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July 28, 2020
I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well, staying healthy, and looking out for your neighbors and friends.
While the number of new COVID cases seems to be stabilizing, in today’s report we unfortunately are feeling the impact of cases that began weeks ago. Twenty-three additional Oregonians have required hospitalization for their COVID illness. And tragically, the number of deaths due to COVID jumped dramatically to set a new record of 14 deaths. The youngest this time was a 26-year-old man from Yamhill County. Every one of these is a tragic loss for loved ones, and the total number is a troubling message to us all.
OHA Director Pat Allen provided the following message of condolence: “As we surpass 300 deaths related to COVID-19, including the 14 deaths reported today, I wish to extend sincere condolences on behalf of everyone at OHA to the families who have lost a loved one to this disease. It is a stark reminder of the work all Oregonians need to do to bring this pandemic under control. Together we can slow this disease and prevent this terrible loss of life.” As usual, Pat is doing his best to end on a positive message of determination and hope.
Clearly, we have to hope for the best and plan for the worst. To that end, the Governor and OHA provided more clarity today on what it will take to reopen schools to in-person instruction in the fall. As I’ve mentioned before, the research is showing that with the proper precautions in place schools can have classes in person. BUT only if the disease is under control in their area. We’ve seen schools open safely in areas where the disease is no longer widely spreading. When schools have opened in areas where the disease remains rampant, schools have been hit hard.
Knowing that, the Governor’s medical advisors have been working for the last week on finding the threshold where the danger point has been reached and being clear about the necessary metrics in advance. The results were released today, and you can see the details below.
The topline messages are clear: (a) where we can open schools to in-person learning safely, we should, especially for younger children and those who face particular challenges with learning; (b) if we stay on our current trajectory, many parts of the state will not be in a position to safely meet in person; and (c) that’s why it’s so important that we have the determination and the discipline to do what we can to get the infection rate down in our communities.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA reports that 306 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID. The cumulative total for those testing positive is 16,546.
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Total Tests: The number of tests has increased by 5,068. The cumulative total is now 386,786.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive tests remains at 6% of total results. The national percentage today is 7.3%.
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report a record 14 additional deaths due to the coronavirus today. The total number of deaths in Oregon is now 303.
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Hospitalized: OHA is reporting an additional 23 COVID hospitalizations. The cumulative number of those have been hospitalized with COVID is now 1,537.
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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. The total number of presumed positives is now 848.
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Other Hospital Information:
- Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 230 (7 fewer than yesterday). Of those, 157 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 133 (24 fewer than yesterday).
- Other Available Beds: 752 (29 fewer than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 58 (same as yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 31 (4 more than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 773 (4 more than).
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Dashboards
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Today’s National Numbers:
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PPE:
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Additional Brief Items:
- A new initiative to dismantle systemic racism at all levels of government in Oregon was announced today. It’s called the Reimagine Oregon Project. Check it out.
- OHA has set up a Facebook Live opportunity for people to learn more about COVID testing in Oregon. It’s tomorrow (Wednesday) from 1:30 to 2:00 with OHA testing experts Drs. Melissa Sutton and Tom Jeanne. They’ll take questions and provide info about who can and should get tested, how to find a testing location, and more. There will be simultaneous translation in both Spanish and ASL. You can join in English or in Spanish.
- The Employment Department is holding a webinar on Pandemic Unemployment this Thursday afternoon. You can find the details here. If you missed last week’s webinar on how to work with the new online PUA system, here it is.
When Can Oregon’s Schools Reopen In-Person?
The Governor, Department of Education Director Colt Gill, and State Epidemiologist Dean Sidelinger presented "Ready Schools, Safe Learners: Community COVID-19 Metrics", first to the press and then to legislators and county commissioners this afternoon. As I mentioned above, it is an attempt to give clear direction to school districts and communities about when it should be safe for them to open up in-person instruction and when they should hold off and stay with remote learning.
The five-page document goes into some detail about the rationale and the actual metrics that must be met. I encourage you to read it over.
You’ll see three scenarios: (1) a district that meets the metrics to begin in-person or hybrid instruction; (2) a district that met the criteria to do in-person instruction but now finds the disease increasing needs to begin to PLAN to move from in-person to entirely distance learning; (3) a district whose metrics worsen or do not improve is REQUIRED to move entirely to distance learning.
Scenario One can occur when the following metrics are met three weeks in a row:
- New county case rates are at or below 10 cases per 100K population in the preceding week;
- County test positivity rate is at or less than 5% for the preceding week;
- The state as a whole has a test positivity rate at or under 5% for the preceding week.
You’ll see that there are cases in which younger children (K-3) can attend in person and older children not, as long as certain metrics are met. Same with certain other populations.
Scenario Two (need to start planning for the possibility of ceasing in-person) is triggered if one or more of the following has occurred for more than a week:
- New county case rates are at or over 20 cases per 100K population in the preceding week;
- County test positivity rate is at or over 7.5% for the preceding week.
