July 7th COVID-19 Update

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin at 07/07/2020 07:52 PM PDT
Michael Dembrow

July 7, 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 newsletter includes a number of brief updates about COVID and COVID response, along with the metrics for the day.  Today we see a reduction in case counts, which is great, but an increase in hospitalizations and deaths, which is not. 

I also want to alert you to the first meetings of the Legislature’s  Joint Committee on Transparency in Policing and Use of Force, which has been created to follow up on and further the work that was done during the first special session on police accountability. As I mentioned right after the special session, we accomplished important first steps during the session, but there is much more work to be done on this issue.  I’m pleased to see that work starting up right away.  It makes me optimistic that we’ll be able to hear from more people, experts and community members alike, and will be able to take further needed steps towards more equitable justice in the next special session.

They will be meeting Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week.  You can find the agendas, meeting materials, and links to view the meetings here.  I encourage you to check it out and follow their work.

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TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

  • Positive Cases: OHA has reported that an additional 184 people have tested positive.  The cumulative total for those testing positive is now 10,086.
  • Total Tests: OHA reports an additional 4,159 total tests. The cumulative total since the beginning of the pandemic is now 271,387.
  • Ratio: The percentage of positive tests results for today is 4.4%. You can see Oregon’s ratio for the last two weeks in a graph below.  The national percentage today is 6.1%.
  • Deaths: I regret to report 5 additional deaths due to the coronavirus.  The total number of deaths in Oregon is now 220.
  • Hospitalized: OHA has reported 16 additional hospitalizations due to COVID. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID is now 1,141.
  • 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.  OHA reports 35 new presumed positives today.  The total number of presumed positives is now 519.
  • Other Hospital Information:
    • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 191 (8 more than yesterday). Of those, 116 have already received a positive test back.
    • Available ICU Beds: 130 (38 fewer than yesterday).
    • Other Available Beds: 734 (82 fewer than yesterday).
    • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 55 (6 fewer than yesterday).
    • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 22 (4 fewer than yesterday).
    • Available Ventilators: 779 (18 fewer than yesterday).
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  • Today’s National Numbers:
  • PPE:
  • Additional Brief Items:
    • OHA reported today that it is investigating a workplace outbreak of 22 cases at Columbia River Processing, another food processor in Morrow County. (It’s Tillamook’s operation in the Gorge, located in Boardman.) The 22 include employees, their family members, and other close contacts. State and county public health officials are working with the company to limit further spread.
    • OHA reports that it has updated several of its guidances during the last week. You can find the updated guidances here. (Scroll down to “Guidance and Signage”).  Among the new guidances are
      • Updated Phase 2 FAQ for Pools, Spas and Sports Courts
      • Updated Phase 2 FAQs for Restaurants/Bars
      • New Face Covering Facts
      • New FAQs for Outdoor Recreation
    • We learned today that the Governor would like to see a significant increase in our ability to do what’s called “surveillance testing,” particularly as a way to help our schools reopen in the fall and to monitor our long-term care facilities. She’d like to triple the amount of surveillance testing we can do. To do that, though, we are going to need much better access to testing supplies than we have currently.  She has requested more help from FEMA and the other federal sources, but without much success so far.
    • OHA reported today that the Fourth of July weekend brought more pressure onto the ICUs in some of our more rural hospitals. (No, we weren’t told which ones specifically.)  Some was to be expected from a holiday weekend, but some was due to COVID.  One of the hospitals is apparently right at its limit.
    • OHA also reported that contact tracing is showing that one of the most dangerous of situations for spread of the virus is indoor social activities where different families or groups of friends come together to socialize. People are generally not wearing face coverings in such situations, and even though they try to maintain at least six feet of distance, that’s really easier said than done.
    • The media has been full of news about the use and abuse of the federal PPP program, designed to support small businesses. Our Office of Economic Analysis has just come out with an interesting new blog post about PPP utilization in Oregon.

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 168. More than half are again from the Portland Tri-County region.  Here is the breakdown by county for today:

Benton (2)

Clackamas (18)                                 

Columbia (2)

Coos (4)

Crook (1)

Douglas (3)

Hood River (3)

Jefferson (2)

Josephine (3)

Klamath (1)

Lake (1)

Lane (16)

Lincoln (1)

Linn (1)

Malheur (7)

Marion (23)

Morrow (2)

Multnomah (52)

Polk (6)

Umatilla (20)

Union (5)

Wallowa (1)

Wasco (2)

Washington (27)

Yamhill (16)

And the Deaths

Oregon’s 216th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on June 25 and died on June 30, at Providence Portland Medical Center.

Oregon’s 217th COVID-19 death is a 74-year-old woman in Yamhill County who tested positive on June 23 and died on June 30, at Willamette Valley Medical Center.

Oregon’s 218th COVID-19 death is a 56-year-old woman in Linn County who tested positive on May 27 and died on July 5, at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.

Oregon’s 219th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on June 14 and died on July 6, at his residence.

Oregon’s 220th COVID-19 death is a 62-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on June 10 and died on July 6, at Salem Hospital.

Additional Graphs:

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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.

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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,

dembrow signature

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