August 31st COVID-19 Update

August 31, 2020

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

Today is a good day for Oregon on the COVID front, with a low relative case count, lower positivity rate, lower number of hospitalizations, and fortunately only one death reported today.

Good news on this front at least.

TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

• Positive Cases: OHA reported today that 627 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID since Friday, an average of 209 per day. The cumulative total for those testing positive is now 25,403.
• Total Tests: The number of reported tests has increased by 13,329 since Friday, an average of 4,443 per day. The cumulative total is now 555,918.
• Ratio: The percentage of positive cases in Oregon since Friday is 4.7% of total results. The national percentage today is 4.6%. 
• Deaths: I’m sorry to report 1 additional death due to the coronavirus today. You can read more about the Oregonian we’ve lost further down in the newsletter.  The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now at 459.
• Hospitalized: OHA reports that an additional 41 Oregonians have been hospitalized for COVID since Friday, an average of 14 per day. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID is at 2,149.
• 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 that the cumulative number of those presumed positive is 1,310.
• Other Hospital Information:
  • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 136 (30 fewer than Friday). Of those, 91 have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 196 (57 more than Friday)
  • Other Available Beds: 822 (167 more than Friday).
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 43 (4 fewer than Friday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 24 (2 more than Friday).
  • Available Ventilators: 789 (10 more than Friday).
• Dashboards
  • Oregon (OHA)
  • Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, & Yamhill Counties
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 77,748,898 (up 680,405 from yesterday).
  • Positive Tests: 5,999,459 (up 31,626 from yesterday).
  • Deaths: 175,602 (up 359 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
  • Governor Brown issued an executive order today extending the deadline for the moratorium on evictions until the end of this calendar year.  The Legislature gave her the authority to do this in HB 4204, which we passed during the first special session. Under this authority, she was required to make her decision 30 days before the expiration of the current order, which elapses on September 30.
  • We learned today that FEMA has approved the Governor’s request for Oregonians to receive the $300 supplement per week on Unemployment Benefits. It is designed to last 3-5 weeks while we wait for Congress to (we hope) extend the $600 per week supplement.  You can read more about the program here.
  • DHS reports today that progress continues to be made with the state’s long-term care testing plan. As of August 26, of the 685 congregate care facilities in Oregon:
• 510, or 74%, have completed reporting requirements
• 262, or 38%, have completed initial testing

For more details on the testing plan visit the Oregon Department of Human Services website: https://govstatus.egov.com/or-dhs-ltcf-testing.

Legislative Public Hearings This Week

Two legislative committees will be meeting next week, and they will include opportunities for public testimony.

The Senate Committee on Labor and Business will be holding a series of hearings on September 1^st , 2^nd , and 3^rd on the problems and challenges around the Oregon Employment Department.  Tuesday and Wednesday will be an opportunity for committee members to hear from and question the Director (and perhaps other staff as well).  Thursday will be an opportunity for the public to share concerns and suggestions via oral public testimony.  The above link will take you to a page that explains how to provide oral testimony as well as written testimony, which will be taken all three days.

The Joint Committee on Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform will continue its work on developing legislation to reform policing practices in our state on Thursday, September 3.  Prior to the last special session, they were working on six concepts, two of which were finalized and passed.  Many of these were attempts to build on and make necessary improvements to bills that were passed during the first special session.  The hearing will also introduce new concepts being developed for the 2021 legislative session, including one related to qualified immunity.  You can find the most current forms of all the legislative concepts under Meeting Materials.  Updated versions will be continually posted, so keep checking.

The hearing on Thursday will also be an opportunity to take public testimony, and the above link will show you how to do that in written form and orally.

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 162, our lowest number in quite some time. Most of the new cases are again outside the Portland Tri-County area, with Marion County again comprising the largest total.  Here is the breakdown by county for today:

Clackamas (14)

Coos (1)

Crook (1)

Deschutes (2)

Hood River (1)

Jackson (6)

Lane (15)

Lincoln (1)

Linn (4)

Malheur (9)

Marion (36)

Multnomah (34)

Polk (6)

Umatilla (6)

Wasco (1)

Washington (25)

And the Death

Oregon’s 459^th COVID-19 death is a 93-year-old man in Washington County, who tested positive on August 25^th and died on August 26^th 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 (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