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July 30, 2020
I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well, staying healthy, and looking out for your neighbors and friends.
Yesterday I mentioned the good news of our state positivity rate moving back below 5%. It turns out that I spoke too soon. We learned today that there was a delay in reporting a number of cases in Umatilla County. As a result, yesterday’s case count for Umatilla County (reported at 4) was unusually low, given what we’ve been seeing there. Today’s count for that county (101) is unusually high. The result is a jump in the state’s numbers and a spike in our positivity rate. The reality for the two days is somewhere in between. We’ll see that reality reflected in next week’s weekly numbers.
We do see a reduction in new hospitalizations and deaths today.
Breaking News: Just as this was about to go out, we learned from the Governor that she is ordering Morrow County to go back from Phase 2 to Phase 1 requirements, and its neighbor, Umatilla County, must return to “Baseline”—i.e., the Stay Home requirements prior to Phase One reopening. You’ll find the descriptions of the different levels of requirement here.
This is a big step and will be hard on those residents, but I’m afraid it’s necessary if we’re to get on top of COVID while allowing for local variability. As I reported yesterday, Umatilla County and Morrow County have the highest infection rate in the state: 432.3 and 4 cases per 100,000 residents respectively. Four out of the five top zip codes for infections are in the Umatilla-Morrow area.
As you’ll see below, two counties—Union and Lincoln--were just taken off the “County Watch List” today because they were able to dramatically lower their rate of community spread. It is possible for counties—and thereby the state as a whole—to turn this around.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA reports that 382 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID. The cumulative total for those testing positive is 17,197.
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Total Tests: The number of tests has increased by 4,456. The cumulative total is now 397,705.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive tests has jumped to 8.6% of total results today. The national percentage today is 8.5%.
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 5 additional deaths due to the coronavirus today. The total number of deaths in Oregon is now 316.
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Hospitalized: OHA is reporting an additional 19 COVID hospitalizations. The cumulative number of those have been hospitalized with COVID is now 1,587.
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Presumptive Cases: OHA is 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. Today’s number of new presumed positives is 34. The total number of presumed positives is now 934.
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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): 229 (6 fewer than yesterday). Of those, 150 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 145 (18 fewer than yesterday).
- Other Available Beds: 763 (26 more than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 66 (4 more than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 30 (2 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 764 (11 fewer than yesterday).
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Dashboards
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Today’s National Numbers:
- Total Tests: 53,825,445 54,644,715 (up 819,270 from yesterday).
- Positive Tests: 4,394,906 4,464,823 (up 69,917 from yesterday).
- Deaths: 142,848 144,139 (up 1,291 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.
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PPE:
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Additional Brief Items:
- I just learned this morning that Western Oregon University faculty and students are playing a leading role in contact tracing in Polk County, where the university is located. It’s a great example of a university combining important, relevant instruction with needed service to multiple communities. I encourage you to find out more about the staff, students, and details of the program here.
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We’ve just learned that the OHA weekly COVID report that I linked to yesterday had an error. It incorrectly reported an increase in cases for the week of Monday, July 20 through Sunday, July 26 over the previous week. Cases actually declined to 2,241 from 2,409, a drop of about 7 percent. That’s in line with the drop in last week’s positivity rate that I did mention.
- We know that one of the big challenges with distance learning at the K-12 level is that many children around the state, including in the Portland area, have inadequate access to effective internet at home. Oregon’s Office of Economic Analysis has just released an analysis of this problem in its regular blog, entitled “Kids with Internet: Inequitable Access to Technology (Table of the Week).” Their analysis focuses on the Portland tri-county area. It reveals clear disparities based on both race/ethnicity and household income. If distance learning is the only instructional mode available in our region, we clearly need to take steps to address this problem.
- The Salem Reporter just published a series of Q & A’s about the current medical understanding of the virus and the way that local and state public health are counting COVID cases and COVID-related deaths. Answers are from OHA and local health agencies. You can read it here.
Governor Announces Changes to County “Watch List”
As I mentioned last week, the Governor and her medical advisors have been looking at the latest disease metrics to see if some counties could come off the “County Watch List” and others might need to be added. Counties on the watchlist are prioritized for state assistance as a result of a high level of “community spread,” i.e., infections that can’t be traced to particular outbreaks.
Today she did announce changes to the list in a press release. You’ll see that Lincoln County and Union County have come off the list, as a result of big declines in their rate of new infections. But three counties have had to be added: Hood River, Marion, and Multnomah.
That means that there are now ten counties on the watch list: Baker, Hood River, Jefferson, Lake, Malheur, Marion, Morrow, Multnomah, Umatilla, and Wasco.
Legislative Work On Police Reform Continues
The Joint Committee charged with pursuing ways to improve policing and use of force met again this morning, discussing and hearing testimony on improving It was a good discussion, with good questions and testimony from the witnesses, including Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle about the role that BOLI could play in protecting officers who report on misconduct by a fellow officer. There was lots of discussion around chokeholds and whether the prohibitions in the bill that passed in the first special session is strong enough. (It allows chokeholds to be used if an officer feels his/her life is in danger.)
If you’d like to listen to the hearing, go to today's agenda page and click on the “Play” icon at the top or on the side.
The hearings continue tomorrow (Friday).
If you go to tomorrow’s agenda page linked below and then 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. Here's further information from legislative staff on different ways to testify.
Note: If you want to testify tomorrow, you’ll need to register to do so by 8 am.
Here’s the schedule for tomorrow’s hearing:
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 416. These numbers are likely inflated somewhat because of a delay in processing Umatilla’s numbers. You’ll see below that their numbers are extremely high; many of them should have been part of yesterday’s totals.
A little under 2/3 of the state’s new cases today again come from outside the Portland Tri-County region. Here is the breakdown by county for today:
Baker (3).
Benton (7)
Clackamas (22)
Clatsop (2)
Columbia (3)
Coos (4)
Crook (2)
Deschutes (15)
Douglas (2)
Hood River (5)
Jackson (10)
Jefferson (12)
Klamath (1)
Lake (1)
Lane (10)
Lincoln (2)
Linn (4)
Malheur (18)
Marion (38)
Morrow (9)
Multnomah (61)
Polk (7)
Umatilla (101)
Union (1)
Wasco (2)
Washington (63)
Yamhill (11)
And the Deaths
Oregon’s 312th COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old man in Umatilla County who tested positive on July 10 and died on July 28, at Good Samaritan Health Care Center in Yakima, WA.
Oregon’s 313th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on July 15 and died on July 27, at Providence Portland Medical Center.
Oregon’s 314th COVID-19 death is a 68-year-old woman in Umatilla County who tested positive on July 10 and died on July 28, at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, WA.
Oregon’s 315th COVID-19 death is a 66-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on July 18 and died on July 26, at Portland Adventist Medical Center.
Oregon’s 316th COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on July 4 and died on July 23, at Providence Portland Medical Center.
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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