November 9th COVID-19 Update

November 9, 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.

For the third day in a row, we’re again seeing a reduction in new COVID cases.  However, relatively low testing levels put our positivity rate for the last three days at 14.4%, a dangerously high level. 

In addition, we’re seeing record high COVID hospitalization rates right now:  269 Oregonians are currently in hospitals with confirmed COVID test results.  Fortunately, our overall hospital capacity levels remain within the margin of comfort for now—in fact, they’ve gone up over the weekend for both ICU and non-ICU beds.

The new two-week reopening “pause” for counties where COVID transmission is particularly high goes into effect on Wednesday. You’ll find more details in this newsletter, along with the allocations approved today by the Legislature’s Emergency Board.

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 2,444 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID-19 since Friday, an average of 815 per day. The cumulative total for those testing positive since the beginning of the pandemic is 48,564.
• Total Tests: The number of reported COVID test results has increased by 16,972 since Friday, an average of 5,657 per day. The cumulative total of tests since the beginning of the pandemic is now 912,086.
• Ratio: The percentage of total tests that have been positive since Friday is 14.4%.  The national ratio today is 8.6%.
• Deaths: I’m sorry to have to report 4 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 734.
• Hospitalized: OHA reports 85 new COVID hospitalizations since Friday, an average of 28 per day. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID is now 3,463.
• 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.  The total number of those counted as presumed positives is 2,591.
• Other Hospital Information:
  • Patients Currently with COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 318 (52 more than Friday). Of those, 269 have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 191(35 more than Friday)
  • Other Available Beds: 786 (160 more than Friday).
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 64 (2 more than Friday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 26 (1 fewer than Friday).
  • Available Ventilators: 737 (11 fewer than Friday).
• Dashboard:
  • Oregon (OHA)
  • Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, & Yamhill Counties
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 158,155,823 (up 1,482,184 from yesterday).
  • Total Cases 9,991,822 (up 127,758 from yesterday.)
  • Deaths: 230,312 (up 612 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:
  • As expected, the Governor has added four counties to the five that she announced on Friday as subject to the new “pause” in reopening. Baker, Clackamas, Union, and Washington counties join Jackson, Marion, Malheur, Multnomah, and Umatilla in being subject to the new restrictions.  The entire Portland Tri-County region is now covered by the pause.  You’ll find details here.
  • DHS sent legislators a update today regarding the pause in visitation for long-term care facilities. Again, the “pause” prohibits indoor visitation for long-term care facilities in Jackson, Marion, Malheur, Multnomah, Umatilla, Baker, Clackamas, Union and Washington counties from Nov. 11 to Nov. 25, 2020, at long-term care facilities.  They’ve reminded us that there are exceptions, however.  The exceptions will be for compassionate care visits for residents near the end of life. Limited outdoor visitation, which follows the policy, is still allowed. 
  • Salem’s largest men’s shelter—the Union Gospel Mission--has stopped taking in new residents because of a COVID outbreak there. Three staff members and six residents have tested positive in the last week.  Given the return of cold, wet weather and the consequent need for indoor shelter, this is a real problem, particularly for counties such as Marion County, where COVID rates are particularly high.  You can read more in this article in today’s Salem Reporter.

Emergency Board Approves $128 million in COVID Support

The E-Board met this afternoon and approved all the proposals that I included in last night’s newsletter. 

Most notably, the Emergency Board approved $35 million from the state’s Emergency Fund to support the Project Turnkey Statewide Pandemic and Homelessness Response. The Oregon Community Foundation will use funding to support the acquisition, retrofitting and potential operation of hotel and motel properties to be used as emergency shelter. This funding is in addition to $30 million the Emergency Board approved on October 23 to begin Project Turnkey in wildfire-affected areas.

The Emergency Board also approved the following allocations from the state’s share of federal funds available through the Coronavirus Relief Fund:

• $45 million for Childcare Provider Assistance to support the increased costs facing childcare providers facing economic and operational challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• $20 million for a third grant to the Oregon Community Foundation for the Oregon Worker Relief Fund, which will make additional payments to workers who are ineligible for wage replacement payments from traditional unemployment insurance programs.
• $20 million to provide additional financial assistance to small businesses economically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The board previously allocated $25.6 million for COVID-19 Emergency Business Assistance in July.
• $5 million to help cover long term care provider costs for routine COVID-19 staff testing.
• $2.4 million for one-time COVID-19 baseline testing of long term care facility staff and residents.
• $1 million to support victims of domestic and sexual violence. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for increased domestic and sexual violence. The board previously dedicated $2 million to support victims in April.

Monday Wildfire Recovery/Response Update

ODF reports that the new Leslie Gulch fire in Eastern Oregon is now 99% contained after having burned 5,147 acres.  You can see the location of that fire on the state fire map, along with the rest of the fires and up-to-the-minute details on the individual fires at OEM’s State of Oregon Fires and Hotspots Dashboard.

As I write this, we haven’t yet received an update from the Office of Emergency Management regarding the recovery process.  Below again then are the latest statistics regarding Human Impacts as of Friday.  However, for the very latest numbers, 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. 

• The number of fatalities (9) and missing persons (1) remains the same.
• The number of residences reported destroyed remains at 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. 1,066 Oregonians now remain in emergency housing, but all are now in hotels/motels and other short-term settings.  There are no longer any evacuees living in shelters, either in RVs and tents or in indoor congregate shelters.
• The number of Oregonians who have registered with FEMA for individual assistance has continued to increase and is currently at 24,415. FEMA has already approved for $23.74 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.

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 723. More than half are again from the Portland Tri-County region. Here is the breakdown by county for today:

Baker (1)

Benton (8)

Clackamas (68)

Clatsop (2)

Columbia (4)

Coos (6)

Crook (2)

Deschutes (25)

Douglas (21)

Grant (4)

Jackson (41)

Jefferson (5)

Josephine (2)

Klamath (10)

Lane (36)

Linn (17)

Malheur (7)

Marion (79)

Morrow (1)

Multnomah (204)

Polk (16)

Tillamook (2)

Umatilla (11)

Union (13)

Wasco (1)

Washington (119)

Yamhill (18)

And the Deaths

Oregon’s 731^st COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on Oct. 17 and died on Nov. 7, at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center Riverbend.

Oregon’s 732^nd COVID-19 death is a 79-year-old woman in Lane County who tested positive on Oct. 17 and died on Nov. 7, at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center Riverbend.

Oregon’s 733^rd COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Oct. 30 and died on Nov. 8, at Salem Hospital.

Oregon’s 734^th COVID-19 death is a 50-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on Oct. 17 and died on Nov. 8, at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center Riverbend.

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