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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
We are at the end of another week of alarming numbers of new cases of COVID-19. For two days in a row, we have had daily new cases over 1000, and our rates of infection and hospitalization are again threatening our hospital capacity, and our ability to provide critical care to Oregonians suffering from problems other than COVID-19. In response, Governor Brown is calling on the entire state to reduce the spread by significantly reducing our interactions with others, and has instituted a “2 week freeze” for the whole state (more information below). We all need to limit ourselves to a “social bubble” of no more than 6 individuals or 2 households. It is more important than ever that we wear our masks and avoid indoor interactions with others as much as possible. Together we can save lives!
On Wednesday we honored the brave Oregonians who have served and sacrificed for our country and community. Our community came together to celebrate veterans in several ways. Pamplin Media honored local veterans with a series of profiles, including one on Hillsboro’s own Ranae Jones who served in Afghanistan, read more about Renae’s inspiring story here.
North Plains also honored Veteran’s on Wednesday with a Grand Opening of their Veteran’s memorial. Mayor Truax of Forest Grove and Mayor Lenahan of North Plains, both attended the masked and socially distanced grand opening to honor our veterans.
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2 Week Freeze Begins Next Week: Our rising COVID-19 cases levels are threatening our hospital capacity. Governor Kate Brown today announced a statewide Two-Week Freeze, with new limits on gatherings and some businesses to stop the rapid spread of COVID-19. The Two-Week Freeze measures will be statewide and in effect from Nov. 18 through Dec. 2. These measures will help slow the spread of this virus so we can get quality health care to everyone in Oregon, whether they are suffering from COVID-19 or any other condition. Governor Brown’s press conference on these measures is available here. More information on the freeze is available on the Governor’s COVID-19 Page. The Two-Week Freeze measures include:
- Limiting social get-togethers (indoors and outdoors) to no more than six people, total, from no more than two households.
- Limiting faith-based organizations to a maximum of 25 people indoors or 50 people outdoors.
- Limiting eating and drinking establishments to take-out and delivery only.
- Closing gyms and fitness organizations.
- Closing indoor recreational facilities, museums, indoor entertainment activities, and indoor pools and sports courts.
- Closing zoos, gardens, aquariums, outdoor entertainment activities, and outdoor pools.
- Limiting grocery stores and pharmacies to a maximum of 75% capacity and encouraging curbside pickup.
- Limiting retail stores and retail malls (indoor and outdoor) to a maximum of 75% capacity and encouraging curbside pickup.
- Closing venues (that host or facilitate indoor or outdoor events).
- Requiring all businesses to mandate work-from-home to the greatest extent possible and closing offices to the public.
- Prohibiting indoor visiting in long-term care facilities (outdoor visitation permitted for supporting quality of life).
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Stay Calm and Shop Responsibly: With the new restrictions in place and more beginning next week, local groceries are reminding folks to keep calm and not hoard supplies. There is no reason to think there will be any upcoming shortages in essential supplies, so there is no reason to stockpile goods. Grocery stores may have new limits on the quantity of some items that you can buy, but this is not due to any supply side shortage, it is only to prevent the kind of bulk purchasing and stockpiling we say in the Spring.
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Travel Advisory: Due to the rising levels of cases in our region and across the country, Governors Brown (OR), Inslee (WA), and Newsom (CA) are urging folks to limit their travel out of state to necessary trips only. If you must travel, they are asking visitors to our region, and residents returning home from other states to self-isolate for 14 days after arriving to help limit spread from other areas. Read their joint statement here.
- Updated Guidance from Oregon Health Authority:
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Quarantine Fund: The COVID-19 Temporary Paid Leave Program is available to people who need to quarantine or isolate because of COVID-19 exposure or are experiencing symptoms and need a medical diagnosis, but do not qualify for COVID-19-related paid sick leave (or do not have access to COVID-19-related paid time off). If you meet all of the eligibility requirements, you will get a $120 per-day payment, up to 10 working days ($1,200 total) for the time you need to quarantine or isolate.
- To see if you are eligible, take this quiz or see the requirements below.
- Read the instructions for help completing the application.
- To be eligible for the program, you must meet all the following requirements:
- Working at a business or job site in Oregon at the time of application;
- Expected to earn less than $60,000 individually or $120,000 jointly in 2020;
- Not able to work (including telework) because of the need to quarantine or isolate;
- Not seeking or using benefits from similar COVID-19 quarantine relief programs, unemployment insurance, or workers’ compensation in Oregon or another state;
- Not seeking or using other forms of employer-provided paid for the same time period;
- Not laid off or furloughed at the time of application; and
- Has notified their employer of the need to quarantine or isolate.
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Q&A on School Opening Metrics: In case you missed the live question and answer event with Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Department of Education, you can check out the recorded video here (ASL and Closed Captioning provided).
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Unemployment: The employment department recently shared some updates on their progress in getting through claims, and resources for folks who need help.
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Contacting the Employment Department: If you are having any difficulty with your claim, the best way to get it resolved is by using the department’s contact us form. This is a good resource if you need to reset a pin, have missing weeks of payments, or other issues. The employment department is now responding to most of these messages within 10 days.
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Tax Rate Changes: Employers will soon be receiving notices of a tax rate change for contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. Our self balancing trust fund system has kept our state’s system solvent, despite paying out $1.8 billion in benefits to Oregonians. We have not had to borrow money as most other states have, saving taxpayers huge sums in the long run. To keep the system solvent, tax rates will be adjusted going, and those notices will go out soon. Lean more on this Fact Sheet, and on this webpage.
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Restart: If you need to restart your claim due to a change in employment status, check out this FAQ from the Employment Department.
