November 11th COVID-19 Update

November 11, 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.

I want to wish you all a happy Veteran’s Day.  I hope you were able to set some time aside today to think of all those veterans who have served and sacrificed in so many ways on behalf of us all. I find it particularly important and relevant this year, as so many are having to make sacrifices and take on hardships in our fight against the COVID pandemic.

Yesterday’s newsletter focused on concerns about the increasing stress on our hospitals as we experience this Fall surge in COVID here in Oregon and around the country.  Unfortunately, as you’ll see in today’s newsletter, these stresses continue.  The number of new cases has set another national record today, and the same is true for national hospitalizations.

As I write this, we haven’t yet received the OHA’s weekly COVID report.  It should come in tonight or tomorrow, and I’ll summarize its findings in tomorrow’s newsletter.  Given what we’ve been seeing in these daily reports, I’m not optimistic about what it’s going to tell us this time.

Please let me know if you have any questions about today’s newsletter. 

TODAY’S CORONAVIRUS AND CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE UPDATE

• Positive Cases: OHA reports today that 831 additional Oregonians have tested positive for COVID-19. The cumulative total for those testing positive since the beginning of the pandemic is 50,125.
• Total Tests: The number of reported COVID test results has increased by 7,097. The cumulative total of tests since the beginning of the pandemic is now 925,698.
• Ratio: The percentage of total tests that have been reported positive today is 11.7%.  The national ratio today is 10.4%.
• 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 742.
• Hospitalized: OHA reports 42 new COVID hospitalizations today. The cumulative number of those who have been hospitalized with COVID is now 3,553.
• 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 45 new presumed positive cases today. The total number of those counted as presumed positives is 2,645.
• Other Hospital Information:
  • Patients Currently with COVID-19 Symptoms (who may or may not have received a positive test result yet): 345 (8 more than yesterday). Of those, 290 have already received a positive test back.
  • Available ICU Beds: 144 (2 fewer than yesterday)
  • Other Available Beds: 588 (113 fewer than yesterday).
  • ICU Patients w COVID-19 Symptoms: 77 (1 fewer than yesterday).
  • COVID-19 Patients Currently on Ventilators: 27 (2 more than yesterday).
  • Available Ventilators: 753 (9 fewer than yesterday).
• Dashboard:
  • Oregon (OHA)
  • Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, & Yamhill Counties
• Today’s National Numbers:
  • Total Tests: 160,865,743 (up 1,381,858 from yesterday).
  • Total Cases 10,267,081 (up 144,270 from yesterday.)
  • Deaths: 233,080 (up 1,421 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 Oregonian’s Eder Campuzano has a story today about the prospects for in-person instruction in schools the Portland area. Not surprisingly, the prospects are not good, but it may be possible for some students.
  • Forecasters are predicting a colder, wetter winter this year, which should be good news for skiers. The Register-Guard’s Andy Nelson provides a run-through of area ski resorts and how they’re planning to adjust their practices to keep people safe during the pandemic.

Wednesday Wildfire Recovery/Response Update

The Office of Emergency Management is no longer giving us regular reports on wildfire recovery.  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.  Here are some highlights:

• 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.  Here is the breakdown of lost residences by county:
  • Clackamas 62
  • Douglas 138
  • Jackson 2,364
  • Klamath 11
  • Lane 463
  • Lincoln 288
  • Linn 71
  • Marion 629
• According to the Red Cross, the number of Oregonians in emergency housing has continued to go down slightly over the last few days. 1,074 Oregonians now remain in hotels/motels and other short-term settings. Not surprisingly, the largest number are in Jackson County.  There are no longer any evacuees living in indoor congregate shelters.
• The number of Oregonians who have registered with FEMA for individual assistance has continued to increase and is currently at 24,561. FEMA has already approved for $25.2 million in assistance grants. The tracker will show you the specific breakdown by county.
• Still, if you know of anyone who has NOT yet registered, pease 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 876. More than half of the new cases are once again in the Portland Metro Area, with Multnomah County reporting another record high number today. Here is the breakdown by county for today:

Baker (8)

Benton (11)

Clackamas (67)

Clatsop (2)

Columbia (7)

Coos (10)

Crook (1)

Curry (3)

Deschutes (19)

Douglas (32)

Grant (5)

Harney (1)

Hood River (2)

Jackson (50)

Jefferson (14)

Josephine (3)

Klamath (2)

Lake (5)

Lane (51)

Linn (10)

Malheur (8)

Marion (83)

Morrow (2)

Multnomah (298)

Polk (11)

Tillamook (2)

Umatilla (32)

Union (1)

Wallowa (2)

Wasco (1)

Washington (102)

Yamhill (31)

And the Deaths

Oregon’s 738^th COVID-19 death is a 76-year-old man in Marion County who tested positive on Oct.21 and died on Nov. 9, at his residence.

Oregon’s 739^th COVID-19 death is a 92-year-old woman in Marion County who tested positive on Oct.8 and died on Oct. 15, at her residence.

Oregon’s 740^th COVID-19 death is a 100-year-old woman in Multnomah County who tested positive on Oct. 3 and died on Nov.1, at her residence.

Oregon’s 741^st COVID-19 death is an 81-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Oct. and died on Nov. 4, at his residence.

Oregon’s 742^nd COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old man in Multnomah County who tested positive on Nov. 7 and died on Nov. 8, at 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