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August 11, 2020
I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well, staying healthy, and looking out for your neighbors and friends.
Legislators received a cautiously optimistic report this afternoon from State Epidemiologist Dean Sidelinger about where we are as a state right now. We are seeing an overall flattening of cases and hospitalizations that has been underway since mid-July, following increases that began with the mid-May reopenings. This may well be an indication that a growing number of people are following the face-covering and other renewed distancing orders that began in early July.
Today’s numbers reflect that ongoing flattening, with the exception of a high death count today of eleven. However, as you’ll see below, that high number is somewhat artificial. All but three are actually deaths that occurred much earlier but needed further investigation before the details were confirmed.
Today’s newsletter also provides the latest information on requirements for in-person school instruction, as well as school sports. You’ll also find the final list of bills that were passed yesterday before the Legislature adjourned a little before midnight.
Looking back on yesterday’s special session, I will say that it was full of difficulties—not surprising when its primary purpose was to address the need to cut budgets and postpone much-needed new programs. And also not surprising given the highly partisan time in which we live.
But I will say that along with the moments of high drama, there were memorable moments of powerful sentiment and even spiritual uplift. One that will stay with me for a long, long time was when my dear friend and colleague, Senator James Manning, Jr., responded to criticisms of our continuing to work on and pass legislation designed to combat instances of police misuse of force. His voice muffled by his face covering, showing the signs of a recent medical procedure on his vocal cords and an extremely long day, Senator Manning’s unprepared comments were deeply, deeply moving.
This work will continue, must continue. I encourage you to listen to his comments, and I know you’ll agree.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA reports that 258 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID. The cumulative total for those testing positive is 20,643.
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Total Tests: The number of tests has increased by 6,328. The cumulative number of tests since the pandemic began is now 455,957.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive tests today is 4.1%. The national percentage today is 7.5%.
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Deaths: I’m very sorry to report 11 additional deaths due to the coronavirus today. You can read more about those we lost further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 368.
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Hospitalized: OHA reports that an additional 15 Oregonians have been hospitalized with COVID. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID since the beginning of the pandemic is 1,813.
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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. OHA reports 44 new presumptive cases today and a cumulative total of 1,131 Oregonians presumed positive.
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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): 234 (20 more than yesterday). Of those, 156 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 142 (15 fewer than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 701 (93 fewer than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 59 (1 more than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 15 (7 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 777(3 fewer than yesterday).
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Dashboards
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Today’s National Numbers:
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PPE:
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Other Brief Updates:
- The OHA issued an update to its guidance for K-12 sports.
- Speaking of school sports, we learned today that the Pac-12 will be pushing football, cross country, volleyball, and soccer to the spring as a result of COVID. Here's a story about it from the Register-Guard.
- As the pandemic takes its toll on local economies, a growing number of community college students are wrestling with food insecurity and housing insecurity. Here's a Street Roots article with examples from the Portland area.
- If you’d like to learn more about what the current thinking is for how Oregon’s colleges and universities will be doing instruction this fall, you can join in at a Facebook Live Q&A. It will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, August 12, at 1:30 pm. OHA’s Deputy State Health Officer, Dr. Tom Jeanne, and the Executive Director of the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, Ben Cannon, will be on hand to answer questions.
Oregon Department of Education Releases New Reopening Guidance
ODE has been consulting with school districts, hearing from parents and students, and working with state and county health departments to produce a series of updates to its original set of reopening instructions for school districts. Today, they released the most recent update to the Ready Schools, Safe Learners guidance.
The Department provided an overview of the new guidelines in a press release issued today.
One of the most notable changes is a new set of exceptions to the standard in-person reopening metrics for some rural counties with low populations where there have not been significant outbreaks. You’ll find these changes on pp. 20-22 of the document. They will still have to meet the positivity rates, but the per-100K infection rates have been relaxed.
