August 6th COVID-19 Update

August 6, 2020

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

Today is another relatively good day on the COVID front.  The number of new cases is lower, with a decent number of tests reported, a low positivity rate, lower rate of new hospitalizations, and only one death.  A rural county (Lake) has been able to come off the “Watch List” as a result of a reduction in cases. 

CORRECTION:  Ah, the power of a decimal point.  Or I should say a missing decimal point.  In my Word document for yesterday’s newsletter, I wrote that the OHA Weekly Report pegged our current COVID death rate at “0.8 per 10,000 Oregonians.” For some reason the computer gremlins turned that into “8 per 10,000” in the internet version.  An astute reader pointed out the error. (FYI, if the rate were 8 per 10K, our death toll would be nearly 3,400 for the state, while in fact it’s a tenth of that.  Sorry.)

TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

• Positive Cases: OHA reports that 226 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID. The cumulative total for those testing positive and presumed positive is 19,162.
• Total Tests: I’m pleased to report that the number of tests has increased by 5,440. The cumulative total number of tests is now 431,199.
• Ratio: The percentage of positive tests today is 4.2% of total results. The national percentage today is 7.3%. 
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report 1 additional death due to the coronavirus today. You can read more about the person we lost further down in the newsletter.  The total number of deaths in Oregon is now 339.
• Hospitalized: OHA reports that an additional 17 Oregonians have been hospitalized due to COVID. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID is now 1,743.
• 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 41 new presumed positives today.  The total number of presumed positives is now 1,063.
• Other Hospital Information:
  • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 230 (2 more than yesterday). Of those, 153 have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 157 (6 more than yesterday).
  • Other Available Beds: 642 (23 more than yesterday).
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 58 (2 fewer than yesterday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 29 (4 more than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 774 (12 more than yesterday).
• Dashboards
  • Oregon (OHA)
  • Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, & Yamhill Counties
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 59,652,675 (up 749,018 from yesterday).
  • Positive Tests: 4,852,143 (up 54,624 from yesterday).
  • Deaths: 151,483 (up 1,253 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.
• Additional Brief Updates:
  • The Governor announced today that Lake County has improved its rate of COVID community spread enough to be removed from the County Watch List. That leaves nine counties on the list: Baker, Hood River, Jefferson, Malheur, Marion, Morrow, Multnomah, Umatilla, and Wasco.  Counties on the list become priorities for various kinds of state support in combating the virus.  Here is her press release on the subject.

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 267.  Nearly 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 (1)

Benton (1)

Clackamas (22)

Clatsop (1)

Columbia (4)

Coos (1)

Crook (1)

Deschutes (12)

Douglas (5)

Grant (1)

Hood River (4)

Jackson (16)

Jefferson (10)

Josephine (2)

Klamath (2)

Lane (12)

Linn (3)

Malheur (19)

Marion (33)

Morrow (1)

Multnomah (45)

Polk (4)

Sherman (1)

Umatilla (27)

Wasco (6)

Washington (30)

Yamhill (9)

And the Death

Oregon’s 339th COVID-19 death is an 83-year-old man in Umatilla County who tested positive on July 16 and died on August 1, at Good Shepherd Health Care 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:

• 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