Coronavirus Update: State of Emergency Extended, PPS Resources

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House Speaker Tina Kotek

Coronavirus Update: State of Emergency Extended, PPS Resources

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Yesterday, Governor Brown extended the state of emergency declaration related to the pandemic for another 60 days. The declaration extension, which you can read here, will last until November 3. The declaration gets reevaluated every 60 days.

While I know that this announcement might be alarming, it’s nonetheless clear that Oregonians have made significant progress since the dramatic spikes in COVID-19 cases during the summer. This is once again evident in the Oregon Health Authority’s weekly testing summary, which can be found here.


Summary through Aug 29

Here are highlights from the summary:

  • As of August 29, Oregon’s cumulative positivity rate since the start of the pandemic is 4.6% of people tested, which remains lower than the national average of 9%.
  • Of the 26,550 people tested the week of August 23–29, 1,173 (4.4%) were positive.
  • It is encouraging that test positivity is declining, which suggests that the number of people newly infected with COVID-19 each week is decreasing.

Additionally, during the week of Monday, August 24 through Sunday, August 30, OHA recorded 1,558 new cases of COVID-19 infection. This is down 8.6% from the previous week’s tally of 1,704 and Oregon’s lowest weekly total since the end of June.
OHA says that a declining positive test rate shows that Oregonians’ efforts to use face coverings, physically distance, and avoid gatherings are helping to slow the spread of coronavirus. But, as noted yesterday, we all need to continue to follow these measures, especially over the upcoming Labor Day holiday.

Since the onset of the pandemic, holiday weekends have unfortunately been followed by an increase in cases. Please avoid indoor and larger gatherings during this coming three-day weekend.

While the latest data are encouraging, we’re certainly not out of the woods yet. In the last week, we’ve seen multiple examples of Oregonians in their 20s who have died from COVID-19. This continues to be an incredibly contagious virus, and we’re at a critical point for managing the spread. Please do all you can to help.


Wear it for Each Other

How Risky is this Activity?

Portland Public Schools Resources

Today is the first day of classes for Portland Public Schools. As many know, PPS will be holding online classes until at least November 5. Oregon Public Broadcasting has a story here on the first virtual day back in school.

PPS has posted a number of sample instructional schedules, sorted by grade groups, on its website here. The first two weeks of school (September 2-11) will follow the “soft start” schedule, which can be found by here.

The district will continue to update its Fall 2020 webpage, pps.net/Fall2020, which includes guides and videos for primary platforms and apps: Seesaw, Canvas, Remind, Google Meet and Clever. The resources for families are presented in the six PPS-supported languages.

The PPS Technology Help Desk will operate from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. on school days to provide support to parents, guardians, students and families about navigating school online. Call 503-916-3375 or email support@pps.net.

The PPS Multilingual Family Line is a service for parents or guardians (in all PPS-supported languages) to communicate with schools regarding meals, tech help for online classes, special instruction, talking to a teacher, COVID resources and information, etc. Please call these numbers for more information:

  • Español: 503-916-3582
  • 中文:503-916-3585
  • Tiếng Việt: 503-916-3584
  • Soomaali: 503-916-3586
  • Русский: 503-916-3583

This situation is just plain hard, for so many families. Parents are juggling a lot and trying to do the best for their kids. Let’s do what we can to support them!


The Latest News

  • The Oregon Employment Department continues to work hard to get unemployment benefits out the door. The Senate Interim Committee on Labor and Business has been holding hearings this week about their progress, which you can find out more about here. The department is also working to upgrade their computer system to provide back payments for the waiver of the one-week waiting period, as The Oregonian reports here.
  • The Oregon Health Authority reported 140 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing the statewide total of new and presumptive cases to 27,075. Sadly, three more people have died, meaning there have been 468 Oregonians to die of the coronavirus. On Tuesday, the OHA recorded 243 cases and six deaths. You can click the images below for links to interactive data tables about coronavirus in Oregon.

Cases and Testing- September 2

Oregon Epi Curve- September 2

Testing and Outcomes by County- September 2

To read past newsletters, you can go to this link. For up to date information, please check this link to the Oregon Health Authority where regular updates are posted: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ERD/Pages/News-Releases.aspx

Please email me at Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov if you have specific concerns that have not been addressed by the OHA. Our office will do all we can to help and protect all Oregonians.

Thank you for reading! We will get through this together.

Best,

Tina

Tina Kotek

State Representative
House District 44
Speaker of the House

email: Rep.TinaKotek@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1200
address: 900 Court St NE, H-269, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kotek