September 15th COVID-19 and Wildfire Update

Oregon State Legislature sent this bulletin at 09/15/2020 08:31 PM PDT
Michael Dembrow

September 15, 2020

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

Today’s newsletter is again a mixture of information about COVID and the wildfires. You’ll find the weekly testing report, which unfortunately shows us a return to higher weekly positivity rates.  As you’ll see, that’s likely the result of inadequate testing—the result of ongoing supply problems and disruptions due to the wildfires.  We still can’t really tell for sure if the Labor Day weekend holiday has led to higher infection rates.

You’ll find lots of information about the wildfires below: some encouraging, some tragic, including tales of heroism, accomplishment, and loss. 

Again, please let me know if you have questions about any of the information in this newsletter.

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TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

  • Positive Cases: OHA reports that 172 additional Oregonians have tested positive. The cumulative total for those testing positive is 28,223.
  • Total Tests: The number of reported tests has increased by 3,254. The cumulative total is now 616,625.
  • Ratio: The percentage of positive test results in Oregon is 5.3%.  The national ratio today is 5.8%.
  • Deaths: I’m sorry to report 8 additional deaths due to the coronavirus today. You can read more about the Oregonians we lost further down in the newsletter.  The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now at 519.
  • Hospitalized: OHA reports an additional 13 COVID hospitalizations. The total of COVID hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic is 2,292.
  • 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 12 new presumed positives today.  The total number of presumed positives is currently 1,439.
  • Other Hospital Information:
    • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 155 (20 more than yesterday). Of those, 106 have already received a positive test back.
    • Available ICU Beds: 157 (4 fewer than yesterday)
    • Other Available Beds: 655 (77 fewer than yesterday).
    • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 34 (2 more than yesterday).
    • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 11 (2 fewer than yesterday).
    • Available Ventilators: 782 (8 fewer than yesterday).
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  • Today’s National Numbers:
  • Additional Brief Updates:
    • Attorney-General Rosenblum has put out a helpful advisory on watching out for wildfire-related donation scams.
    • Without a doubt, these are stressful times. We are hearing increasing reports of people who are experiencing extreme anxiety, depression, and other behavioral/emotional problems. Legislators have been encouraged to recommend a resource that can help: the national Disaster Distress Helpline, which provides 24/7 crisis counseling for those experiencing emotional distress related to natural or human-caused disasters.  They can call 1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746.
    • One of the challenges that many evacuees will face in rebuilding their lives is restoring lost vital records: birth certificates, marriage certificates, etc. The state has issued a special order that will allow them to receive needed records lost to the fires free of charge.  Here’s a link to information on how to do that.
    • OHA has issued updated guidance on collegiate, non-professional, and minor league sports. It applies to sports in all parts of the state, irrespective of county reopening phase.  It covers training, conditioning, and travel, as well as the sporting events themselves.
    • The research wing of the Employment Department has put out a preliminary analysis of the impact of the wildfires on jobs. It’s obviously too soon for anything definitive, but there’s lots of interesting information here.
    • The Employment Department also released the latest unemployment numbers, reflecting the ongoing increase in employment since the huge collapse in the spring (when Oregon’s unemployment rate peaked at 14.9%, as opposed to the pre-pandemic level of 3.3%). Oregon’s unemployment rate has dropped to 7.7 percent in August from 10.4 percent in July. The unemployment rate was more than double last year’s rate of 3.6 percent in August 2019. Meanwhile, the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 8.4 percent in August from 10.2 percent in July.  You can find details here.
    • The City of Portland has just announced a round of grants for small businesses affected by COVID. The application period has just opened and will extend till the end of next week.  Here’s information on how to apply, and here’s a news article about the program.

Tuesday Wildfire Update:  Major Declaration Secured

There was no wildfire press conference today, though there were individual briefings from the incident command coordinators at a number of individual fires around the state. A briefing for elected leaders at the end of the day gave us the very latest on today’s accomplishments.

