July 18th COVID-19 Update

July 18, 2020

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 reports that 353 additional Oregonians have either tested positive for COVID or are presumed positive. The cumulative total for those testing positive or presumed positive is now 14,149.  OHA does not report positive test results alone over the weekend; on Monday I’ll have the exact number of positive tests only, which will be slightly lower.
• Total Tests: The number of tests increased by 7,315. The cumulative total is now 330,793. NOTE: OHA does not report positive test results alone alone over the weekend, so today’s total tests are a combination of positive tests, presumed positive cases, and negative tests; on Monday I’ll have the exact number of positive tests and negative tests for the weekend, which will be slightly lower.
• Ratio: The percentage of positive tests for today is 4.8% of total tests. (Note: this includes those presumed positive for today.) The national percentage today is 8.6%. 
• Deaths: I’m sorry to have to report 3 additional deaths due to the coronavirus.  The total number of deaths in Oregon in now 257.
• Hospitalized: OHA does not report hospitalization data over the weekend. I’ll have them for you on Monday. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID thus remains at 1,327.
• 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.  
• Other Hospital Information: OHA does not report hospitalization numbers over the weekend, so these are Friday’s numbers. I’ll have updated numbers on Monday.
  • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 242 (23 more than yesterday). Of those, 158 have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 143 (1 fewer than yesterday).
  • Other Available Beds: 750 (91 more than yesterday).
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 64 (1 more than yesterday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 34 (1 more than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 779 (2 fewer than yesterday).
• Dashboards
  • Oregon (OHA)
  • Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, & Yamhill Counties
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 44,965,504 (up 761,771 from yesterday).
  • Positive Tests: 3,692,061 (up 65,180 from yesterday).
  • Deaths: 132,395 (up 872 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.

What’s Going On In the Counties?

Each Saturday I’m tracking how individual counties are doing now that we are seeing a resurgence of COVID around the state. The key metrics that OHA is watching 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. (They also are looking at hospital capacity and changes in hospitalization rates, but I don’t have that information by county.)

But first, I want to reproduce the current interactive county dashboard that the OHA has on its website.  It shows case counts and total testing by county, scaled to cases per 10,000, so that we can see how the infection is penetrating the various counties.  This is what we see as of July 17:

This is a useful view because it allows us to see the infection rate within each county, irrespective of their total populations.  If you look at the rankings, you can see the influence and lingering effects of outbreaks at workplaces (especially agriculture and food processing), congregate care facilities, and the church community in Union County.  They are particularly noticeable in the less populous counties. 

Looking at the tables below, you’ll again see significant increases this week both in the numbers of new cases and in the percentages of new cases.  The latter is the more accurate way to gauge the penetration of the disease in a given county.  In order to make the current trends in positive percentages more obvious, I’m again showing you the week-over-week percentages, along with the percentage of positive cases for each county since the beginning of the pandemic. 

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 353. The majority of the state’s new cases are again from outside the Portland Tri-County region.  Twenty-eight of the state’s 36 counties report new infections.  Here is the breakdown by county for today:

Benton (4)

Clackamas (15)

Clatsop (2)

Coos (3)

Crook (2)

Deschutes (11)

Douglas (4)

Hood River (8)

Jackson (7)

Jefferson (2)

Klamath (4)

Lake (3)

Lane (37)

Lincoln (3)

Linn (3)

Malheur (5)

Marion (31)

Morrow (11)

Multnomah (87)

Polk (7)

Sherman (3)

Tillamook (1)

Umatilla (35)

Union (4)

Wallowa (2)

Wasco (5)

Washington (47)

Yamhill (7)

And the Deaths

Oregon's 255^th COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on July 14 and died on July 17, in his residence. Additional details are still being confirmed.

Oregon's 256^th COVID-19 death is a 60-year-old man in Wallowa County who tested positive on July 8 and died on July 16, in his residence.

Oregon's 257^th COVID-19 death is an 81-year-old man in Lincoln County who died on July 4 in his residence and tested positive post-mortem on July 15.

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