August 4th COVID-19 Update

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin at 08/04/2020 09:52 PM PDT
Michael Dembrow

August 4, 2020

I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well, staying healthy, and looking out for your neighbors and friends.  

Today we are seeing a record high positivity rate for tests in Oregon, several percentage points above the national average.  That’s not due to an especially high number of cases today but rather an especially low number of tests (and thus a higher percentage of tests are positive).  This again speaks to the problem of inadequate testing here in Oregon.  OHA Director Pat Allen has said repeatedly that anytime the percentage of positive tests goes above 10%, it suggests that more testing needs to be done.  Today, as you’ll see below, we’re at 10.9%.

Now, this may just be an anomaly, due to a one-day problem with the reporting.  But, given the declining numbers of tests reported over the last couple of weeks, this seems to be part of a larger trend.

I asked Director Allen about the problem this afternoon during a briefing with legislators.  He pointed to the problem that we’re seeing nationally with long turnaround times in getting test results back from national commercial labs.  It may very well be that we’ve had many more tests done but they are only reported to OHA when they come back with a result.  There may well be many thousands of uncounted tests out there waiting to be processed and counted. 

It may also be that people are daunted by these reports of long waiting periods, have given up (and if so, ideally they’re self-quarantining if they’re showing symptoms or believe they’ve been exposed).

The challenge at the national level is the big increase in outbreaks that we’re seeing all around the country, along with reduced availability of supplies for all testing platforms, both of which are creating longer and longer turnarounds. 

As I reported yesterday, Oregon “theoretically” has the capacity to do 48,000 tests a week now, combining the state and local public labs, local hospital labs, along with doctor-ordered tests and pharmacy tests that go to national labs.  As a result of these national problems, we will likely see the assessment of Oregon’s “theoretical” testing ability reduced in the near future. 

We obviously need to be testing more, not less.  It’s important that we test people who are affected by outbreaks, but that’s not enough.  To that end, the Governor recently put in a request with the federal “Testing Czar” for additional test kits in order to be able to test students in areas approved for school reopening.  She was told that Oregon doesn’t have enough disease for us to qualify. 

We continue to feel the effects of the lack of a coordinated national testing strategy.  According to Director Allen, these flaws in our national system will likely take months to resolve. In the meantime, states are on their own.  It’s not good.

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TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

  • Positive Cases: OHA reports that 299 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID. The cumulative total for those testing positive and presumed positive is
  • Total Tests: The number of tests has increased by 2,749. The cumulative total number of tests is now 418,869.
  • Ratio: The percentage of positive tests today is 10.9% of total results. That’s the highest it’s been since the very beginning of the pandemic. The national percentage today is 7.4%. 
  • Deaths: I’m sorry to report 5 additional deaths due to the coronavirus today. You can read more about those we lost further down in the newsletter.  The total number of deaths in Oregon is now 333.
  • Hospitalized: OHA reports that an additional 33 Oregonians have been hospitalized due to COVID. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID is now 1,688.
  • 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. OHA reports 43 new presumed positives today.  The total number of presumed positives is now 1,045.
  • Other Hospital Information:
    • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 219 (4 more than yesterday). Of those, 159 have already received a positive test back.
    • Available ICU Beds: 149 (21 fewer than yesterday).
    • Other Available Beds: 760 (22 more than yesterday).
    • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 62 (same as yesterday).
    • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 27 (same as yesterday).
    • Available Ventilators: 756 (26 fewer than yesterday).
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  • Today’s National Numbers:
  • PPE:
  • Additional Brief Updates:
    • The Oregon Law Center has just released a handbook on rent repayment during the pandemic in English and in Spanish.  It’s for both tenants and landlords. It’s a very useful resource for those navigating the legislation passed in June that extended the moratorium on evictions till October and the grace period for repayment of back-rent till March 31, 2021.
    • One of the areas hardest hit by COVID right now remains the Warm Springs Reservation in Jefferson County. Their Tribal Council imposed a quarantine on residents on July 20 in order to curb the spread of the virus, and the Council has just voted to extend the stay-at-home order till August 11. Residents of the Reservation are also dealing with serious issues with water due to flaws in their water system. Thanks in part to a recent allocation from the Legislature, long-awaited work will soon begin on fixing their system. You can read about both of these problems in today's article in the Bend Bulletin.
    • I’ve pointed out the disproportionate hit that our Pacific Islander community here in Oregon has been taking from COVID.  OPB's NextGen Radio has a great story on this subject, featuring FSM (Federated States of Micronesia) Consul-General Joe Enlet, who does wonderful things for that community.  Have a read and a listen.
    • Finally, my friend and colleague, Senator Lew Frederick, provided powerful testimony to a roundtable convened by the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee this morning. The subject was the recent federal police actions in Portland.  I encourage you to read his testimony or watch the hearing.

