbers are a warning sign for all of us. As The Oregonian reported here yesterday, for each of the last three days, Oregon reported more than 200 new cases of coronavirus (250 on Friday, 277 on Saturday, and 247 on Sunday). New coronavirus cases within the past two weeks now make up one-third of the state’s total case count. See below for more on the latest modeling.

What’s going on? The virus is spreading. From workplace outbreaks to community spread connected with reopening, we knew that numbers wouldn’t go backwards and would probably go up. It’s important to take these numbers seriously because we don’t want our sacrifices over the last few months to have been for nothing. Each of us must continue to do our part and keep ourselves and others safe.

Today, Governor Brown announced that Oregonians statewide will be required to wear face coverings in indoor public spaces, starting this Wednesday, July 1st. Face coverings were already required in 8 counties as of last week. Now, every county will have the same requirement. Updated guidelines will be available tomorrow. To read the Governor’s statement, go here.

I support the Governor’s message that the upcoming July 4th holiday weekend comes at a critical moment in our fight against the coronavirus. The state saw an uptick in cases after the Memorial Day weekend. It’s important to make good choices about how we socialize and how we travel. Please keep your celebrations as small and local as possible.

Each of us can make a difference in stabilizing the infection rate. Ask yourself how you can reduce risk to the people around you. Remember these things:

  • Stay 6 feet away from other people.
  • Wear a mask.
  • Avoid large gatherings, and if you are in a group setting - like a holiday barbeque - stay outside, keep your distance and use a face covering when you’re not eating.
  • Wash your hands frequently.
  • Stay home if you’re sick.

The simple things we’ve been doing for weeks will get us through. Let’s stay the course!


Mask Info

Modeling Sends a Warning Signal

Last Friday, the Oregon Health Authority and the Institute for Disease Modeling released the most recent modeling of COVID-19 infections. The data shows the virus is spreading more rapidly in Oregon.

The model, which is based on data through June 18, offers three projections - optimistic, moderate, and pessimistic. The daily case levels could rise as much as 20 percentage points. The modeling assumes that hospitalizations from COVID-19 remain stable and that testing remains at its current level of about 4,000 tests a day:

The optimistic scenario with those assumptions suggests the previous modeling increase was the result of higher testing and that case counts would remain stable at about 180 per day over the next month. This is the least likely scenario to occur because it assumes diagnosis of all new cases and presently about one-third of new infections cannot be traced to a known source.

The moderate scenario suggests the rise in cases in the last modeling report was due to increased transmission and expanded testing. The daily infections of COVID-19 could rise over the next month to more than 900 per day, with daily hospitalizations rising from 8 to 27.

The most pessimistic scenario suggests the rise in cases in the last modeling report was due entirely to increased transmission and not expanded testing. Under this scenario, infections could rise to more than 4,800 per day, and hospitalizations could increase to 82 per day.

These projections don’t predict the future, but they do give us a data-driven snapshot of where things could go if we aren’t careful and stay vigilant.

The entire report can be found here.


Housing Protections

It’s absolutely essential to keep as many people housed and stable as possible during this pandemic. Some important housing protections will go into place this week. The Governor’s eviction moratorium was set to expire tomorrow, but legislative action extended those timelines, and we added protections for homeowners.

These bills from the Legislative Special Session that wrapped up last Friday are now on their way to the Governor’s desk:

  • House Bill 4204: Directs lenders to defer both residential and commercial mortgage payments during the pandemic emergency period until September 30, 2020 if a borrower is unable to pay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Deferred payments would be due at the end of the loan, unless the borrower and lenders determine alternate, agreeable terms.
  • House Bill 4213: Extends the moratorium on both commercial and residential no-cause evictions through September 30, 2020 and creates a six-month repayment grace period after the moratorium ends for tenants to repay their back rent accrued during the moratorium. During the repayment period, tenants may not be evicted for failure to repay their back rent, but they must keep paying their ongoing monthly rent. Negative credit reporting for non-payment of rent during the moratorium is prohibited, as is assessing late fees or other penalties for nonpayment during the moratorium period.

The Latest News

  • The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is changing how it does the state’s daily coronavirus updates. First, they now have an interactive website that will be updated each weekday at noon. You can go here to check it out. Second, starting today and moving forward, OHA will report new confirmed or presumptive cases on the date those cases are first known. This will be a better representation of the number of cases reported on any given day. Before, new cases were calculated by subtracting a new day’s case counts from the previous day’s count. The dashboard today shows 674 new cases because it’s a three-day total (Saturday thru Monday).
  • The state’s weekly COVID-19 testing report can be found here. As of June 27, Oregon’s cumulative positive testing rate is 3.4% of tests performed. This is considerably lower than the national average of 9%. Although the number of tests being performed has been steadily increasing, the number of positive cases and the test positivity rate have increased significantly over the past month. This suggests increasing numbers of individuals with COVID-19, which is expected now that all counties are in Phase 1 or Phase 2 Reopening. Recent large outbreaks around the state have also contributed to these increases. The state will continue to monitor these trends.
  • The Oregon Health Authority reported 146 new confirmed and presumptive cases of today, bringing the state total to 8,485. Two new deaths were reported today, meaning 204 Oregonians have now died of the coronavirus.

To read past newsletters, you can go to this link. For up to date information, please check this link to the Oregon Health Authority where regular updates are posted: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ERD/Pages/News-Releases.aspx

Please email me at Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov if you have specific concerns that have not been addressed by the OHA. Our office will do all we can to help and protect all Oregonians.

Thank you for reading! We will get through this together.

Best,

Tina

Tina Kotek

State Representative
House District 44
Speaker of the House

email: Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1200
address: 900 Court St NE, H-269, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kotek