August 23rd COVID-19 Update

August 23, 2020

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

Since it’s Sunday, you’ll find only partial reporting on some of the metrics tracking coronavirus in Oregon.  Rather than providing information about positive test results alone, over the weekend OHA combines those numbers with the relatively small number of those who are presumed to be positive based on their symptoms and close proximity to someone who has tested positive, but whose test results have not yet come back.  But it still gives us a good idea of what’s going on. 

Overall, you’ll see that our case count remains stable.  For some reason, our number of test results is unusually lower today, which is driving up our positivity rate for today.  Tomorrow I’ll be able to get you updated numbers for the weekend, which will likely push down today’s reported numbers.

TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

• Positive Cases: : OHA reports that 231 additional Oregonians have tested positive or are presumed positive (see below for definition) for COVID. (OHA does not report positive test results alone over the weekend. I’ll be able to readjust the numbers on Monday to remove the presumed positives.) The cumulative total for those testing positive and presumed positive is 24,937.
• Total Tests: The number of reported tests has increased by 3,356. Today’s increase in total results also includes presumed positives in the total results. I’ll readjust the numbers on Monday. The cumulative total is now 519,820.
• Ratio: The percentage of positive cases today in Oregon is 6.9% of total results. The national percentage today is 6.3%. 
• Deaths: I’m happy to report 0 additional deaths due to the coronavirus today. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon remains at 417.
• Hospitalized: OHA does not report on hospitalizations over the weekend The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID thus remains at 1,984.
• 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   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.  
• Other Hospital Information: OHA DOES NOT REPORT hospitalization information over the weekend, so the numbers below are the same as Friday’s.
  • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 173 (2 fewer than yesterday). Of those, 111 have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 161 (19 more than yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 656 (44 more than yesterday).
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 47 (1 fewer than yesterday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 19 (2 fewer than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 787 (4 more than yesterday).
• Dashboards
  • Oregon (OHA)
  • Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, & Yamhill Counties
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 71,693,547 (up 611,382 from yesterday).
  • Positive Tests: 5,677,847 (up 38,234 from yesterday).
  • Deaths: 168,858 (up 572 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
  • Congressperson Kurt Schrader has an opinion piece in the Statesman-Journal focusing on the need for congressional action, state action, and personal action as we await the availability of a COVID vaccine.

Looking at Age Metrics

Here again are this week’s statewide case, hospitalization, and death metrics by age.  Here is updated information as of August 21.  The percentages for each category have not really moved at all. You’ll see again that younger people have come to dominate the category of new cases: three-fourths of new cases are below the age of 50.

Again, a slight majority of hospitalizations are among those above the age of 60.  Deaths remain dominated by those above the age of 70, but we are continuing to see deaths among people in their 60s and younger.

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 231.  Here is the breakdown by county for today:

Clackamas (19)

Columbia (2)

Coos (1)

Deschutes (8)

Jackson (13)

Jefferson (1)

Klamath (2)

Lane (4)

Linn (7)

Malheur (28)

Marion (41)

Morrow (2)

Multnomah (64)

Polk (3)

Umatilla (7)

Washington (26)

Yamhill (3)

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 (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