September 18th COVID-19 and Wildfire Update

September 18, 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.

This is our second day in a row without any deaths from COVID, a rare and welcome event.  However, new COVID case numbers are up and testing numbers are down, a troubling combination.  Again, this may be the result of the fires and smoke, with only those with the clearest symptoms seeking to be tested.  Or it may be the result of rising infections resulting from the Labor Day weekend. 

You’ll again see the latest news on firefighting and the weather forecast, all of which is positive today.  You’ll find links to resources for information on the fires and the response, as well as ways that those whose homes and lives have been damaged by the fires can find assistance and relief.

Finally, I’m pleased to report that at last, after what seems an eternity, I was able to go outdoors for a walk, taking in deep breaths of delicious cool air.  What a rush of gratitude!  I hope you’ve been able to do the same.

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

TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

• Positive Cases: OHA reports that 281 additional Oregonians have tested positive. The cumulative total for those testing positive is 28,871.
• Total Tests: The number of reported tests has increased by 3,787. The cumulative total is now 627,951.
• Ratio: The percentage of positive test results in Oregon has jumped to 7.4%.  The national ratio today is 4.8%.
• Deaths: I’m pleased once again to report 0 additional deaths due to the coronavirus today. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon remains at 521.
• Hospitalized: OHA reports an additional 15 COVID hospitalizations. The total of COVID hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic is 2,356.
• 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 14 new presumed positives today.  The total number of presumed positives is currently 1,471.
• Other Hospital Information:
  • Patients Currently w COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 145 (1 more than yesterday). Of those, 106 have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 153 (3 more than yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 578 (43 fewer than yesterday).
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 32 (same as yesterday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 11 (same as yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 780 (8 more than yesterday).
• Dashboards
  • Oregon (OHA)
  • Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, & Yamhill Counties
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 93,150,052 (986,403 up from yesterday).
  • Positive Tests: 6,688,827 (up 47,486 from yesterday.)
  • Deaths: 190,566 (up 901 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.
• Additional Brief Updates:
  • The Governor has removed Umatilla and Morrow Counties from the County Watch List, meaning that their rates of untraced community spread have lowered to the point of no longer needing state support. That leaves only Malheur County on the Idaho border as the only state remaining on the list.  There were originally 10 counties.  You can read more about the announcement here.
  • We learned today that all the men and women from the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, who had been temporarily housed in other facilities, were safely transported back to Coffee Creek by the end of today.
  • Within the last 24 hours the Governor has put two key task forces into effect to oversee critical reconstruction work:
    • The Debris Task Force, charged with dealing with downed trees and other debris from the fires and potential landslides. This task force is led by the Office of Emergency Management, DEQ, and ODOT.
    • The Housing Task Force, led by Oregon Housing and Community Services. Their job is to oversee the effort to help get people into transitional housing and then into permanent housing.

Friday Wildfire Update:  Lots of Progress

There was no press conference today, but the firefighting leaders did hold a briefing for legislators at the end of the day, as well as fire-by-fire briefings for local leaders. 

As was hoped for, last night’s rains have made a positive difference throughout the state.  Fears that accompanying lightning and wind would create new fire starts and fan the flames of the existing fires have fortunately not played out.  Predictions are for further storms in some areas this weekend and more middle of next week.  Actually, we are apparently looking at more moisture than normal coming over the next few weeks.  For those seeking an extension of summer, this is not good news.  But for firefighting and air quality, it’s obvious great news.

Ever cautious, Fire Chief Doug Grafe remains concerned about wind in the drier parts of the state further south and on the east side.  They will be using aircraft to detect new starts and work to get them extinguished quickly before the wind causes them to spread. 

The news is very positive for all of the fires. Containment lines have held, and the fires within are being increasingly contained.  Nevertheless, he following fires remain sources of concern and extra attention because of potential wind spread: the Thielsen Fire in the Southern Cascades, the Brattain Fire in Lake County, and the Slater Fire in Northern California and Josephine County. Despite the recent rain, conditions in these areas remain dry overall.

Doug pointed out that the Department of Forestry has had to deal with 2,092 fires this year, most of them coming on or after September 7.

Again, for maps and up-to-the-minute details on the individual fires, I’d direct you to OEM’s State of Oregon Fires and Hotspots Dashboard.

