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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
It’s been heart wrenching to watch how the pandemic has really hurt older Oregonians living in long-term care facilities. They experienced a lot of the first deaths, and their daily lives have been dramatically impacted by public health precautions.
The Oregon Health Authority’s latest COVID-19 Weekly Report updates the staggering data about who this virus impacts most often. Although only 3.6% of Oregonians are 80 years of age or older, they account for 51% of COVID-19-associated deaths, and 75% of deaths are among Oregonians 70 years of age or older.
Families want to do all they can to protect their most vulnerable loved ones. Many have made great sacrifices in order to avoid accidentally transmitting the virus, staying away from contact with family members who are at greater risk for harm from COVID-19.
With these months of painful decisions in mind, the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) announced this week that qualifying licensed nursing, assisted living and residential care facilities may begin allowing limited indoor visitation for residents starting next Monday, November 2. DHS first restricted access to these facilities in March and only started allowing outdoor visitation in July.
Under the new guidelines, residents may have up to two visitors at a time to meet within an approved area. To qualify, a facility must:
- Have no suspected or current COVID-19 cases.
- Follow visitation requirements detailed in the policy and related guidance.
- Be in a community with a low or medium rate of COVID-19 exposure. Facilities in communities with high incidents of COVID-19 may only have visitors indoors who qualify under the compassionate care policy.
To protect the health and well-being of residents and staff, facilities permitting indoor visitation must take precautions, including:
- Scheduling staggered visits and limiting the number of visitors per resident to two at any given time.
- Setting time limits, if needed, to ensure all residents can receive visitors and allow special considerations for those traveling for visitation.
- Cleaning and disinfecting frequently touched surfaces and designated visitation areas after each visit.
- Ensuring visitors receive a health screening before entering, use required personal protective equipment (PPE) and proper hand hygiene during the visit, and limit where they can go within the facility.
- Providing a dedicated visiting area.
- Keeping a log of visitors (indoors and outdoors) that includes the visitor’s name, address and phone number to be used if contact tracing is needed.
This will certainly be welcome news for many. We should keep in mind, however, that case counts have been rising for weeks. As DHS noted, this is an attempt to strike a balance between safety and the essential need for families and friends to connect.
You can visit this Oregon DHS website here for lists of facilities reporting cases of COVID-19 that would not be able to adopt limited indoor visitation.
The Oregon Employment Department may have paid out benefits from the federal Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) program incorrectly. I’m frustrated because it creates more confusion for unemployed Oregonians and it might require the department to get some of the money back. I’m going to advocate for making sure this mistake has the least impact as possible on Oregonians who are tired of dealing with the bureaucracy of unemployment benefits.
The LWA is the $300 additional weekly benefit meant to go to Oregonians who were receiving PUA benefits or who self-certified that they received unemployment benefits for pandemic-related reasons. Oregon Public Broadcasting covered the news here.
Federal rules dictate that the state must recoup any money inadvertently distributed to ineligible recipients. A lot of people who received these benefits are eligible but have not yet self-certified that they are unemployed for reasons related to COVID-19. If you were eligible to receive regular unemployment benefits during the late summer (see below), please go here to self-certify. You only need to do this once. If you are eligible and complete the certification, you can keep those benefits.
As a reminder, to request these benefits, you must:
- Have received unemployment benefits between July 26, 2020 through Sept. 5, 2020, and
- Self-certify that you were unemployed or partially unemployed due to COVID-19 between the weeks of July 26, 2020 through Sept. 5, 2020.
For individuals who have been impacted by the September wildfires, the Oregon Employment Department announced that it has been authorized to extend the deadline for filing Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) applications until Friday, November 27 (the day after Thanksgiving).
Oregonians may qualify for DUA if they became unemployed, had their work hours substantially reduced, or are unemployed self-employed individuals as a direct result of the wildfires and straight-line winds. They must also not qualify for other benefit programs, such as regular state Unemployment Insurance (UI), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).
DUA is available to eligible individuals for weeks of unemployment beginning September 13, 2020. Benefits under this program will be available until March 20, 2021, as long as an applicant’s unemployment continues to be a direct result of the fires. DUA applications are available in English, Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, and Simplified Chinese online at http://www.oregon.gov/EMPLOY/Disaster.
Oregon reported a record-high 575 cases today. The Oregonian reports here that this means the weekly average of cases per day is 426, also a record. This marks 10 consecutive days of 300+ cases. And, alarmingly, we have a new record number of hospitalizations at 179.
The Oregon Health Authority’s latest weekly report on the virus can be read in full here. We are continuing to see disturbing trends in the data. It’s another reminder of why we need to be safe this Halloween and the coming holiday season.
Here are some of the notable findings from the latest report:
- During Monday, October 19, through Sunday, October 25, OHA recorded 2,642 new cases of COVID-19 infection – up 14% from last week’s tally of 2,327 and the highest weekly tally recorded in Oregon to date.
- The number of Oregonians newly tested rose another 8.6%, to 31,448. The percentage of tests that were positive held steady at 6.5%.
- There were 27 Oregonians reported to have died in association with COVID-19, compared to 25 the previous week.
- The incidence of reported infection has been highest in persons 20–49 years of age, who account for 39% of Oregon’s population and 56% of reported cases.
- Out of 42,436 cases, 32,300 (76.1%) reported having signs and symptoms of COVID-19. The most commonly reported symptoms are cough (50.8%) and headache (48.6%), as you’ll see in the graphic below.
State and federal recovery officials urge Oregon residents to beware of and report any suspicious activity or potential fraud from scam artists, identity thieves, and other criminals who may try to prey on survivors following the recent wildfires. Avoid scams and fraud by reading these fact vs. fiction myth busters from FEMA.
- Governor Brown extended the state of emergency for fire-impacted counties throughout the state. This impacts Clackamas, Douglas, Jackson, Klamath, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, and Tillamook counties. You can read more about this here. Additionally, the Oregon Department of Forestry has more information here about the controlled burns now taking place to reduce forest fuels and lower risk of high-intensity wildfires.
- Oregon, Washington, and Nevada have joined California's COVID-19 Scientific Safety Review Workgroup, which will independently review the safety and efficacy of any vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration for distribution. Governor Brown announced that collaboration here.
- The Oregon Health Authority reported 575 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, bringing the statewide total of new and presumptive cases to 43,793. The OHA also reported two more deaths, meaning 673 Oregonians have died of the coronavirus. On Wednesday, the OHA reported 424 cases and seven deaths. You can click the images below for links to interactive data tables about coronavirus in Oregon.
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 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
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