Scenario Three (required to proceed to comprehensive distance learning entirely):
- New county case rates are at or over 30 cases per 100K in the preceding week;
- County test positivity rate is equal to or over 10%
Again, you’ll find some exceptions and qualifications in the document itself.
Following the Governor’s announcement, Portland Public Schools decided that the safest route for now is to plan to have all classes (with some exceptions) be online for the first quarter of the school year, that is, until November 4 at least and really focus on making that modality as successful as possible. You’ll find details and FAQs here.
For me personally and now as Chair of Senate Education, the Community Metrics plan seems like the right way to go. It provides clear goals, recognizes the importance of in-person learning but also recognizes the inextricable link between what’s happening in school and what’s happening in community, based on the best and latest science. I know that there are some who are calling for a complete prohibition on in-person learning if there’s even one new COVID case in the community in the previous 14 days. I appreciate the concern, but that’s too extreme a threshold. This proposal seems reasonable, as long as all the other in-school safety measures involving masking, cleaning, and distancing are followed.
Having said that, I’m sure we’ll see further developments and refinements in the coming weeks.
To see where the different counties are right now in potentially meeting the metrics, below is a chart with the percentage of positive test results by county for the last few weeks. I’ll get you similar data for cases per 100K soon. OHA and ODE have promised to post this information themselves on a regular basis, so that people can see where their counties are in meeting the necessary threshold.
Legislative Work On Police Reform
During the first special session, the Legislature created a new House/Senate Joint Committee on Transparency in Policing and Use of Force Reform in order to keep working on policing reform. They’ve been meeting on a regular basis (taking last week off because of budget committee meetings) in public session, hearing from experts and taking public testimony on the problems they’re trying to address.
Based on what they’ve heard so far, they’ve had some legislative concepts (LCs) drafted, with the goal of getting them introduced as bills and passed in the next special session, which should be occurring sometime in the next month. These concepts will be open to public testimony this week. If you go to any of the agenda links below and scroll down, you’ll find information on how to sign up to speak remotely or to submit written comment. You’ll also find links under MEETING MATERIALS to testimony that has already come in, including from the Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs.
As you’ll see, some of them are expansions or modifications of bills passed during the first special session, while others are new concepts that have been generated in response to public input. I believe that there are additional concepts in the works.
Here’s the schedule for this week’s hearings:
WEDNESDAY, JULY 29
THURSDAY, JULY 30
FRIDAY, JULY 31
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 342. Nearly 2/3 of the state’s new cases today are again from outside the Portland Tri-County region. Here is the breakdown by county for today:
Benton (3)
Clackamas (15)
Clatsop (3)
Coos (3)
Crook (2)
Curry (1)
Deschutes (2)
Douglas (2)
Harney (1)
Jackson (10)
Jefferson (9)
Josephine (9)
Klamath (2)
Lane (6)
Linn (5)
Malheur (15)
Marion (40)
Morrow (7)
Multnomah (74)
Polk (13)
Umatilla (75)
Washington (31)
Yamhill (9)
And the Deaths
Oregon’s 290th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old male in Multnomah County who tested positive on June 19 and died on July 22 at Portland Adventist Medical Center.
Oregon’s 291st COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old male in Multnomah County who tested positive on July 3 and died on July 20 at Portland Adventist Medical Center.
Oregon’s 292nd COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old female in Jefferson County who tested positive on June 30 and died on July 23 at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend.
Oregon’s 293rd COVID-19 death is a 94-year-old female in Clackamas County who tested positive on July 19 and died on July 26 in her residence.
Oregon’s 294th COVID-19 death is a 54-year-old male in Malheur County who tested positive on June 24 and died on July 15 at St. Luke’s Nampa Medical Center.
Oregon’s 295th COVID-19 death is a 26-year-old male in Yamhill County who died in his residence on July 10. The death certificate listed COVID-19 disease or SARS-CoV-2, as a cause of death or as a significant condition that contributed to his death.
Oregon’s 296th COVID-19 death is a 91-year-old female in Clackamas County who became symptomatic on July 22, after close contact with a confirmed case, and died on July 26.
Oregon’s 297th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old male in Deschutes County who tested positive on July 23 and died on July 25 at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend.
Oregon’s 298th COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old female in Deschutes County who tested positive on July 12 and died on July 23. Location of death is being confirmed.
Oregon’s 299th COVID-19 death is a 64-year-old female in Jefferson County who tested positive on July 14 and died on July 27.
Oregon’s 300th COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old female in Jefferson County who tested positive on July 20 and died on July 26.
Oregon’s 301st COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old male in Marion County who tested positive on July 14 and died on July 26 at Salem Hospital.
Oregon’s 302nd COVID-19 death is a 66-year-old female in Marion County who tested positive on July 14 and died on July 24. Location of death is being confirmed.
Oregon’s 303rd death is an 84-year-old female in Umatilla County who tested positive on July 22 and died on July 25. Location of death is being confirmed.
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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