The State Fire Marshal told us that we have passed the point where we need to worry about any of the current fires becoming a danger to communities.  Many of the local (often volunteer) Oregon firefighters are being allowed to return home to get some rest.  Firefighters from a number of other states remain at work on the Slater Fire.

We now have 1,300 National Guard at work on firefighting and security support throughout the state.

The number of known deceased is now at nine. The number of confirmed missing is now 11.  Every one of these is a heartache and a tragedy, but it seems as if the final numbers will fortunately be much lower than was originally feared.

The number of people being served at congregate shelters such as the Oregon Convention Center and the Salem Fairgrounds has gone down further to 535.  Of those, only 135 are in the shelters themselves—the remaining 400 are in personal RVs on the property.  This is obviously great news, given both the exigencies of COVID and the need for privacy.  Again, I must point out how much we owe the many volunteers, Emergency Management personnel, and of course the Red Cross who are helping to make sure that the evacuees are well fed and supported. 

The remaining evacuees (aside from those who’ve found shelter with friends and relatives) total 2,1244 and are being housed in 71 different hotels/motels.

Oregon Emergency Management Director Andrew Phelps reported that in many cases FEMA Disaster Relief individual assistance money has already been approved and people should be receiving assistance within the next 24 hours.

Finally we heard directly from a FEMA administrator about the assistance process.  Again, the key first step for individuals affected by the fires is to register with FEMA for assistance.  Individual assistance requests will be approved for residents of the eight affected counties:  Clackamas, Marion, Linn, Douglas, Lane, Jackson, Klamath, and Lincoln.

The registration process takes only about ten minutes.  Again, there are three ways to do that:

There are three ways to do that:

1. Call 1-800-621-3362
2. Online through the FEMA website
3. Through the FEMA mobile app

The goal is to relief as quickly as possible to every Oregonian affected by the fires, whether they were homeowners or renters.  They will help pay for shelter, provide immediate emergency supplies such as infant formula, medical needs, fuel for transportation, Disaster Unemployment Insurance, legal assistance, case management, and crisis counseling. 

Registration is the vital first step.  If you know of anyone who could use this assistance, PLEASE encourage them to register ASAP to receive their initial needs assessment.

Here again are some other resources that I would recommend:

• Again, for one-stop information about fires, firefighting response, smoke levels and much more, you can find a variety of Wildfire-related Resources at the Governor’s Wildfire Website.
• Senator Merkley’s office has compiled an excellent set of information and resources for us.
• If you want to find out the current status of smoke conditions in your area and the prognosis for the next day, here’s a comprehensive wildfire smoke dashboard.  At last you’ll see good news in every part of the state.
• If you haven’t yet signed up for notifications on the evacuation status of your area, here’s a compendium of links to do so for the various parts of the state.
• For those of you in Multnomah County, the County has set up a wildfire page with regular updates on closures, evacuation status, etc.
• Here are regular updates on road conditions from ODOT.regular updates on road conditions from ODOT.
• The Office of Emergency Management provides regular updates at the OEM Twitter page and at the OEM Facebook page.

More Wildfire News Items for You

• Oregonian reporters did another comprehensive survey of the different fires today.
• As I mentioned above, thousands of Oregonians are now living in hotels and motels because their homes are either destroyed or in evacuation zones. Here’s an Oregonian article about hotels that have become refuges for evacuees.
• Here’s an article about the work being done at the mobile mortuary in Albany.  So far, nine sets of remains have been sent to the morgue for identification. 
• Here from Darcie Moran at the Statesman-Journal are stories of escape and reunification.
• And finally, the tragic story of two of the deaths in the Santiam Canyon.

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 295.  Here is the breakdown by county for today:

Baker (1)

Benton (4)

Clackamas (28)

Clatsop (3)

Coos (2)

Deschutes (7)

Douglas (5)

Hood River (1)

Jackson (14)

Jefferson (2)

Klamath (2)

Lake (1)

Lane (20)

Linn (5)

Malheur (20)

Marion (51)

Morrow (7)

Multnomah (56)

Polk (4)

Tillamook (2)

Umatilla (16)

Wasco (3)

Washington (36)

Yamhill (5)

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