Coming Up on Thursday: Pre-Session Town Hall

Reps Barbara Smith Warner, Alissa Keny-Guyer, and I will be holding a pre-Special Session Zoom Town Hall this Thursday (8/6) 5:30- 7:00pm.  You must pre-register, which you can do so here.  Hope you can make it.

This Week’s OHA County Metrics for School Reopening

OHA has released its second chart with the weekly metrics on infection rates and positivity rates for each county, the key indicators for whether or not counties will be able to reopen for in-person instruction in September.  Here's a link to it, and here it is below:

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Another Week of 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 in public session, hearing from experts and taking public testimony on the problems they’re trying to address.

As I understand it, they are planning to meet this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but at this point agendas are only posted for Wednesday and Thursday. 

It’s not clear at this point which of the concepts will be ready to be introduced as bills for the special session next week.  There’s still a difference of opinion about whether or not we should be doing anything other than budget bills next week.  I believe that we need to keep moving forward on the reform bills, at least addressing weaknesses that have surfaced in the bills that we passed in June.  Last week’s hearings suggested that there are some that are going to need more work, but there are others that I hope will be ready to go.  This week’s hearings will be crucial for helping us to make this decision.

If you go to Wednesday’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 the drafts and redrafts of the legislative concepts on the agenda as they come in, as well as testimony that has already come in. 

Here is the agenda for Wednesday’s hearing. Some have been seen before and others are new.  Notice that not all the concepts have links yet.  That means that we’re still waiting for the drafts to come back from the legislative legal drafters.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 29

  • LC 742 Regulates use of chemical incapacitants, kinetic impact projectiles and sound devices by law enforcement agencies.
  • LC 743 Establishes requirements for peace officer uniforms. Establishes requirements for displaying identifying information on peace officer uniforms and for disclosing identifying information to public upon request.
  • LC 745 Provides that peace officer or corrections officer may not use force that impedes normal breathing or circulation of blood of another person by applying pressure on throat or neck under any circumstances.
  • LC 751 (creates the Task Force on Uniform Statewide Law Enforcement Disciplinary Standards).  This is a proposal from Senator Dallas Heard (Roseburg) to flesh out the disciplinary standards that arbitrators will be bound to follow in making decisions regarding officer misconduct.
  • LC 761 Modifies justification defenses available to peace officer who uses physical force or deadly physical force upon another person. Requires peace officer to give verbal warning, and reasonable opportunity to comply, before using physical force or deadly physical force if reasonable opportunity to do so exists. Requires peace officer to consider alternatives to deadly physical force if reasonable opportunity to do so exists.
  • LC 762 (Still Awaiting Draft) Directs Department of Public Safety Standards and Training to establish publicly available database of certain information about misconduct and discipline of public safety employees established by Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. Requires reporting of complaints, allegations, charges, disciplinary proceedings, certain judicial findings and prosecutorial determinations of unreliability, suspensions and revocations of certification and certain resignations of public safety employees to department for inclusion in database.
  • LC 763 Directs Oregon Criminal Justice Commission to establish statewide database of reports of use of physical force by peace officers and corrections officers. Requires commission to report annually to appropriate committee or interim committee of Legislative Assembly on reports. Requires law enforcement units to report on use or threat of physical force, and deaths of persons in custody, to commission.

Thursday, August 6

  • Informational meeting on alternatives to police response for those in mental health crisis. Presenters yet to be announced.

At this point, it doesn’t appear that there will be redraft of HB 4208, the limited ban on use of tear gas.  For a national perspective on this issue (including reporting on what’s going on in Oregon), see today’s Pew Trust's Statline Daily.

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.  More than 2/3 of the state’s new cases today again come from outside the Portland Tri-County region, with Umatilla County again showing the greatest number of new cases in the state.  Here is the breakdown by county for today:

Baker (2)

Benton (3)

Clackamas (21)

Clatsop (1)

Coos (3)

Crook (1)

Deschutes (8)

Douglas (5)

Harney (2)

Hood River (5)

Jackson (17)

Jefferson (13)

Josephine (1)

Klamath (2)

Lane (12)

Linn (1)

Malheur (33)

Marion (23)

Morrow (11)

Multnomah (57)

Polk (4)

Tillamook (2)

Umatilla (61)

Union (4)

Wasco (1)

Washington (29)

Yamhill (15)

And the Deaths

Oregon’s 329th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old woman in Malheur County who tested positive on July 19 and died on July 27 at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center.

Oregon’s 330th COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old woman in Yamhill County who tested positive on July 30 and died on August 1 in her residence.

Oregon’s 331st COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on July 7 and died on July 28 at Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center.

Oregon’s 332nd COVID-19 death is an 88-year-old man in Morrow County who tested positive on July 27 and died on August 2 at Good Shepherd Health Care System.

Oregon’s 333rd COVID-19 death is a 96-year-old woman in Malheur County who tested positive on July 27 and died on August 2 at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center.

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.

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