August 25th COVID-19 Update

August 25, 2020

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

We continue to be on a plateau of relatively lower daily COVID cases and hospitalizations.  Today unfortunately we received words of 7 additional deaths here in Oregon, with six of them coming from Lincoln and Umatilla Counties, the result of infections that occurred more than a month ago.  The gradual decline in new cases should eventually result in a lowering of deaths from the disease.

Today’s newsletter is mainly a series of news items related to COVID and its economic and health impacts, along with the usual metrics and graphs.

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 since the beginning of the pandemic is 24,085.
• Total Tests: The number of tests has increased by 4,662. The cumulative total is now 526,703.
• Ratio: The percentage of positive cases today in Oregon is 4.8% of total results. The national percentage today is 5.8%. 
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report 7 additional deaths due to the coronavirus today. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now at 427.
• Hospitalized: OHA reports that an additional 10 Oregonians have been hospitalized with COVID-19. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID since the beginning of the pandemic is 2,038.
• 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. OHA reports 21 new presumed positives today. The total number of presumed positives is now 1,306.
• Other Hospital Information:
  • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 154 (11 more than yesterday). Of those, 99 have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 137 (14 fewer than yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 683 (141 fewer than yesterday).
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 53 (9 more than yesterday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 27 (2 more than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 768 (6 fewer than yesterday).
• Dashboards
  • Oregon (OHA)
  • Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, & Yamhill Counties
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 73,016,779 (up 634,461 from yesterday).
  • Positive Tests: 5,749,803 (up 36,679 from yesterday).
  • Deaths: 170,353 (up 1,147 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
  • Legislators received a briefing today on the state’s efforts to encourage local production of PPE, particularly those N95 respirators that are in such short supply. They are working with a firm in Portland and one in Eugene that are ready to begin production.  All that they’re waiting for is what’s known as NIOSH approval—i.e, approval from the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health—which is needed before the PPE can be used.  They are hoping that this approval will come within the next 60-90 days.  This will be hugely beneficial both in helping us overcome our supply issues and in stimulating much-needed local employment.
  • If you’ve been in contact with someone who has tested positive for exactly does that mean? Here is an explanation.
  • They also have an explanation of self-isolating, which is a little different and something you should do if you have COVID symptoms, for 10 days or until you are symptom-free.
  • NPR’s Pien Huang has an interesting story today on the latest science on COVID Superspreaders.
  • The Oregon Department of Revenue put out a useful advisory today reminding people that Unemployment Benefits are taxable. The advisory describes several options for having taxes withheld from benefits and tools for calculating what may be owed next April 15.
  • Speaking of unemployment, legislators learned today that it appears likely that Oregon has received approval to begin distributing the temporary $300 per week federal bonus. Expect a news conference sometime soon with details of when and how the retroactive bonuses will be paid out.
  • The Oregon Office of Economic Analysis has just released its latest blog post. This one drills down on the latest employment numbers to focus on job losses/gains in different parts of the state since March.  The state as a whole is seeing a drop in unemployment, but not surprisingly the impacts vary in different parts of the state.  The initial impacts of COVID and COVID response were strongest along the North Coast and in the Gorge (Hood River in particular and remain so, though they have improved somewhat..  Much of Eastern and Southern Oregon (the Rogue Valley) were less severely hit and remain better than the state average.  The Portland and Bend areas remain somewhere in between, both worse than the state average. 

Tips on Indoor Air Safety

OHA provided the following guidance this afternoon regarding how best to reduce the risk of spreading COVID indoors:. 

We know indoor gatherings can increase the risk of spreading COVID-19, but what can we do to reduce the risk? In addition to masking, good hand hygiene and physical distancing, here are steps to take:

• Use natural air movement (i.e., opening windows and doors) to move outdoor air inside when possible. Do not do this if it poses a safety or health risk to others, including children.
• Do not use fans for cooling indoor public spaces, since the recirculated air can spread germs. (Fans are OK inside a home with regular household contacts.)

To learn more about indoor air and COVID-19, visit the Environmental Protection Agency website and read OHA’s frequently asked questions about indoor air safety.

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 247. The majority of cases are again outside the Portland Tri-County area.  Here is the breakdown by county for today:

Baker (3)

Benton (4)

Clackamas (17)

Clatsop (1)

Columbia (2)

Coos (2)

Deschutes (1)

Jackson (18)

Jefferson (4)

Lane (3)

Lincoln (3)

Linn (4)

Malheur (20)

Marion (40)

Morrow (4)

Multnomah (48)

Polk (1)

Tillamook (1)

Umatilla (24)

Union (1)

Wallowa (1)

Washington (38)

Yamhill (7)

And the Deaths

Oregon’s 421^st COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old woman in Lincoln County who died on August 15 in her residence.

Oregon’s 422^nd COVID-19 death is a 63-year-old man in Umatilla County who tested positive on August 3 and died on August 23, in his residence.

Oregon’s 423^rd COVID-19 death is a 71-year-old woman in Umatilla County who tested positive on July 23 and died on August 23, in his residence.

Oregon’s 424^th COVID-19 death is a 68-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on July 25 and died on August 22, at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center.

Oregon’s 425^th COVID-19 death is an 87-year-old woman in Lincoln county who tested positive on August 5 and died on August 23, in her residence.

Oregon’s 426^th COVID-19 death is a 66-year-old man in Umatilla County who tested positive July 23 and died on August 20, at Kadlec Regional Medical Center, in Richfield, Washington.

Oregon’s 427^th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on August 16 and died on August 21, at Adventist 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 (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