These changes came in response to what I believe to be legitimate concerns by those counties that with a very low population base (numbering in the thousands or low tens of thousands), a small handful of cases could prohibit them from ever reopening. As long as there is vigorous testing and the percentage of positive cases remains low, I believe that this change makes sense, particularly for younger children and those with special needs.
If you’re interested in this issue, please check out the changes to the plan (they’re listed at the beginning of the document and can be found throughout in green ink), and let me know your thoughts.
Here is a link to the latest OHA county metrics data relevant to in-person reopening. In it you'll find county-level data for the past five weeks. Here's a preview:
New OHA Testing Report Out
OHA has released their latest weekly testing report. It gives the latest testing results as of the end of last week. We’re seeing two trends—one good, the other not. The positive news is that the increase in positivity rate that we saw last week has been reversed, reverting back to where it was mid-July. The bad news is that we’re again seeing a decline in our testing. As the report itself clarifies, some of this may be due to the length of time it’s taking for tests (particularly those going out to national labs) to be processed and reported. The other culprit is the ongoing inadequacy of testing supplies.
Here’s a chart from the report that shows the weekly numbers and positivity rates since the end of May:
Number of SNAP Applications Jump
Legislators received a briefing from the Department of Human Service Director this afternoon and learned that the department is experiencing a surge in new applications for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly called the Food Stamps Program). The briefing followed up on a DHS press release issued today.
During the first week of August, 5,800 Oregonians applied for SNAP benefits for the first time. That’s a 37% increase over the previous week, which was the week that the $600 federal supplement to unemployment benefits ended. They expect the number of new applications to increase further as the impact of the loss of the supplement continues. With the increase in applications, the approval process is taking longer. Whereas the department used to be able to promise a same-day turnaround time, the process is now taking up to 13 days. The problem is aggravated by the fact that a number of SNAP processors have had to take COVID family leave.
And the problem is on track to get much worse next month. That’s because a COVID-related federal waiver is about to expire at the end of August. SNAP recipients are required by federal law to reapply every six months and have a new in-person interview with a benefits processor. The in-person requirement was waived for six months back in March, for COVID-related reasons. If the waiver is not extended very soon, nearly 45,000 interviews will need to be scheduled. Setting health safety issues aside, the result will be an inevitable backlog of cases, and many Oregonians will lose their benefits while waiting for recertification.
In order to avoid this scenario, Oregon DHS, along with their counterparts in every other state, has submitted a request to the federal Department of Agriculture for a waiver. They hope to hear within a week.
In any case, the Governor has already directed staff from other areas to be redeployed to do SNAP work, and the agency is beginning a large hiring process. That will of course need to be followed by a substantial training process.
I’ll let you know how it goes when we hear more.
Special Session #2 Recap
When I sent out yesterday’s newsletter, it was still unclear about whether or not we’d indeed be able to finish the session in one day, as the Senate was still waiting for a couple of bills to come over from the House. In the end the Senate was able to adjourn at 10:19 pm, with the House finishing at 11:16.
Here are all the bills that were passed on Monday.
HB 4301 (was LC 27): This bill brings together two of the policing reform bills. It clarifies the prohibition on use of “chokeholds” and other police actions that cut of breathing or blood circulation (such as the action that caused the death of George Floyd. It also incorporates what had previously been LC 761 for the Joint Committee on Transparency in Policing and Use of Force Reform, clarifying when use of physical force is acceptable and when it is not.
HB 4302 (was LC 13): This LC makes necessary changes to mining fees that should have been done in February but weren’t, again as a result of the Walkout. It’s needed to fund the work of the Department of Geology and Mining Industries for the second year of the biennium.
HB 4303 (was LC 25): This will be the bill transferring $400 million from reserves (the Education Stability Fund) to the General Fund to help rebalance the budget.
HB 4304 (was LC 5): This is what’s known as the session’s “program change” bill. It includes a number of budget transfers and technical fixes that are part of the rebalance, It also includes some elements that were proposed but unable to proceed in February as a result of the Republican Walkout, including an analysis of the costs and payment responsibility for wildfire suppression.