Perhaps the most consequential thing that we learned was that barely an hour before the briefing, at around 4 pm, the President approved a Federal Disaster Declaration for Oregon.  This will take federal support to the next level by opening us up to a series of programs.  Particularly crucial is the “Individual Assistance” program, which will get individual financial assistance to people directly affected by the fires.  It applies to residents of 8 counties:  Clackamas, Douglas, Jackson, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, and Marion.  In addition, twenty counties are eligible for what’s known as “Public Assistance” grants, helping with infrastructure repair and other reconstruction/restoration work.

You can see the details of the declaration and all the programs it authorizes here.You’ll also find information there on how individuals can begin to apply for assistance.

I want to thank the President and everyone involved in securing this crucial step for the recovery and rebuilding of our state.

Tuesday Wildfire Update:  Much Progress, but Challenges in the Next Two Days

In the late afternoon briefing, Fire Chief Doug Grafe started with the good news: a number of the big fires have been effectively contained, and firefighters and resources can be shifted to high-priority areas.  Those that can effectively “come off the map” include two of the fires on the coast: Bay City and Coos Bay.  The two fires to the west of Portland—the Chehalem Mountain fire and the one in Gaston—are fully contained. Finally, the Almeda Drive fire, which devastated Talent, Phoenix, and parts of Medford, is also fully contained now.  However, local emergency responders face a dangerous cleanup of many destroyed and partially-destroyed homes and buildings.

Firefighters have done a great job containing the other big fires on the west side of the Cascades.  The most challenging fire right now is on the east side, the Brattain Fire in Lake County, currently at 35,000 acres. 

We should be seeing widespread showers and thunderstorms in 48 hours.  Leading up to that we’ll see increasing winds as the storm front moves in.  That will be good for clearing the air and allowing aircraft to join the effort, but it will of course create real challenges on the ground.  Those wind challenges will be especially felt at the higher elevations, such as the eastern part of the Lionshead Fire and the fires near Diamond Lake and Crater Lake, as well as the fires in the southern parts of the state (the Brattain and the South Obenchain). 

In the lower elevations,  the showers will bring moisture to parched areas, but also some risks from the wind and lightning.  At the moment, though, the prediction is that the thunderstorms will be relatively mild.  Chief Grafe expressed hope that the fire containment lines that have been put in place will hold.  Overall, he told us, it’s not a bad scenario. 

A crucial place to watch continues to be the Beachie Creek and Riverside Fires in Marion and Clackamas Counties to the southeast of Portland.  The fire lines there stretch an incredible 120 miles from Lyons to Estacada.  It’s an incredible feat and will continue to require additional firefighters and equipment to maintain.  Fortunately, we learned that 200 Canadians are en route to Oregon and will be deployed in that area.  They should arrive Thursday or Friday.

For maps and details on the individual fires, I’d again direct you to to OEM’s State of Oregon Fires and Hotspots Dashboard.

We learned from General Stencil of the Oregon National Guard that in addition to the Guard’s efforts in controlling entry into affected areas, air deployment, and search-and-rescue, they’ve also started meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers to plan for clean-up operations.  Clearing roads and reinstating infrastructure is going to be a big challenge in many places.

We also learned that 788 Oregonians are currently being housed in Red Cross and other congregate shelters.  Of those, 500 are living in RVs on those sites and are being supported with food and other necessities.  That means only 288 are still living inside shelters such as the Oregon Convention Center in Portland or the State Fair Grounds in Salem.  More than 2,400 evacuees are now living in hotels and motels or have found private lodging, a remarkable accomplishment.

Finally, we learned that all the men who were being temporarily housed at the Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP) are now back at the Oregon State Correctional Institution (OSCI).  No word yet on when the women from Coffee Creek will be able to return from Madras, but it should be sometime soon.

Here again are some other resources that I would recommend:

More Wildfire News Items for You

DHS Reports on Efforts to Evacuate Oregonians in Long-Term Care

We received a report from the Department of Human Services on the arduous work that has been required to move people living in long-term care in the evacuation zones out of harm’s way.  As you can imagine, this was terribly difficult for facility staff, first-responders, and the residents themselves. 

