November 5th COVID-19 Update

November 5, 2020

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

As you’ve probably heard by now, Oregon (along with the nation as a whole) continues to be pummeled by a surge in COVID infections.  The previous record high was exceeded by more than 200 cases today, and our state positivity rate has gone well beyond the 10% danger zone. 

Fortunately, we have not yet seen much change in the number of ICU beds available for COVID treatment.  Let’s hope that keeps up.

Needless to say, the Governor and her medical advisors are extremely concerned about what seems to be an unstoppable wave right now.  If it’s true, as they believe, that the primary source of the spread is informal get-togethers among family and friends at home, it’s not clear what the next steps should be.  People are wrestling with this question all over the country. 

The Governor is planning to hold a press conference on Friday to share the latest thinking.  We haven’t been provided a time or link to it yet, but I’ll try to give you some of the highlights tomorrow. 

Please let me know if you have any questions about anything you read here.

TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

• Positive Cases: OHA reports today that 754 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID-19. The cumulative total for those testing positive since the beginning of the pandemic is 45,380.
• Total Tests: The number of reported COVID test results has increased by 6,037. The cumulative total of tests since the beginning of the pandemic is now 886,568.
• Ratio: The percentage of total tests that have been positive since Friday is 12.5%.  The national ratio today is 7.6%.
• Deaths: I’m sorry to have to report 5 additional COVID deaths today. You can read about the Oregonians we lost further down in the newsletter. The total number of COVID deaths in Oregon is now 710.
• Hospitalized: OHA reports 22 new COVID hospitalizations. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID is now 3,334.
• 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 51 new presumed positive cases today.  The total number of those counted as presumed positives is 2,459.
• Other Hospital Information:
  • Patients Currently with COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 259 (63 fewer than yesterday). Of those, 204 have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 168 (2 fewer than yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 695 (same as yesterday).
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 65 (3 more than yesterday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 26 (1 fewer than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 741 (8 more than yesterday).
• Dashboard:
  • Oregon (OHA)
  • Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, & Yamhill Counties
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 152,507,113 (up 1,537,316 from yesterday).
  • Total Cases 9,541,148 (up 116,255 from yesterday.)
  • Deaths: 226,955 (up 1,124 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 Legislative Emergency Board will be meeting on Monday at 1 pm to consider additional COVID and wildfire allocations. I’ll provide more detail tomorrow or over the weekend, but in the meantime, you can check out the agenda here.
  • The Office of Economic Analysis has a new blog entry showing the relationship between COVID and Oregon’s economy.  It’s actually a mixed bag, with some good news along with the bad.

Thursday Wildfire Recovery/Response Update

ODF has not reported any changes in wildfire containment levels today. You can find maps and up-to-the-minute details on the individual fires at OEM’s State of Oregon Fires and Hotspots Dashboard.

Yesterday’s OEM update didn’t come in until late last night, so here it is: Here are the updated statistics regarding Human Impacts:

• The number of fatalities (9) and missing persons (1) remains the same.
• The number of residences reported destroyed has risen a bit to 4,026. More than 1,400 structures other than residences have also been destroyed.
• According to the Red Cross, the number of Oregonians in emergency housing has continued to go down slightly over the last few days. 1,05 Oregonians now remain in emergency housing.  Of those, 20 are living in RVs and tents, and 985 are in hotels/motels and other short-term settings.  There are no evacuees living in indoor congregate shelters any longer.
• The number of Oregonians who have registered with FEMA for individual assistance has continued to increase and is currently at 24,342. FEMA has already approved for $23.55 million in assistance grants.
• Still, if you know of anyone who has NOT yet registered, please direct them the following:

• Call 1-800-621-3362
• Online through the FEMA website
• Through the FEMA mobile app
• Step-by-step videos for IA are available in English and Spanish to walk applicants through the application process.
• OEM is now maintaining a real-time Wildfire and Recovery Tracker that will give you up-to-the-moment statistics on a variety of metrics related to recovery efforts.  Check it out for the latest on the state’s recovery efforts

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 for today is 805. Half are from the Portland Tri-County region and half from elsewhere in the state.  Here is the breakdown by county for today:

Baker (13)

Benton (7).

Clackamas (71)

Clatsop (1)

Columbia (7)

Coos (2)

Crook (4)

Deschutes (45)

Douglas (10)

Grant (5)

Hood River (2)

Jackson (67)

Jefferson (4)

Josephine (9)

Klamath (1)

Lincoln (1)

Lane (37)

Linn (24)

Malheur (18)

Marion (74)

Morrow (3)

Multnomah (196)

Polk (8)

Tillamook (2)

Umatilla (26)

Union (7)

Wallowa (1)

Wasco (6)

Washington (134)

Yamhill (17)

And the Deaths

Oregon’s 706th COVID-19 death is a 74-year-old man in Clackamas County who tested positive on Nov. 2 and died on Nov. 3 at Providence Portland Medical Center.

Oregon’s 707th COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Oct. 14 and died on Nov. 2 at Legacy Mt. Hood Medical Center.

Oregon’s 708th COVID-19 death is a 62-year-old woman in Douglas County who tested positive on Oct. 14 and died on Nov. 4 at Mercy Medical Center.

Oregon’s 709th COVID-19 death is an 80-year-old woman in Douglas County who tested positive on Oct. 8 and died on Nov. 4 at Mercy Medical Center.

Oregon’s 710th COVID-19 death is a 75-year-old man in Crook County who tested positive on Oct. 29 and died on Oct. 17 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