HB 5221 (was LC 22): Addresses reductions needed as a result of reductions in lottery revenue and other funding sources.
HCR 221 (LC 21): This resolution makes necessary modifications to the Legislature’s new complaint procedure, fixing several problems that have arisen.
SB 1701 (was LC 1): This is the first of the LCs designed to improve the process for becoming eligible for unemployment benefits. Clarifies situations in which workers are able to work part-time while receiving benefits. Will make it easier for workers to go back to work part-time without losing all their benefits.
SB 1703 (was LC 4): This bill makes it easier for Employment Department personnel who are processing PUA claims to receive Department of Revenue tax information for claimants in a way that protects the confidentiality of that information. This is intended to speed up the adjudication process for PUA claimants.
SB 5721 (was LC 10): This is the first of the bonding LCs. It authorizes university building construction, and includes provisions requiring apprenticeship and participation from women, minorities, and veterans.
SB 5722 (was LC 11): This is the second of the bonding bills. It implements the provisions of the above bonding bill.
SB 5723 (was LC 12): This is the major budget rebalance bill. You’ll find the reductions and increases here.
SCR 221 (formerly LC 23: This is the “sine die” resolution, the bill that allows us to adjourn when the work is over.
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 227. More than half of today’s cases come from the Portland Tri-County region. Here is the breakdown by county for today:
Benton (3)
Clackamas (23)
Clatsop (4)
Columbia (5)
Crook (1)
Curry (2)
Deschutes (5)
Douglas (5)
Hood River (8)
Jackson (12)
Jefferson (6)
Josephine (9)
Klamath (3)
Lane (6)
Lincoln (2)
Linn (12)
Malheur (19)
Marion (42)
Morrow (6)
Multnomah (60)
Polk (5)
Umatilla (16)
Union (1)
Washington (41)
Yamhill (4)
And the Deaths
You’ll see that several of today’s reported deaths actually occurred quite a while ago. OHA does not report them as COVID deaths unless and until a COVID connection is established. Today’s high death count is partly due to confirmations being finalized and entered into the system. Without them, today’s death count would have increased by 3.
Here’s a note from OHA explaining this:
OHA receives death certificate information from the Office of Vital Statistics. Epidemiologists review death certificate information for Oregonians that have COVID-19 listed as a main cause of death or a contributing cause of death. When a death is reported to a county, the county may not always have the cause of death, and this death would not be counted as a COVID-19 related death. During data reconciliation by OHA, additional COVID-19 related deaths may be found and reported. The deaths reported today include eight deaths that were identified during this review process.
Oregon’s 358th COVID-19 death is a 59-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on May 22 and died on August 7 at OHSU. He had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 359th COVID-19 death is a 105-year-old woman in Clackamas County who died on July 5, in her residence. The death certificate listed COVID-19 disease, or SARS-CoV-2, as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death.
Oregon’s 360th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old woman in Umatilla County who tested positive on July 23 and died on August 8 in her residence. She had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 361st COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on May 7 and died on July 27 in her residence. She had underlying conditions.
Oregon’s 362nd COVID-19 death is a 71-year-old woman in Umatilla County who tested positive on July 23 and died on August 5 in her residence. She had underlying medical conditions.
Oregon’s 363rd COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on August 3 and died on August 8 at Providence Portland Medical Center.
Oregon’s 364th COVID-19 death is a 75-year-old man in Linn County who tested positive on April 7 and died on June 10 in his residence.
Oregon’s 365th COVID-19 death is a 66-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on May 31 and died on June 14 at Kaiser Westside Medical Center.
Oregon’s 366th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on June 16 and died on June 30 in his residence.
Oregon’s 367th COVID-19 death is a 78-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on June 27 and died on July 7 at Providence Portland Medical Center.
Oregon’s 368th COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on April 8 and died on July 12 in his residence.
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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