Here’s what they had to report:

The ODHS Aging and People with Disabilities Program (APD) has mobilized to meet Oregonians’ needs as the state copes with wildfires along with the COVID-19 pandemic, including:

  • Assisting with evacuations or evacuation plans for more than 60 long-term care facilities as of September 11. These moves have often been coordinated in advance of a Level 3 Evacuation order to avoid a crisis and ensure a smooth transition for residents. APD has also been able to protect evacuated residents during the pandemic by using its surge capacity facility, Pacific Health and Rehabilitation in Tigard, to serve COVID-19 positive individuals displaced from their homes by fire.
  • Conducting safety checks on in-home consumers and making contact with the people served in evacuated areas who are currently housed in shelters.
  • Serving Oregonians through our Aging and Disability Resource Connection (ADRC) when an APD or Area Agency on Aging (AAA) office has had to be evacuated or closed due to smoke.
  • And, finally, our AAAs are deploying additional resources for Older Americans Act programs with funding provided through the CARES Act. The additional funding has allowed for expansion of meal service to include more individuals within a household and to those previously on a wait list. AAAs are also working with restaurants to meet demand for meals and including supplies and groceries along with meal delivery. We expect these expanded resources will be in high demand as a result of the wildfire evacuations.

OHA COVID Weekly Testing Report Released

OHA released its weekly testing report last night. It shows that for the week ending September 12, the positivity rate was 5.6%, a big jump from the previous week’s 4.3%. 

We’re continuing to see a decline in positive test results, but as you can see, we’re also seeing ongoing decreases in tests. That’s what causes the increase in the positivity rate.  You can see both in this week’s chart:

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The cumulative rate for Oregonians since the beginning of the pandemic is 4.6% of people tested.

According to the testing report, just 17,365 people were tested last week.  However, this number will rise as test results are reported to OHA.  Tests are added to the week in which they were collected, but only once the results come in. 

Thus, last week’s report showed that just 26,855 tests were taken in the week ending August 30.  As you’ll see below, that number has now been adjusted up to 30,225. Still, this week’s initial test numbers are nearly 10,000 below last week’s, a very significant drop.

OHA suggests that the reason for this drop is two-fold:

  1. Ongoing problems with testing supply chains, limiting the number of people having access to testing and extending the time it takes to get results back.
  2. Disruptions in testing caused by the wildfires. The Oregon State Public Health Lab has been closed due to wildfire smoke, many outdoor testing sites have had to close, and targeted testing drives have been cancelled.

So, most likely, those who are being tested are likely those with more obvious and serious symptoms of COVID, which will drive up the positivity rate.

Next week’s reported results will likely continue to show the ongoing effects of these conditions.

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 184.  Here is the breakdown by county for today:

Clackamas (11)

Clatsop (1)

Columbia (1)

Crook (1)

Deschutes (2)

Douglas (1)

Gilliam (2)

Jackson (10)

Jefferson (2)

Klamath (3)

Lane (9)

Linn (6)

Malheur (25)

Marion (31)

Morrow (3)

Multnomah (35)

Polk (2)

Tillamook (1)

Umatilla (4)

Union (1)

Washington (25)

Yamhill (5)

And the Deaths

Oregon’s 512th COVID-19 death is a 73-year-old woman in Washington County who died on Sept. 1, at Tuality Healthcare.

Oregon’s 513th COVID-19 death is a 74-year-old woman in Malheur County who tested positive on Sept. 7 and died on Sept. 11, at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Idaho.

Oregon’s 514th COVID-19 death is a 77-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Aug. 30 and died on Sept. 14, at Legacy Mt. Hood Medical Center.

Oregon’s 515th COVID-19 death is a 66-year-old woman in Morrow County who tested positive on Aug.11 and died on Sept. 13, at OHSU.

Oregon’s 516th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on July 31 and died on Sept. 9, in her residence.

Oregon’s 517th COVID-19 death is a 58-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Aug. 25 and died on Sept. 11, at Legacy Mt. Hood Medical Center.

Oregon’s 518th COVID-19 death is an 85-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Aug. 26 and died on Sept. 11, in his residence.

Oregon’s 519th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old woman in Clackamas County who tested positive on Aug. 26 and died on Sept.10, at Providence Portland Medical Center.

Additional Graphs:

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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,

dembrow signature

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