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August 27, 2020
I hope that you and your loved ones are doing well, staying healthy, and looking out for your neighbors and friends.
Our new COVID cases continue to decline in Oregon, though we’re seeing an increase in new hospitalizations that hopefully is short-lived.
Along with the five deaths reported last night, we learned of the deaths of two adults in custody at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, bringing to five the number of AIC deaths. You can read more about that below, along with a new commutation plan from the Governor.
You’ll also find information about legislative committee hearings coming up in September.
TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE
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Positive Cases: OHA reports that 193 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID, The cumulative total for those testing positive since the beginning of the pandemic is 24,482.
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Total Tests: The number of tests has increased by 5,981. The cumulative total is now 537,437.
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Ratio: The percentage of positive cases today in Oregon is 3.2% of total results. The national percentage today is 6.0%.
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Deaths: I’m sorry to report 5 additional deaths due to the coronavirus today. You can read more about those we’ve just lost further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now at 438.
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Hospitalized: OHA reports that an additional 30 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 2,093.
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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 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 19 new presumed positives today. The total number of presumed positives is now 1,279.
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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): 171 (31 more than yesterday). Of those, 118 have already received a positive test back.
- Available ICU Beds: 152 (2 fewer than yesterday)
- Other Available Beds: 724 (9 more than yesterday).
- ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 53 (5 more than yesterday).
- COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 23 (3 fewer than yesterday).
- Available Ventilators: 772 (1 fewer than yesterday).
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Dashboards
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Today’s National Numbers:
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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.
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Additional Brief Updates
- A group of Portlanders affiliated with a group called Aim For Total Equality Revolution, who believe in Black Lives Matter but want to distance themselves from the handful of protesters using violent acts to draw attention to the need for change, marched from Portland to Salem over the last two days as an alternative means of drawing attention to the need for equity and non-violent protest. The march ended at Mahonia Hall, the Governor’s home in Salem. The Statesman-Journal has an article with photos and interviews with marchers.
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The Oregonian reports that OHSU has ended its planned study following a randomly-selected group of Oregonians to understand COVID prevalence around the state. The problem? Not enough participation from minorities to create a full picture of how the disease is affecting all our communities. You can find more details of this unfortunate turn of events here.
Two More Adults in Custody Die of COVID-19
The Department of Corrections announced today that two additional AICs died of COVID yesterday, bringing the total number of deaths among those incarcerated to five. They were both in custody at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton (Umatilla County). Their deaths were reported too late in the day to be included in the descriptions below of the Oregonians we’ve lost.
Here is what we know so far about them from DOC:
- A man between the ages of 65 and 75 who was incarcerated at EOCI died yesterday in hospital.
- A man in his 50s who was also incarcerated at EOCI died yesterday in hospital.
Here’s what we know about those who passed earlier:
- A man in his 50s who was incarcerated at Oregon State Penitentiary [in Salem, Marion County] died on May 20 in hospital.
- A man in his 60s died in the infirmary at Snake River Correctional Institution [in Ontario, Malheur Count] on August 12.
- A man in his 60s who was incarcerated at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution died on August 20 in hospital.
The Governor did announce late on Tuesday that she would be commuting the sentences of a number of AICs in the coming weeks in order to help relieve the compression in Oregon’s prisons and the risk of COVID. She released a letter that she had sent to the Department asking for the names of individuals who were close to their release dates, had not been convicted of violent crimes, had housing available to them upon release, and met other criteria. You’ll find more details in this article in the Statesman-Journal. The individuals eligible for commutation likely number between 300 and 400 at this time.
I welcome this decision by the Governor. It includes a number of the sideboards and elements that were included in a sensible “decompression” proposal that I and some of my Senate and House Judiciary Committee colleagues offered back in early June. It’s overdue, but I’m glad to see that she is taking this step.
Legislative Committee Days Coming in September
We’ve just received the final calendar for our next round of committee hearings, coming in September (Sept. 21-25). These are what are known as “Interim Leg Days,” which occur on a quarterly basis when the Legislature isn’t in session. They allow us to catch up on late-breaking problems that need to be probed in public, examine issues that may likely need to be addressed through legislation in the next legislative session, and introduce members to programs and projects that are in the works. These are almost always “informational hearings” with invited testimony from specialists, academic experts, and agency staff, rather than an opportunity to hear public testimony on specific pieces of legislation, as usually occurs during a legislative session.
They frequently coincide with the release of the quarterly Revenue Forecast, and that will be the case again this time. The House and Senate Revenue Committees will be meeting jointly on September 23 to hear the latest projections on what the current economic downturn will mean for the state budget.
They also are a time for the Senate Rules Committee to interview those whom the Governor has appointed to fill vacancies on various Boards and Commissions or to serve as agency directors. The Rules Committee (which I sit on) will then forward its recommendations to the Senate as a whole for a confirmation vote.
This round of hearings will again be all-remote, with the hearings a little shorter than they typically are when we meet in person (2 hours vs. 3 hours). Here is the calendar for the Senate and House Committee hearings.
We’ll start seeing agendas for the hearings posted on the legislative website a week or so prior to the hearings. I suspect that most of them will continue to be dominated by issues connected to COVID response and racial/ethnic inequities and disparities. That will be the case for Senate Education, which I chair.
That Friday (September 25) is also the deadline for legislators to submit requests for bills to be drafted in time to be ready to release on the first day of the next session (known as “pre-session filing”). As you can imagine, legislators and issue advocates are quite focused on this deadline.
It’s also possible, and perhaps likely, that the Legislature will be meeting physically at the Capitol for another special session sometime in the next month or so. But at this point, there’s nothing yet to report about that.
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 212. Most cases are again outside the Portland Tri-County area. Here is the breakdown by county for today:
Benton (1)
Clackamas (18)
Clatsop (1)
Columbia (2)
Deschutes (4)
Douglas (1)
Hood River (1)
Jackson (15)
Jefferson (2)
Josephine (2)
Klamath (5)
Lane (8)
Lincoln (1)
Linn (5)
Malheur (12)
Marion (40)
Morrow (3)
Multnomah (27)
Polk (3)
Umatilla (8)
Union (2)
Washington (47)
Yamhill (4)
And the Deaths
Oregon’s 434th COVID-19 death is a 74-year-old man in Malheur County who tested positive on Aug. 19 and died on Aug. 25.
Oregon’s 435th COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old man in Washington County who tested positive on Aug. 10 and died Aug. 25 in his residence.
Oregon’s 436th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old woman in Washington County who tested positive on Aug. 12 and died on Aug. 25 in her residence.
Oregon’s 437th COVID-19 death is a 97-year-old woman in Washington County who tested positive on Aug. 6 and died on Aug. 22 in her residence.
Oregon’s 438th COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old man in Washington County who tested positive on Aug.13 and died on Aug. 23 in his residence.
More information is available about Oregon’s 431st COVID-19 death. Oregon’s 431st COVID-19 death is an 82-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on June 25 and died on Aug. 25.
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:
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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