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Waiting Week: The department should pay out “waiting week” benefits by the end of this month. If you have switched between benefit programs since the start of the pandemic, there may be a small delay, and the department will reach out to you directly to give you an estimated timeline.
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Adjudication: The department believes it will get through all claims that were in adjudication from September 30th and earlier by the end of the year. If your claim is in adjudication be on the lookout for calls from this number:1-855-914-4676 and respond to any voicemails left by your adjudicator within 2 business days.
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CARES Act Programs Ending in December: Without further action from the US Congress, benefit programs from the CARES Act will end on December 26th. If you are accessing Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) or Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), you will not be able to claim benefits for weeks after that, but if you have back-payments unprocessed at that time, you will still be eligible for those benefits. Make sure you are as ready as possible for the end of these benefits, and visit 211info.org to learn about other benefits that can help.
- Confirmed Cases: 10,508,864 (up 194,610 from yesterday)
- Deaths: 242,216 (up 1,147 from yesterday)
- Cases in the last 7 days: 960,449
- These national numbers come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You can view their national and state by state data here.
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Oregon Status Report: Oregon now has 54,937 total cases (confirmed and presumptive) of COVID-19.
- Today we have 1,076 new confirmed and presumptive cases, and 7 new deaths.
- Thursday: 1,122 cases, 4 deaths, 169 new cases in Washington County
- Wednesday: 876 cases, 5 deaths, 102 new cases in Washington County
- A total of 753 Oregonians have died from COVID-19.
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Washington County still has one of the highest case counts at 7,523 confirmed cases, including 148 new cases today. You can review on-going updates from OHA by clicking on the table below.
- Oregon Health Authority has released a new modelling report, with some troubling projections. If we do not take this opportunity with the recently announced “freeze” to get cases under control, we could soon see exponential growth in cases, with daily cases close to 1,500. It is social gatherings that are fueling this spread, so please take the new restrictions seriously, and stick to virtual gatherings as much as possible for the next couple weeks.
- The Oregon Health Authority recently provided a Public Health Indicators Dashboard to enable communities across Oregon to monitor COVID-19 in the state.The dashboard, which will be updated weekly on Thursdays, provides a transparent report that presents complex epidemiological data in an interactive, easy-to-understand way on a state and county level.
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Graph showing the increasing daily number of cases
Table showing Oregon case, testing and demographic data, link to more information
- The Oregon Wildfire Response and Recovery Overview is compiled by Oregon Emergency Management, and is a great resource for understanding where we are in our recovery efforts. We have made significant strides in cleaning up hazardous debris and moving folks out of congregate shelters.
- The damage of these fires was truly devastating, with 4,026 homes reportedly destroyed. More than 1,400 structures other than residences have also been destroyed, below is a breakdown of those structures by county:
- Clackamas-62
- Douglas-138
- Jackson-2,364
- Klamath-11
- Lane-463
- Lincoln-288
- Linn-71
- Marion-629
Wildfire Recovery Resources:
OEM has put together this list of contacts to help speed up the process of replacing these documents:
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Green cards: Phone (800)-375-5283; Website: www.uscis.gov
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Medicare cards: Phone: (800)-772-1213; (TTY) (800)-325-0778 Website: www.medicare.gov
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Military records Phone: 866-272-6272 Website: www.archives.gov/contact/
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Passport Phone: 877-487-2778; (TTY) 888-874-7793 Website: travel.state.gov
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Social Security card Phone: 800-772-1213; (TTY) 800-325-0778 Website: www.ssa.gov
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U.S. Savings Bonds Phone: 844-284-2676 Website: www.treasurydirect.gov
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U.S. tax returns Phone: 800-829-1040 Website: www.irs.gov
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Birth, death, marriage, domestic partnership, divorce certificates Phone: 888-896-4988 Website: www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/Birthdeathcertificates
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Driver’s license, auto titles and registration, ID cards Phone: 503-945-5000 Website: www.oregon.gov/odot
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SNAP (Oregon Trail Card) Website: www.oregon.gov/DHS/Assistance/Food-Benefits
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State taxes (Oregon Dept. of Revenue) Phone: 503-378-4988 or 800-356-4222 TTY: All relay calls are accepted. Website: www.oregon.gov/dor
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Real estate and property - Contact your county government.
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Credit cards - Contact your credit card company directly.
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Credit reports from Equifax, Experian, TransUnion Phone: 877-322-8228 Website: www.annualcreditreport.com
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Insurance documents - Check with your insurance agent.
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Medical records - Call your doctor or your medical insurance company; medical and prescription records are tracked electronically.
The Governor’s office has put together a Wildfire Resources page that you can access from the Governor’s home page. It has links to many of the most important updates about the status of fires and resources for evacuees. This website will be updated regularly.
Legal Resources: Oregon State Bar’s Lawyer Referral Program, Oregon lawyers, through the Oregon State Bar, are partnering with FEMA and the American Red Cross to provide legal assistance on FEMA claims, contract claims, insurance claims, landlord-tenant matters and more.
The Department of Forestry’s Wildfire Response and Recovery Overview has ongoing updates about firefighting efforts, damage reports, and more.
FEMA Updates: FEMA has provided several different Fact Sheets and resources for accessing benefits, determining eligibility and avoiding scams.
Employers and Employees
Education Links
Local Government
Utilities Assistance
Food and Housing Assistance
View Past Updates, Share and Subscribe:
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 (http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/mclain), click on “News and Information,” and you’ll find them all there. You can also share this site with your friends and loved ones, so they can view past newsletters, and subscribe to future updates.
Yours truly,
 Representative Susan McLain
House District 29
email: Rep.SusanMcLain@oregonlegislature.gov I phone: 503-986-1429
address: 900 Court St NE, H-376, Salem, OR 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/mclain
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